Enrollment

Students come to The Florence Academy of Art only if they have an intense desire for this specific training. They seek the language of the Old Masters, and the tools to convey their ideas with confidence through the oil or clay mediums. They have seen the work of the artists they admire, Velasquez, Rembrandt, Titian, and they are conscious of the gap between where they stand and where they want to be. There is no experimentation with other styles or modern mediums at the Academy; in this sense it is a highly specialized program, similar to a masters or graduate program in the United States. This is what draws the mature student – not in terms of age, but self-knowledge – to our school.

Entry to The Florence Academy of Art is based on portfolio review. Applicants are asked to submit five reproductions of recent drawings, paintings or sculpture. The faculty makes its selections based on the applicant's interest in figurative realism, whether he attempts to draw, paint or sculpt from life, and whether he shows some raw talent.

Entry to our program is competitive, although we manage to eventually find places for most applicants. For those applicants who are not immediately invited to join the program, they may be put on the wait list. It often happens that right up to the first day of school, or throughout the academic year, a place will become available, and we will go back to the wait list to find an applicant to fill it.

Students with prior training in academic drawing may be allowed to enter at an intermediate or advanced level. The student's level upon entry (beginning, intermediate or advanced) is determined by the faculty from the five slides of recent work requested from each candidate.

Some applicants have said they hesitated to apply to The Florence Academy of Art because “my work is not as good as the work by your students on your site.” Our mission is to train you to achieve those same skills, and possibly surpass them, by providing you a curriculum, teaching method and studio environment based on the soundest principles of realistic tradition, and an intellectually stimulating community fostered by the students, teachers and staff at The Florence Academy of Art.

There are currently 95 students from 25 different countries enrolled in the Florence program, and 28 students in Mölndal. These students work at different levels in the curriculum. Beginning students are therefore encouraged to observe and learn from the work of the more advanced who, in turn, can have the opportunity to work as student teachers.