Florence Academy of Art

The Florence Academy of Art, an atelier started and directed by the American artist Daniel Graves in 1991, is located in Florence, Italy. The academy was founded to offer training to aspiring professional draftsmen, painters, and sculptors who desire to work in the tradition of the Old Masters. The curriculum for the Drawing & Painting Program is most closely modeled after the classical-realist tradition of the 19th-century French Academy, the École des Beaux-Arts, as led by "Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904). Other influences on the curriculum include the figuration and humanism of the Italian Renaissance, as well as principles and training from Graves’ personal study with artists Richard Serrin (b. 1928), Pietro Annigoni (1910-1988), and Nerina Simi (1891-1988). The curriculum of the Sculpture Department, led by Robert Bodem, is based on a constructed approach, whereby students organize gesture, proportion, and spatial relationships intuitively based on structural truths. Students of The Florence Academy of Art draw, paint, and sculpt from the live model in studios with natural north light five days a week during their three-year education.

The Florence Academy of Art employs approximately 35 instructors a year (almost all of whom are graduates of the academy). Since its inception in 1991, more than 500 artists have attended the academy, and approximately 350 draftsmen, painters, and sculptors from an international student body representing close to 40 countries have graduated. In 2013 the academy became accredited by The National Association of Schools of Art and Design. Their flagship location is in Florence, Italy, with additional campuses in Molndäl, Sweden (Academic Director: Andreas Birath) and Jersey City, New Jersey (Academic Director: Jordan Sokol).