Featured Online School

The Art Institutes offers real-world education programs in design, the culinary arts, media arts, and fashion. Here you'll get the competitive edge to succeed as a creative professional - in your field of interest! Online programs also satisfy a need for budding creative professionals.

Featured Online School

Earn your Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communication degree with a concentration in
WEB DESIGN!
Click here to learn more.

For almost 70 years, Harrington has focused on preparing leaders in today's interior design industry. You can be one of those people. Click here to learn how!

Explore your artistic creativity with all that technology has to offer. Click here to learn more.

NYFA offers workshops in Filmmaking, Digital Filmmaking, Acting, Producing, Editing, Music Video, Screenwriting, 3D Animation, and Movie Camps as well as Bachelor of Arts and Master of Fine Arts in Filmmaking. Click here to find a location near you!

Related Sites: Career Training; Web Design Schools; Game Design Schools; Online Schools; Continuing Education; Bachelors Degrees; Masters Degrees; Online Graduate Schools; Top Graduate Schools; Working Student

The Creative Student's Guide to Providence Art Education and Careerss

...for students of art, design, fashion design, photography, film/video, advertising, interior design and other creative fields.

Visit our Complete Directory of
Providence Art Schools and Art Colleges!

by C.J. Gustafson
ArtSchools.com Contributing Writer

art schools in Providence

Seeking freedom of worship, English clergyman Roger Williams abandoned the Massachusetts Colony in 1636, taking a small band of settlers with him to a new home in Rhode Island. The first permanent settlement in Rhode Island, Williams named the new city as a reference to "God's merciful providence." Today, with 173,618 people living in 20.5 square miles, Providence is the largest and most populous city in Rhode Island.

Providence is a frequent host of the annual international Gravity Games, an extreme sports competition that includes skateboarding, wakeboarding, motocross, and street luge. Sports fans often linger after dark for "Water Fires" an environmental art experience. This series of 100 bonfires, all suspended above the surface of the three rivers that pass through Providence, crackles to classical and world music for a truly riveting multimedia effect.

As one of the oldest cities in the nation, Providence's buildings and infrastructure began to deteriorate in the mid-twentieth century, and people and businesses began to leave, while crime grew. In an effort to change the decline, Providence began a series of innovative revitalization initiatives and programs in the 1970s. One of these programs included uncovering and diverting two rivers that ran below the city to open up the city's natural rivers. Another initiative in the 1990s was designed to attract artists to live and work in renovated buildings in the downtown area. As part of this plan, artists were offered exemption from state income tax and sales tax on works that they sell. How's that for an arts incentive?

design degrees in Providence The city is becoming a more appealing place to live, filled with new attractions and opportunities, particularly for artists. According to the Arts and Economic Prosperity III (pdf) report on Providence, published in 2007, the economic impact of the arts and culture industry in Providence is growing. Nonprofit arts and cultural organizations have spent over $40 million, and support over 2,500 jobs

Art and cultural attractions in Providence include the Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design, the John Brown House (an impressive example of Providence's historical architecture), the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association and the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, which includes a gallery with rotating exhibits.

Art Schools and Programs

art student in Providence Providence has several notable schools that offer visual arts degrees and training. The Rhode Island School of Design, Providence College Department of Art and Art History, Brown University Department of Visual Arts, Rhode Island College Art Department, and the Johnson & Wales University-Providence Department of Humanities all provide opportunities for students to earn Advertising degrees, Architecture degrees, Interior Design degrees and Graphic Design degrees. Students can receive training for architectural careers, photography careers, and fashion careers and learn about film, animation, illustration and numerous other careers while pursuing visual arts degrees.

Schools such as the Katharine Gibbs School in Providence and the URI Feinstein College of Continuing Education provide additional professional training opportunities in the field of visual arts.

Providence might best be described as a unique location that offers big city life at a small town pace. For visual arts students who like things a bit slower and less populated, Providence has much to offer.

Top of Page