This school was started by Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth in 1947 as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School;[4][5] it had three teachers and 35 students,[6] most of whom were World War II veterans who had a large part of their tuition underwritten by the U.S. government's G.I. Bill.[7] It was renamed the School of Visual Arts in 1956[5] and offered its first degrees in 1972.[8] In 1983, it introduced a Master of Fine Artsinpainting, drawing and sculpture.[9]
The current school logo was created in 1997 by George Tscherny for its 50th anniversary,[16] and redesigned in 2013.[6]
In 2019 the school began the process of converting to nonprofit, with the SVA alumni organization (which is already an IRS tax-exempt entity) planning to purchase the school from its owners, who are retiring.[17]
In her New York Times best-selling memoir Down the Drain, Julia Fox mentions attending a film class at SVA.[24]
In 2024, the school received an honorary “SVA Way” co-naming at the intersection of 23rd St. and 3rd Ave. in recognition of its institutional presence in the neighborhood since 1960.[25]
The school has several buildings in the Gramercy Park neighborhood, on Manhattan's east side, and in the Chelsea neighborhood, on the west side.[28] There is a residence hall on Ludlow Street, in the Lower East Side.[29] From 1994 to 1997, it had a branch campus in Savannah, Georgia; this was closed following a lawsuit from the Savannah College of Art and Design.[30][31]
The building at 133 to 141 West 21st Street, between Sixth Avenue and Seventh AvenueinChelsea,[35][36] has studios for drawing and painting classes, and a small library called Library West which houses books specifically on animation, comics, illustration and art therapy.
The buildings at 132 and 136 West 21st Street have offices, classrooms and studios for art criticism, art education, art therapy, cartooning, computer art, design, illustration and writing. The building at 132 West 21st Street houses the Visible Futures Lab,[37] a workshop featuring traditional and emerging fabrication technology, which regularly hosts artists in residence.[38]
There are several residence halls available for students at SVA, including:
23rd Street Residence (formerly New Residence), at 215 East 23rd Street, is an apartment-style dormitory reserved for new students.[39]
24th Street Residence, is a 146,000-square-foot, 14-story residence hall that opened in August 2016. The site was purchased by Magnum Real Estate Group and 40 North in April 2015 for $32.25 million from the nonprofit International Center for the Disabled. It houses 505 residents in 242 suites, including office space, and serves as the flagship residence hall for the school.[39]
SVA maintains three permanent gallery locations across its campus—SVA Gramercy Gallery, SVA Flatiron Gallery, and SVA Chelsea Gallery—which exhibit work from both students and established creative professionals. Every year, the SVA Chelsea Gallery stages an exhibition for its Masters Series recipient, who are honored with both an award and retrospective exhibition. The 2022 Masters Series Recipient was photographer, MacArthur Genius Grant-, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynsey Addario for her documentation of civilian life in conflict zones; the retrospective was covered by publications such as the New York Times, The Guardian, and Vanity Fair.[40][41][42][43][44][45]
The Theatre, also known as the SVA Theatre, is at 333 West 23rd Street, between Eighth Avenue and Ninth Avenue, in Chelsea.
The site was formerly called the 23rd Street Theatre, and served as the home of the Roundabout Theatre Company, from 1972 until 1984; when their lease expired, the venue was converted into a movie theatre, the Clearview Chelsea West Cinema.[46][47]
It was purchased in 2008, renovated, and reopened in January 2009. Milton Glaser designed the theatre's renovated interior and exterior, including the sculpture situated atop its marquee. The 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m2) facility houses two separate auditoriums, one with 265 seats and one with 480, and hosts class meetings, lectures, screenings and other public events. It has also hosted the red-carpet New York première of Ethan Hawke's The Daybreakers and a diverse list of world premières, ranging from Lucy Liu's 2010 feature documentary Redlight, to the 2011 Fox animated comedy Allen Gregory; and the 2012 film The Hunger Games. In 2013, Beyoncé held a release party and screening for her record-setting, self-titled visual album at the theatre.[48] Community partners that have used the theatre include the Tribeca and GenArt film festivals, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's PlaNYC environmental initiative, and the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting.[49] The theater is also home to the Dusty Film & Animation Festival, held annually since 1990, which showcases the work of emerging filmmakers and animators from the college's BFA Film and Video and BFA Animation programs.[50]
