San Francisco Art Institute

San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California.

Founded in 1871, the San Francisco Art Institute is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious schools of higher education in contemporary art.

Programs

SFAI offers Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, and Master of Fine Arts degrees and Post-Baccalaureate certificates. Like many institutions of higher-education, it also awards honorary PhDs. SFAI's current Dean of Academic Affairs is Jeannene Przyblyski. Hou Hanru is Director of Exhibitions and Public Program and Chair of Exhibition and Museum Studies.

• School of Interdisciplinary Studies
• School of Studio Practice

Handbook

Kimia Kline

Painting, MFA

"Here, you're really encouraged to make connections with artists and with faculty." “The size of the grad program was a big challenge for me when I first came in,” admits Kimia, a figurative painter whose work takes on notions of femininity, sexuality, and idealized beauty. “It’s on the larger size of graduate programs in the U.S., and I felt a little lost at first. But when you have a larger body of artists, it’s more likely you’re going to find people that you resonate with. I’ve met so many different artists where I think, ‘I really like your art, and you really like mine—we should do something together!’ ”