The Academy of Art University was established in San Francisco in 1929 by Richard S. Stephens, a fine art painter who had accepted the position of Creative Director for Sunset Magazine. Assisted by his wife, Mrs. Clara Stephens, he opened the new school in a rented loft at 215 Kearny Street to teach advertising art. In a few years, a distinguished faculty of practicing art and design professionals was assembled and the school’s philosophy was formulated: hire established professionals to teach future professionals. In 1933 the curriculum was expanded to include Fashion Illustration, and in 1936 a Fine Art Department was added.

Today the University has more than 18,000 students, making it the largest private school of art and design in the country.  Students now have the opportunity to pursue a  Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Arts, Associate of Arts, Master of Fine Arts, Master of Arts, Master of Architecture, Certificate Programs or Continuing Art Education courses, with over 30 areas of academic emphasis.

Academy of Art University transforms aspiring students into professional artists and designers. Building a strong foundation, instructors at the art school guide students to cultivate their individual style and prepare them to do what they love for a living.

The School of Motion Pictures & Television fosters creativity and independence in filmmaking as an art with an emphasis on the practical aspects of filmmaking as a business. Our film degree program provides hands-on training in a collaborative framework. After gaining experience in a broad range of disciplines, students specialize in one or more areas to develop their demo reels.

heater is a calling, an art, a craft, a political act, a profession, and a business. The Juilliard Drama Division is dedicated to providing the 21st-century theater artist with the necessary tools, artistic and personal, to meet the demands of all aspects of our work in an ever evolving performing arts landscape.

Our curriculum emphasizes intuition and spontaneity as well as discipline, technique, intellectual development, and social context. Our approach combines vocal and physical training, extensive work on the written word, and appreciation of style with a fierce commitment to emotional honesty, immense physical energy, and imaginative daring. We believe that this rigorous experience, along with our pledge to preparing young theater artists to take a place of responsibility in the community at large, have enabled 40 years of alumni to excel as artists, leaders and global citizens.

Under the direction of Marsha Norman and Christopher Durang, the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program is woven together with our acting programs through Play Labs, staged readings, and workshop productions, providing an essential experience for our promising theatre artists. Through these dynamic opportunities actors and writers collide together in their respective roles in the creation of vibrant new work. The Drama Division has served as an incubator for this work and many of these collaborations continue to flourish for years long after graduation.

Since its inception the Drama Division at the Juilliard School has dedicated itself to excellence and has grown to be one of the most respected and renowned programs for actors and playwrights in the world.

Since its founding in 1949, the school has trained thousands of actors many of whom have gone on to important theater and film careers.Its roots, however, go back even farther, to Jacob P. Adler, one of the great actors of the American Yiddish Theater, and also include Harold Clurman, Stella’s second husband and co-founder of the Group Theater. In 1969, The Stella Adler Studio became the first professional actor training school to become affiliated with NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. The spirit that has animated the Adler family for over one hundred years stems from the insight that growth as an actor and growth as a human being are synonymous.

The scope of the school’s current activities can be summarized in three categories: 1) Professional Actor Training, the core activity of the Studio; 2) The Stella Adler Outreach Division, which provides free acting classes to low income inner city teenagers and 3) The Harold Clurman Art Series which presents cultural events that are free and open to the public. Recent participants in the arts series include Julianne Moore, Harold Mabern, Harold Bloom, John Patrick Shanley, Mark Strand and David Amram.

The Stella Adler Studio upholds a unique focus in American actor training. Like Jacob, Stella and Harold, the studio affirms that the primary function of theater is to uplift humanity. A successful student for Stella is not necessarily one who becomes famous or rich, but one who connects to their deeper self and to our shared humanity. The school is a cultural center determined to train actors and support artists not despite, but in the face of a world in crisis. Programs like the Outreach Division help to create an environment for all students to become actors like Stella and those in the Group Theater: actors who are socially and consciously aware and whose awareness contributes to their ability to act passionately.