Best Art and Design colleges in New York

Since 1965, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts has been educating artists and scholars alike on cinema studies, television, dance, drama, photography and more. NYU undoubtedly attracts talented student artists from around the world. The learning opportunities that Tisch provides to budding artists goes beyond New York City. In addition to the school’s six New York City locations—including 721 Broadway, 111 Second Avenue, and 194 Mercer—Tisch has expanded its reach around the globe. In 2007, Tisch School of the Arts Asia opened in Singapore with an inaugural film master’s degree program. Since that time, Tisch Asia has added animation and digital arts, dramatic writing, and international media producing programs. In addition, through the NYU Global Network, students in London, Prague, and Shanghai can enroll in Tisch courses. In 2012, Tisch opened the NYU Game Center to give students interested in becoming game developers, designers, and even critics, the education they need to reach their career goals. Through its bachelor’s and master’s game design program, the Center teaches students how to integrate animation, writing, and audio to create games that can be used for education or entertainment. In addition, NYU hosts the Game Center Student Show, where students show off the projects they created during their studies. Some exhibited projects include 3D animations, multiplayer games, surrealist game art, and card and board games.

Imagine being given one paper coffee cup, a plastic lid, a cardboard cup sleeve, and a wooden stir stick and being told you have three hours to design and produce a scale model of a chair using only these materials. Such challenges keep design students at RIT engaged in their classes while developing creativity, productivity, and other skills they’ll need in their future careers. No wonder IDEO, Fisher Price, and Apple are among the top employers of industrial design graduates. (Not to be outdone, 3D digital design grads have gone on to positions at DreamWorks, and notable ad agency BBDO is fond of RIT’s graphic design majors.) RIT has one of the oldest and most extensive cooperative education programs in the nation, and interested students from design programs are encouraged to take advantage of the institute’s connections to gain real-life experience in their field of study. Also available to students is the Vignelli Center for Design Studies, which opened on campus in 2010 to house the extensive professional archives of Massimo and Lella Vignelli. The center’s annual lecture series provides the opportunity to gain invaluable insight from visiting design professionals.