NY
New York School of the Arts
Unlock your creativity with expert-led art classes in an intimate, supportive NYC studio.
4.2(5 reviews)
Business
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Unlock your creativity with expert-led art classes in an intimate, supportive NYC studio.
New York School of the Arts offers a diverse range of art classes in a small, intimate environment, perfect for both beginners and advanced students. Located in New York City, we provide personalized instruction from experienced teachers like Henry Finkelstein and Peter Bonner, focusing on fundamentals, creative exploration, and fostering individual artistic growth. Our classes include figure drawing, watercolor, painting, and more, designed to inspire and challenge students in a welcoming community setting.
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Learn to draw from live models with instruction on anatomy, observation, and technique for all skill levels.
Explore watercolor techniques with guidance on color mixing, composition, and creative expression in a supportive environment.
Master the basics of painting, including canvas preparation, brush selection, and color theory, with personalized feedback.
Engage in experimental art projects like collage-making to challenge preconceptions and develop your unique artistic voice.
Enhance learning with discussions and examples from art history, making it accessible and relevant to your practice.
Great environment for learning and working creatively. Fantastic, experienced teachers, staff, and wide diversity of students.
Unfortunately I had a very poor experience with the Anatomy & Artistry class. I’d confirmed via email ahead of time that the class was appropriate for beginners with no drawing experience but the very first class we were asked to “draw some poses” from a live model with no direction or instruction. With no drawing experience and no idea where to start I just sat there like an idiot with no idea what to do. I ended up leaving class after 30 min. The class was absolutely not beginner level and I was unable to get a full refund since I had attended a portion of the first class. Appropriately matching the learning content to a students skill level (or providing enough accurate information for the student to make that decision for themselves) is such an important part of art education that it makes me seriously doubt the quality and caliber of the overall instruction here.
I have been coming to classes at New York School of the Arts for over a year now. It is a small intimate environment. Classes are not over-crowded. I recommend two instructors: Henry Finkelstein and Peter Bonner. Both teach a painting as well as a drawing class. Henry emphasizes direct observation rather than any prescribed painting method. He does stress the fundamentals to his students: the right way to stretch and prime one's canvas, which brushes to choose, how to keep one's colors clean. He will set up a new (beautiful) still life to paint from, every two weeks. He is interested in where each student is coming from and strives to help them develop their own sensibility. He is knowledgable of paintings and the artists who painted them and keeps an extensive library of paintings on his laptop to show as examples for what he is talking about on a given day. This makes art history come alive and accessible. He welcomes questions and fosters dialogue amongst his students. I learn a great deal just listening to his conversations with the other students about the visual problems they are encountering. Henry comes from a place of depth as a teacher and is skilled in teaching both the beginning and the advanced student. It is exciting to see my work evolve over time. Another stand-out instructor, Peter Bonner, had me out of my comfort zone with my preconceptions challenged as I began cutting up my old drawings and rearranging them into collages of new shapes. Peter stresses that one always consider relationships - how shapes and colors interact in a very dynamic way with each other and how one (at times gropingly) finds one's way to a personally meaningful outcome. There are lively class discussions as we arrange and rearrange our projects on long tables or directly on the walls. There is no model or other visual reference point available to depict. In his endeavor to teach the creative process, Peter often says that if you lose it you will find it again.
I recently discovered New York School of the Arts and could not be more pleased with the caliber of the teachers and the supportive environment. I have already started my second session of classes and plan to continue taking more.
For many years I have searched for an art school close to me where I could continue my studies in the arts. I had been a decorative painter for 40 years and retired at 72 when I felt I was too old to keep climbing ladders and work at such. Physically demanding job. And Boom! I fell on the NYSA. What a joy!!! Now at 82 I am taking two classes : 1 for figure drawing on Monday with Henry Finkelstein and watercolor on Wednesday morning with Beth Allison The classes are fun, encouraging and very rewarding thanks to the caliber of the teachers, both wonderful artists in their own right
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