Arts
Cow House
Art on the Farm is an exciting summer program designed for high school students passionate about visual art. Over 28 days, participants study drawing, painting, and photography alongside experienced artists in an intimate studio environment. Students immerse themselves in Ireland’s breathtaking landscapes and vibrant cities while exploring a culture rich in artistic achievement.
This program welcomes students (ages 15-17) of all skill levels, offering personal attention and guidance to challenge them to experiment beyond their boundaries and enhance their artistic skills. By the end of Art on the Farm, participants produce impressive portfolio pieces that support advanced placement and college applications.
RISD
RISD Pre-College offers rising high school juniors and seniors the chance to experience life as a RISD undergrad. For five weeks you’ll follow a college-level curriculum with day-long studio classes, critiques and projects. You’ll work alongside hundreds of other creative, highly motivated students from around the world who will challenge, inspire and encourage you to push your limits and produce your best work. You’ll live like a RISD student, access renowned resources and instructors, strengthen your portfolio and forever change the way you approach art and design.
Yale PRE-COLLEGE SUMMER COURSES
Experience everything that makes Yale unique: Small seminars with top Yale faculty. Time to immerse yourself in a full menu of academic opportunities. Studying at Yale gives students a newfound appreciation for their academics and offers an opportunity to forge friendships that will last a lifetime. Students come to Yale Summer Session to:
Earn credit toward their major and fulfill requirements for their degree
Explore a new field or topic
Focus intensely on one particular subject
Study with Yale faculty
Prepare for the challenges of highly selective colleges
Parsons Summer Intensive Studies (ages 16-18)
Study art and design with Parsons' world-class faculty while experiencing the creative inspiration of New York City in our academically rigorous and artistically stimulating three-week, three-credit intensive program. Our fully immersive courses are tailored to high schoolers preparing to apply for college and feature skill-building project-based learning, art and design field trips, guest speakers from industry, and portfolio reviews.
parsons summer academy (grades 3-12)
Parsons Summer Academy offers a variety of dynamic noncredit in-person art and design courses for students in grades 3 through 12. Join us for two weeks in August at our Greenwich Village campus to explore art and design through hands-on projects that develop your creative thinking skills, knowledge of technique, and collaborative abilities. Students in grades 9 through 12 can also focus on creating a specialized fine art or design portfolio. Courses for students in grades 9 through 12 will count toward the Parsons Academy Certificate Program.
Parsons Summer Intensive Studies paris (ages 16-18)
Deepen your knowledge and develop your skills while you explore many facets of art, design, and fashion firsthand this summer in Paris.
Experience Paris as an insider, exploring contemporary European art, design, fashion, and photography firsthand in the city’s many design studios and museums. Taught at Parsons Paris, this three-week, three-credit program for high school juniors, seniors, and recent graduates surrounds students with a close-knit learning community in which they work directly with leading faculty and peers from around the world.
SAIC (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) – Early College Program Summer Institute (ages 15-18)
One of the key things that distinguishes SAIC from other art and design schools is our belief that meaning and making are inseparable. That means you begin with an idea and choose the media that best helps you realize your vision. Students are free to combine materials and disciplines or focus on a single medium. Study with our amazing faculty, passionate teachers, and acclaimed practicing artists, designers, and scholars, many of whom teach in the undergraduate program. Make use of our state-of-the-art facilities and resources including our museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the third-largest collection of art in the world. Live in our incomparable residence halls in the heart of downtown Chicago. Explore Chicago in the summer—a city that’s vibrant, exciting, and friendly.
“We want our students to be able to master not just one medium, but to have the freedom to move and explore throughout different disciplines; to experiment; to take risks; to find the right solution for each individual problem. Our interdisciplinary philosophy, accomplished by excellent, enthusiastic faculty, the third largest collection of art in the world, and one of the most exciting cities in the country, make SAIC the whole package.” —Rafael Vera, ECPSI instructor
Online version also available.
OTIS College of Arts and Design – Summer of Art
Summer of Art at Otis College of Art and Design is an intensive, college immersion experience designed for developing creatives in high school or beyond who are 14.5 years of age or older. At Summer of Art, you will have the unique opportunity to develop your artistic skills as you explore specific art and design pathways at one of the nation's top art and design colleges. The program is ideal for experienced, young artists interested in deepening their skills, as well as students with minimal or informal art training.
Coursework includes demonstrations, hands-on learning, lectures, and critiques in a chosen Specialization and/or Drawing Studio. Upon successful completion of the program, students will receive two college credits for Specializations and one college credit for Drawing Studios.
Summer of Art courses are taught by award-winning, practicing, creative professionals. Our courses offer students unique insight into the working lives of artists and designers. Many of our instructors teach in Otis College's undergraduate and graduate programs.
Summer of Art culminates in a final exhibition, providing students the experience of being part of a gallery show with their peers, while sharing their work with family and friends.
UCLA Art Summer Institute
The Summer Art Institute curriculum encourages students to explore and expand their creative work and develop their artistic vocabularies. Each three-week session carries four units of UCLA college credit, and is structured around a combination of daily, focused studio work; artist lectures; group critiques; one-on-one meetings with faculty; and an exhibition. Students should expect an intensive three-weeks of immersive studio instruction and come prepared to work hard.
Students will choose from one of our specialized area studies tracks:
Drawing: Working in a variety of media, students in the Drawing course learn techniques for drawing from observation as well as from imagination. Students explore form, content, material, and ideas, to develop new approaches to making art. Individual and group critiques led by artist instructors help students expand their body of work, think conceptually, and learn to discuss the work of others. The course also addresses historical, contemporary, and experimental traditions in drawing.
Painting: The Painting course offers students opportunities to investigate contemporary and historical concerns in painting, and to develop new approaches to making work. With instruction in composition, color mixing, technique, and exploring conceptual content, this course encourages students to experiment and innovate. Students also strengthen their art-making practice at the university level using class discussion and group critiques as critical tools for growth and development.
Photography: This Photography course examines contemporary and historical photography with a focus on form, content, and new approaches to making photographs. Through workshops on camera operation and printing techniques, students learn the fundamentals of film photography, experiment with dark room techniques, and execute a wide range of projects and experiments. Individual and group critiques led by artist instructors help students expand their body of work and learn to discuss the work of others.
nyu High school Summer art intensive
Build your portfolio, develop your artistic knowledge and technique, and experience college-level studio and fine arts academics taught by faculty at NYU Steinhardt’s Art Department.
Through this 4-week summer program, a close-knit community of high school artists will develop their practice in three studio art disciplines: digital art, painting, and sculpture. Students work closely with NYU faculty to take their talent to the next level create ambitious works, and learn about New York’s contemporary art world.
Students gain access to new artistic materials and technologies, like textiles and laser cutting that enhance their breadth and capabilities as artists and makers. Students also explore career pathways in studio arts and learn about what it means to be a working artist in NYC from artists at various stages of their careers.
sotheby’s summer institute
Sotheby’s Summer Institute invites high schoolers who are curious and passionate about the arts to immerse themselves in one of the most vibrant art capitals in the world: New York City. From learning the intricacies of running galleries and museums to exploring painting and drawing techniques throughout history, these two-week courses are designed to engage, inspire, and fuel creativity. Taught by leading scholars and professionals in the field, each course draws on the global expertise of Sotheby's Institute of Art and takes students behind the scenes of world class museums, galleries, auction houses, artists’ studios, and more.
Other great opportunities:
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
California College of the Arts (San Francisco)
For additional fantastic summer opportunities, explore Teen Ink