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We Make Art Work

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Master Your Creative Potential

Whether you’ve just finished your undergraduate degree, are returning to school after being in the workforce, or want to upgrade your skills and professional portfolio, Academy of Art University’s graduate degree programs are the key to unlocking your creative potential for the future. You can study on campus or online and choose a program from any one of our 22 schools. With nearly 20 AI-infused courses and 14 STEM degrees, your graduate degree experience will be on the cutting edge of creative education.

Our MA (Master of Arts) and MFA (Master of Fine Arts) degrees are built around hands-on, project-based curricula taught by working industry professionals. As you build a professional-quality portfolio, you’ll be solving real-world creative problems alongside collaborators from some of the largest and most prestigious companies in the world. A graduate degree from the Academy will give you a competitive advantage as you explore job opportunities around the world.

Companies that Employ Our Students

Students & Alumni

Always Creating. Always Moving Forward.

At the Academy, creativity doesn’t pause at graduation. It accelerates. From day one, students bring bold ideas and leave with portfolios that speak louder than résumés. And when they graduate, they launch into creative careers.

This is where passion meets purpose—on campus, in studios, and on global stages.

Our alumni are out there now winning awards, leading teams, and shaping culture.

See More Success Stories

Michael Canty

“Academy of Art was a great school. I loved the car museum, and being able to build my own clay models and get hands-on experience was incredibly valuable. As a veteran, only part of my schooling was covered. Still, thanks to the Academy’s Yellow Ribbon Program, I was able to receive additional funding to continue my education. I had the privilege of learning from the legendary Tom Matano, and every one of my instructors pushed me to think deeper and become a better designer.”

BFA Industrial Design Alumni, Design Manager at Lincoln Motor Company

Saba Raji

“The Academy played a huge role in my success. From the beginning, my professors encouraged me to think beyond tools and discover my own voice in architecture. That encouragement, believing I could do more if I worked hard, was a turning point. The Academy’s culture of support and inspiration truly shaped who I am as a designer.”

MFA Interior Architecture, Technical Designer for Gensler

Richard Jennings

“I absolutely love my experience at the Academy of Art. Anyone who ever asks me about it, I always say: if you really want to become a working designer, go to the Academy of Art. That’s where you’ll learn the fundamental skills that apply to every avenue of creativity and design.”

MFA Graphic Design Alumni, Senior Vice President at Warner Bros. Discovery

Liz Gerger

“This school showed me that my story is the most valuable thing I have to offer. It’s our unique perspective and human crunchiness that make our work distinctly ours. … If that’s true, my time at ArtU has made me so grateful for the years I spent doing the wrong thing. For the pain and deep insecurities that made me feel like I needed to be something I wasn’t. There’s no algorithm for that experience.”

MFA Visual Development Alumni & 2025 Valedictorian, Designer at Disney Theatrical Group

Facility Highlights

Equipment Lab

Our equipment lab features state-of-the-art equipment like a jet-milling machine for cutting metal, a McEnglevan MIFCO forge machine, a plasma cutter, and 250-amp welders. The lab also features the only complete art and sculpture neon studio in California, and a mold-making studio for one-, two-, and three-piece plaster and rubber casts.

Painting Studio

Our painting facilities include full-time anatomy studios and a full-time multimedia room. All classrooms and studios are equipped with easels, tabourets, model stands, spotlights, cleaning stations, and painting storage racks to accommodate any style of painting. The prop room is well-stocked with over 100 fabrics and over 2500 different props for your reference. We also have a dedicated room for framing and photographing art.

Printmaking Studio

Our main printmaking facility includes six presses for intaglio, relief, and monotype printing. The intaglio and relief studio embraces both traditional and sustainable approaches, with support for both zinc and copper etching. The silkscreen studio concentrates on the photo emulsion process and includes a dedicated darkroom. The studio is equipped with ink, screens, a light table, and digital output capabilities.

Sculpture Center

Our sculpture center houses a complete wax studio with gating and sprue stations, as well as a ceramics room with slurry tank, silica sand stations, front-loading computer programmed electric and gas kilns, a slab roller, extruder, and a pug mill.

Seven Skutt Electric Kilns
Mid-sized, top-loading, and digitally controlled, these Skutt kilns offer precise, repeatable firing for bisque, glaze, and mid-range ceramic work—ideal for student projects.

One Large Cress Side-Loading Kiln
Our largest electric kiln features a side-hinged door and spacious chamber, perfect for large-scale or high-volume firings, with digital precision and ergonomic loading.

Two Toki Test Kilns
Compact and fast, the Toki kilns are built for glaze tests and small projects—speeding up experimentation with quicker heat cycles and efficient results.

Welding Studio

Our welding studio features industry standard TIG, MIG, stick, and gas welders; power tools; a sand blaster; and patina stations.

Wood Shop

Fabricate objects and jigs on both natural and artificial wood in our wood shop. Work with band saws, drill presses, a jointer, a planer, miter saws, a panel saw, wood shapers, and table routers. Two wood lathes, two isolated sanding rooms with spindle and disc sanders, and one more lathe for working foam plastics give you the control to polish your designs. The wood shop also features four SawStop table saws as part of our ongoing commitment to safety.

Bronze Foundry

Located in South San Francisco, our bronze foundry is forged for full-process casting. Multiple crucibles, a hydraulic crane, burnout kiln, sandblaster, and a Laguna Raku kiln give students the tools to transform molten metal into masterpieces.

A person wearing a paint-stained apron operates a large printing press wheel in an art studio. Tables, tools, and equipment surround them, with visible pipes on the ceiling.

Framing Shop

Frame It Right.

The framing shop is open to all students and is equipped for paintings, works on paper, and more. Turn your work into professionally finished pieces suitable for display.

Supervised sessions available by appointment only.

Your work. Professionally finished.