The Brooklyn Museum Art School was a non-degree-granting professional school that opened at the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Cro ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

in the summer of 1941. The Brooklyn Museum Art School provided instruction for amateur artists as well until January 1985, when it was transferred to the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was founded in 1887 ...

’s Continuing Education Division.

History

Prior to the creation of the Brooklyn Museum Art School, classes for amateur artists had been offered by the

Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

(BIAS), the Museum's parent organization. BIAS offered hands-on art classes dating back to 1893 on Montague Street in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Museum Art School title was first used in the 1941-42 annual report from the Brooklyn Museum, remaining separate from the Brooklyn Museum's Education Department, which was directed towards children. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

the Brooklyn Museum Art School offered limited classes in painting, photography and drawing. In 1945 the artist Augustus Peck became director of the school and expanded its offerings. As a result of the

GI Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

the Brooklyn Museum Art School had very stable income and funding, allowing many prominent artists to teach or lecture at the school and the enrollment of the school rose to 3000. Artists included Augustus Peck, William Baziotes,

Max Beckmann Max Carl Friedrich Beckmann (February 12, 1884 – December 27, 1950) was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement. In the 1920s ...

Ben Shahn Ben Shahn (September 12, 1898 – March 14, 1969) was an American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as ''The Shape of Content''. Biography Shahn was bor ...

, and

Reuben Tam Reuben Tam (January 17, 1916 – January 3, 1991) was an American landscape painter, educator, poet and graphic artist. Early life and education He was born in Kapa'a on the Hawaiian island of Kaua'i. He earned a BA degree from the Universi ...

. The enrollment number suffered as more institutions began to offer accredited programs in the fine arts during the late 1950s. A Bachelor of Fine Arts program in conjunction with

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university with two main campuses, LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It offers more than 500 academic programs at its main campuses, online, and at multiple non-residential. LIU ...

was planned to begin in 1959, but never came to fruition due to lack of funding.

Notable students

Notable instructors

References

Brooklyn Museum Defunct schools in New York City Art schools in New York City Educational institutions established in 1941 Educational institutions disestablished in 1985 1941 establishments in New York City Defunct art schools {{NewYork-school-stub