Where to Take Beginner Art Classes in NYC
If you are wanting to jump into the creative scene in NYC but don’t know where to start, this post is for you!
Happy Medium
Art Cafe
If you want the lowest commitment option this one is for you. Happy Medium is an art cafe that offers a daily menu of art supplies (as well as food cafe menu items). When I first went to their Lower East Side location back in 2022, they had been open for less than a year. Since then they have expanded to Williamsburg and Greenpoint. You do need to make a reservation for the art cafe ahead of time but I have found same day reservations available. While this isn’t an art class per se, you do get art supplies and a space to be creative. Their art menu options include:
“Paint-a-Pot, Fresh Watercolors, Collage Buffet, Soft Pastels, Oil Pastels, Friendship Bracelets, Flight of Ink, Air Dry Clay, Card Kits, and more” (happy-medium.co)
Each menu item is $28 at the time of writing this and they require a $15 deposit with your reservation.
Art Classes
Happy Medium also offers a variety of single session classes at their Lower East Side and Greenpoint locations. The current class offerings include: oil painting, pottery, pastels, embroidery, art history, watercolor painting, figure drawing, collage, and crochet. Since the weather is nice in the City now, they also have some outdoor offerings in the Greenpoint location’s garden as well as other offsite classes at the Prospect Park Carousel.
The classes range from $35 to $120.*
If you are interested in pottery, they also offer uninstructed pottery time and a monthly pottery membership for $150/month!
Workshops
They also offer larger crafts in their workshop in Williamsburg. The sessions they offer here have definitely piqued my interest as they have table, lamp, and chair building (lowkey think I might want to be a carpenter). They also offer larger canvas painting classes which also speak to me as someone who loves oversized art (my 700 sqft apartment has 3 5’x6’ paintings in it).
The workshops range in price from $150 to $400.*
Why I like this place
I think one of the huge benefits of Happy Medium is that it is super beginner friendly. They supply all of the necessary materials for their art cafe, classes, and workshops which is so convenient. In my experience, most art instructors typically want you to buy very specific items for their classes which can be astronomically expensive when taking multiple classes at the same time. You may also buy all of these materials and never end up using them again. At least with Happy Medium, you get a chance to dip your toes into creating and see if there is something you like before fully committing to buying tons of (expensive) art supplies.
*Please note that prices are subject to change and they have other items you can add-on like delivery fees if you aren’t able to pick up your item yourself, frames for your painting, etc.
School of Visual Arts (SVA)
The School of Visual Arts is one of the many well-respected art colleges in New York City. It is located in Chelsea. If you are looking to take some longer term art classes as a beginner or someone who wants to get back into creating, this is your spot.
Continuing Education Classes
SVA offers a wide variety of continuing education classes which are open to anyone and they have times that fit a wide variety of schedules. I will say these classes are definitely more of a commitment as they are several weeks long and like typical studio sessions, can be up to 6 hours per session. However, if you’re mildly insane, need an escape from your 9-to-5, wedding planning, and have nothing better to do on the weekends you can take a 6 hour class on Saturdays followed by a 3 hour class on Sundays like I did.
SVA’s continuing ed course list is incredible as they have classes covering: Fine Arts, Illustration, Design, Branding, Photography, Videography, and Animation. Within each of these categories there are all sorts of classes to pick from. The most interesting course I have seen listed was one for learning taxidermy – not something I would take as my dogs would definitely try to eat a stuffed small animal but the point is they have a huge variety!
Why I like this place
As I mentioned above, I took 2 courses here. Both were in oil painting. I took both a true beginner class despite not fully being a beginner as well as a slightly more rigorous (although still very welcoming) portrait class. In the beginner class we painted both still life paintings and from nude models with our paint drying between the underpainting and the painting. In the portrait class, we had 2 6-hour sessions with each clothed model to paint their portrait. This class was a bit more focused on alla prima painting (wet-on-wet) because once you finished your underpainting you could move on to using color in the same session.
My purpose of taking these classes for me was to get feedback from working artists/instructors and peers. In the beginner class we didn’t get much critique as 1. There wasn’t much time for it 2. The focus was on learning very basic principles of oil painting. However, in the portrait class we spent the last 15 minutes talking through everyone’s paintings and I felt it was invaluable to see how others had interpreted a subject and also saw my work. While painting for 9 hours each weekend is a lot it was a great chance to escape my day-to-day stressors in a positive environment.
Cost
Classes range from $150-$750 for a semester.
Note: SVA could still be a great option for you if you are looking for shorter term commitment art classes like their weekend workshops and they also offer online classes.
New York Academy of Art (NYAA)
The New York Academy of Art is located in Tribeca and is another well esteemed art school. Similar to SVA, they offer continuing education courses that anyone can take.
Continuing Education
They offer a variety of courses but not quite as large as SVA. NYAA focuses primarily on drawing, painting, and sculpting. However, in their current course listing they also have photoshop and linocut printmaking. NYAA has classes that train on more fundamentals and help you with art concepts like color theory, composition, and anatomy. These classes are great for learning fundamentals and honing your skills.
What I liked about it
Since I was in high school, I had wanted to take an anatomy class to learn more about how to draw the human figure accurately. I did not prioritize learning this until last year (better late than never?). Not only did I get to learn anatomy but I got to learn from someone whose job was (is?) to draw for science/medicine books. For the first part of class, we would have an anatomy lesson where the professor would teach us about different parts of the body and the proportions of the body parts to the overall figure. Then we would spend the next 2 hours on timed studies drawing a nude model. I felt that my drawing skills improved quickly through this course as the professor did a great job of simplifying such a complex subject.
Cost
Classes range from $320-$1,100 for a semester.
Note: NYAA could still be a great option for you if you are looking for shorter term commitment art classes like their weekend workshops and they also offer online classes.
The Art Students League
If you are reading around on reddit or do a cursory google of art classes in NYC, you may come across the The Art Students League. Many famous artists have taken & taught (or currently teach here). Unfortunately, my experience here was not the best. I actually felt incredibly anxious taking classes here as everything felt very unorganized and to be frank, I am not sure what I actually paid for.
The first day, I got to the class a few minutes early only to be told to wait outside while they set up the model which was not an issue. However, the class did not end up starting until maybe an hour after the scheduled start time. For oil painting this is a relatively big deal when the class is only 3 hours. It already takes a decent amount of time to get set up and clean up your supplies. Nevertheless, I tried to make the best of it.
Since the classes are rolling you can join at any point and I seemed to be the first new person to join this class in a while (although the instructor didn’t seem to notice or care to really introduce himself or tell me anything about the class). The man painting next to me had legitimately been taking the same “class” for several years. The reason I put “class” in quotation marks is that if anything it was really just studio time with the instructor maybe giving 2 minutes of attention to your work the entire 3 hours and then at the end there was no peer discussion or critique. I really didn’t learn anything and was paying $315 for 4 sessions but I only showed up to 2 because it felt like a waste of time lugging my supplies all the way to 57th St just to learn nothing.
I am open to the possibility that maybe I just didn’t take the right class and that there are fabulous instructors there. It is just unfortunate that I have heard of similar experiences from other people. Some people swear by the Students Art League online but it just wasn’t for me. Who knows though, maybe I’d be willing to give it another go in the future.
New York Art Studio
I don’t have too much to say about the New York Art Studio (not to be confused with Art Studio NY) except if you are looking to go to an art college or masters program this might be an excellent place to prepare for that. I only took one day of a class and was pretty quickly convinced out of getting an art degree (although I was pretty sure I was not going to pursue one after already having BS & MS degrees and not wanting to go into debt when I could literally just paint). That being said there may still be value in getting an art degree for someone, it’s just not there for me. As summed up by my instructor, “it’s taboo to talk about the business side of art in art school. They want you to paint for the love of painting and don’t really care if you survive outside of school” (I am paraphrasing a bit but that is what I got out of our discussion).
Final Thoughts
I hope wherever you might be in your creative journey that this article demystifies some of the art institutions for you. Let me know in the comments if you have found other favorites in NYC! I would love to connect with other creatives.