Alumni Richard Mayhew with his work, circa 1960

The Brooklyn Museum Art School (BMAS), a non-degree-granting professional school,opened at the Brooklyn Museum in the summer of 1941. The Brooklyn Museum Art School provided instruction for amateur artists as well until January 1985 when it was transferred to the Pratt Institute’s Continuing Education Division.

Prior to the creation of the BMAS, classes for amateur artists were offered by the Brooklyn Institute of Arts & Sciences (BIAS), the Museum's parent organization. BIAS offered hands-on art classes dating back to 1841. In 1851, a ‘School of Design’ was endowed by Augustus Graham, a past president of BIAS. At that time, the classes were held under the auspices of the departments of fine arts and pedagogy and sometimes in collaboration with art organizations such as the Brooklyn Art Association. After the Institute's reorganization in the early 20th century, the classes fell under the BIAS Department of Education, one of the five autonomous BIAS divisions (Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Department of Education). Most of the classes were held in the Academy of Music, where the offices and classrooms of BIAS were located; some classes were also held in the Museum.

In 1941, the Board of Trustees officially moved all the art school classes to the Museum building. The 1940-41 Annual Report explains this restructuring:

In an effort to bring the art and photography classes formerly held at the Institute at the Academy of Music into closer relation to other Museum activities and to provide them with more adequate space, the Trustees voted in the spring to move these classes to the Museum building. The Museum looks forward with pleasure not only to housing these classes, but also to giving the students a wider experience with art through the use of the Museum collections and libraries. The 1941-42 annual report uses, for the first time, the title Brooklyn Museum Art School. The Brooklyn Museum Art School remained separate from the Brooklyn Museum's Education Division, which primarily served children.¹

During World War II, the BMAS continued to operate although its scope was limited to painting, drawing and photography. When the artist Augustus Peck began his tenure as director of the Art School in late 1945, the school expanded and diversified its classes.

The early 1950s were something of a golden era for the BMAS; its funding was fairly secure as a result of the GI Bill, and its initiatives, including a series of art films, were well-received by both the Museum and the general public. Many artists of note taught or lectured at the BMAS during this period, including Peck, William Baziotes, Max Beckmann, Ben Shahn and Reuben Tam. After Beckmann’s death in 1950, a scholarship program in his memory was initiated for professional art training which would continue until the transfer of the School to the Pratt Institute.

The GI Bill also brought a large number of students to the BMAS in the post-WWII years (nearly 4000 applicants at its peak), a population that gradually disappeared as more and more universities began offering accredited programs in the fine arts. Conferring academic degrees was an aim as far back as 1947; although the school investigated starting a program with a local accredited school (Brooklyn College or Long Island University), that initiative never came to fruition. A BFA degree program offered in conjunction with LIU was announced in 1959, but the partnership collapsed, also due to a lack of funding, before the first students could begin their courses.

The educational goals of the BMAS were fairly fluid; prior to 1951, no formal program of study existed. A three-year course in applied arts was introduced at that time, but it was discontinued in 1955. Although the stated goal had always been the training of professional artists, they infrequently accounted for more than one-tenth of the student body, and tensions between these full-time students and part-time hobbyists was common as they competed for space and instructor attention. This lack of specific focus was cited as another reason for the closure in 1984. Such problems notwithstanding, many graduates of the School went on to successful careers as professional artists, both in the United States and abroad.

The BMAS was a semi-autonomous department of the Museum, with its own director, administrative staff, and budget. It was, however, not generally self-supporting, and funding was always a problem; closure was a distinct possibility a number of times in the 1960s and ‘70s. Continuing budget problems and low attendance in addition to changed programming under the direction of the new museum director, Robert Buck, led to its closing/transfer.

A press release from December 21, 1984 described the transfer of the art school to Pratt:

Museum Director Robert T. Buck announced today that the continuing expansion of the Brooklyn Museum's public services will include, in 1985, a new program of art classes for children aged 6-13, a continued special curriculum for New York city high school students aged 14-18 and the transfer of adult studio art classes to the Brooklyn Museum Art School to Pratt Institute's school of Continuing Education. It also notes that the BMAS faculty would teach classes at Pratt and that Museum members would be offered reduced registration fees.

Selected instructors:

Max Beckmann

Vincent Longo

William Baziotes

Toshio Odate

Jacqueline Ann Clipsham

Augustus Peck

Francis Cunningham

Daniel Serra-Baduè

Barney Hodes

Ben Shahn

Jolyon Hofsted

Kendall Shaw

Yiannes Iordanidis

Robert Smithson

Donald Judd

Reuben Tam

Rufino Tamayo

Selected graduates:

Charles Hidley

Joan Semmel

Danny Pierce

Mildred Thompson

Ephraim Rubenstein

Boaz Vaadia



Additional sources consulted:

Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn Museum Annual Reports. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum, 1941-1985.

Finkelstein, Louis. The Brooklyn Museum Art School. In: Bulletin. v. 16, no. 4; Summer. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum, 1955.

¹ BMAS did offer a small program for high school students for a short period of time