Kansas City Art Institute
Welcome to the Kansas City Art Institute, a four-year, independent, fully accredited college of art and design offering the bachelor of fine arts degree in a variety of disciplines. This great institution has a stellar history, dating back to its origins in 1885.
Whether you are visiting our Web site because you are thinking of applying for admission, or you want to contribute funds for student scholarships, or because you simply want to know more about our programs, I want to welcome you and encourage you to make an actual as well as virtual visit to our beautiful campus. I look forward to meeting you.
When a group of Kansas Citians got together in 1885 to start a Sketch Club “to talk over art matters in general and to judge pictures,” they could not know they were creating an institution that would become a distinguished four-year college of art and design: The Kansas City Art Institute.
Notable names associated with the school include Walt Disney, who took Saturday classes there as a child; painter Thomas Hart Benton, who taught at KCAI from 1935 to 1941; multimedia artist Robert Rauschenberg, who studied fashion design at KCAI in the 1940s; sculptor, conceptual artist and writer Robert Morris, who studied at KCAI in the late 1940s; J. C. Nichols, real estate magnate and founder of Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza, who was president of the board of trustees from 1920 to 1927; and William T. Kemper Jr., who joined the board in 1934 and served 54 years until his death in 1989, longer than any other trustee. During the J.C. Nichols years, the school’s budget was $40,000; today that figure tops $15 million.
Courses Offered
- Animation
- Art History
- Ceramics
- Creative Writing
- Digital Filmmaking
- Digital Media
- Fiber
- Graphic Design
- Illustration
- Painting
- Photography
- Printmaking
- Sculpture
Schools
- School of Foundation Year
- School of Liberal Arts
- School of Fine Arts
- School of Design and Electronic Arts
Contact Details
Kansas City Art Institute
4415 Warwick Blvd,
Kansas City, MO 64111
800-522-5224
Official Website: http://www.kcai.edu/
