The best art classes in NYC

New York’s best-known community center is famous for its lectures, concerts and talks, but art classes are also part of the program, and include everything from art appreciation to watercolor. There are also beginner classes, so even if you're a complete novice, you can learn from the ground up. 

Craftsman Ave offers hands-on art and carpentry courses for the DIY-minded creative. These classes offer practical training in a range of tactile art skills, including carpentry, woodworking, leathercrafting, stained glass making and forging. In each class, students will have access to Craftsman Ave’s studio workshop, and they will receive guided instruction on how to create everything from knives and wallets to end-tables and stained-glass ornaments. Students will learn how to safely navigate a workshop space, and in every course, they will leave the class with a completed project that they can either put on display or put to use around their homes.

If you’re intimidated by the thought of taking art classes—even beginners art classes—in a professional art-school setting, The Art Studio NY is for you. With names like “Fear-Free Drawing 101” and “Dare To Oil Paint” the courses at The Art Studio NY live up to the credo of treating all students with “warmth and care” by offering classes open to everyone from “2 to 102.”

If a name like Painting Lounge sounds to you like a place that is totally chill, well you’re absolutely right! Painting Lounge encourages BYOB, as long as it’s not hard liquor (they even provide cups, corkscrews and a fridge to keep your brewskis cold). The classes consist of professional artists taking you through a step-by-step process of replicating a featured painting every night. It could be a Picasso or a Van Gogh, but there’s no right or wrong way to paint, just a relaxed, hassle-free environment to get in touch with your artistic side. Think of it as the visual-art equivalent of karaoke.

The New York School of the Arts focuses on the transformation of the contemporary art world. The school looks at studies of fine arts, music, architecture, and design, so you'll definitely find something creative for you to try out. They offer classes on almost any medium, from printmaking techniques to creating portraits to an intro to Adobe Photoshop, so why not try your hand at something new? You may uncover a hidden talent.

Decorus Atelier of Figurative Art offers students classes, providing a foundation for classic methods in drawing, painting and even sculpture, if it takes your fancy. You can participate in classes like Intro to Anatomy, learning about the architecture of the human body and how to capture a figure in drawing, or classes like Accelerated Portraiture Drawing, where students are taught how to master a portrait and all the techniques needed for it. Classes are small to offer an intimate, hands-on experience. 

Drawing School New York is one of the city’s premiere artistic community centers. They boast over 12,000 active members and offer a range of classes taught by professional artists. These courses include beginner-friendly introductions to drawing, advanced figure drawing and anatomy courses and laid-back sketch and sip experiences for artists looking to dip their toes in the field. They also collaborate with New York cultural institutions such as The Morgan Library, The Museum of The City of New York, and The Museum of Arts and Design to display student work.

Whether you are new to ceramic and pottery or looking for an advanced wheel-spinning class, Choplet Ceramic Studio has you covered with its range of wheel-throwing pottery classes. They offer frequent one-day adult wheel-throwing classes designed to introduce students to the world of pottery and teach them the basic skills needed to work on more advanced projects. Once students are comfortable with the wheel, they can enroll in a multi-session project-driven course to create the finished ceramic product of their dreams. If you are looking for something more laid back, consider enrolling in one of Choplet’s popular paint and spin courses, where you’ll learn the basics of wheel pottery while enjoying some fine wine

The NYC School of Creativity is an art workshop that aims to help students discover their own creative talents in a safe and nurturing environment. They offer courses for adults and children, and their course offerings cover a wide range of different artistic disciplines. They offer a large selection of sewing and alteration classes for students looking to learn how to work with fabric and textiles and they teach art skills ranging from watercolor painting to printmaking. No matter what kind of art you are looking to learn (or what practical skills you want to develop), NYC School of Creativity is a good place to check out.

If you want to work with your hands as you master a new artform, you might want to consider enrolling in this clay sculpting class, which emphasizes how portraiture is not strictly limited to drawing and painting. You’ll work to create a portrait bust of yourself or a model and you’ll learn the art of mirroring the human form in clay. To do this, you’ll learn about anatomy, perspective and form, all fundamental skills for anyone working to create life-like reactions of the human body. You’ll also learn how to work with proportion and expression to make your bust mirror real human emotion in its finished form.

RESOBOX, which started as a personal art project of Fumio Tashiro, has grown into a vibrant Japanese cultural center that offers a wide range of classes for artists and students looking to learn about the history and breadth of Japanese artistic traditions. At RESOBOX, students will get hands-on experience in mediums such as Ink Painting, Ohara Ikebana flower arranging and Chanyou tea ceremonies. In addition to these art classes, students can enroll in a sushi-making course, a model-building class, a kendo class or a Japanese language seminar.

If you want to create a beautiful artistic gift or make a fashion statement with handcrafted accessories, NYC Jewelry Lab is the art school you may be looking for. This professional metalworking studio offers classes to teach students safe and sustainable ways to make handcrafted jewelry pieces. These classes will teach students the art of working with metal and wax to create rings, earrings, bracelets and other small pieces of jewelry.  These courses provide students with the skills they need to start working on more advanced projects and the workshop space at NYC Jewelry Lab is open to students looking to create more elaborate and involved pieces.

Founded by Portrait Artist Brandon Soloff, the Chelsea Classical Studio is a small drawing studio that aims to provide students with top-quality education from experienced artists in a small group setting. These classes, which are limited to between 3 and 10 students, offer personalized individual curricula as students learn their weaknesses as artists and spend class time working to improve on those areas with the guidance of an experienced art instructor.

Ikebana is a traditional Japanese form of flower arranging, characterized by subtle designs and the simple harmonic use of only a few plants. Taught by second-generation Ikebana master,  Junko Miura,  these classes explore the many different techniques and methods associated with Ikebana, including Junko’s own Jun Fusion method. The school offers beginner courses aimed at introducing students to this artistic floral arrangement style and advanced courses covering specific techniques, theories and schools of Ikebana. If you are looking to learn a unique floral art form, consider enrolling in one of these classes today.

Founded and run by Rochester artist Eleni Kontos, e.e. ceramics is a pottery-focused art studio that aims to provide students with hands-on training in hand-building clay ceramics, including bowls, dishes and dolls. These courses are taught by artists (including Kontos) with years of experience, and students will benefit from the practical, hands-on instruction that will see them hand-building their own finished ceramic projects. In addition to hand-building, doll-making and other ceramic courses, students can enroll in drawing and painting classes or more advanced sculpture courses.

Located in Williamsburg, Liloveve is another metalworking art studio that focuses on teaching students the art of jewelry-making. Their studio is set up to offer students courses in metalworking, silversmithing and wax-based jewelry making, giving students a range of options for how they want to start creating their own wearable pieces. Students can enroll in a ring-making intensive course and learn how to shape, fit and set rings, or they can sign up for an immersive silversmithing course and create bangles, bracelets or practical servingware.

One of the oldest art schools operating out of Dumbo, Creatively Wild Art Studio is a multi-media-focused training center that aims to provide a wide variety of art classes to help locals embrace their inner creatives. They offer courses for students of all ages, from toddlers to adults, covering all kinds of different media and plastic arts, including drawing, painting, sculpting, animation, digital illustration and graffiti. These courses are taught by experienced art instructors, and students will have the chance to get hands-on experience and personalized feedback as they work toward their personal artistic visions.

Sight isn’t the only sense art can stimulate. At Atelier Artisane, students can learn the process of making artisan-scented candles in a health-conscious and environmentally sustainable way. Rather than using harmful chemicals to mirror specific fragrances, these candles utilize high-quality, ethically sourced local ingredients to create the unmistakable aromas of a fine handcrafted candle. Students can enroll in a class that centers on the candle making process or they can enroll in a course on the science of fragrances and learn how to create personalized aromas (that they can then add to a wax candle in another course).

Drawing is a simple and easy way to start expressing yourself creatively that offers a deep opportunity for growth and development for anyone who wants to stick with it and practice. In this beginner drawing class, you’ll learn the fundamentals of art, including how to work with including line, shape, shadow, and perspective. You’ll get personalized instruction and hands-on time to practice your drawing skills, since that is the key to developing your talent and improving as an artist. No matter what your long-term artistic goals, learning the basics of drawing and the associated fundamentals of artistic composition will pay dividends.

Too many artistically inclined people never start on their road to success because they are worried about how their work will look at the very start. In this course, you’ll work to overcome these fears as you start to learn the art of drawing a host of different styles, including still life, realism, abstraction, the human figure and portraiture. You’ll learn foundational artistic techniques, including skills like perspective, shading and detailing and you use a host of different materials, including charcoal, pencils and ink. This introductory course is perfect for beginners looking to learn the basics of painting and it is an ideal class for getting started in an inviting, judgment-free space.

Watercolor painting is one of the most accessible ways to learn how to paint, in no small part because it is forgiving to mistakes and doesn’t involve a lot of expensive paint. In this introductory watercolor painting course, you’ll learn what makes watercolor unique among painting methods and you’ll have the chance to get hands-on experience painting a range of different subjects. In addition to learning fundamental skills, like perspective and composition, you’ll learn how to blend colors and create the kind of hazy, blurred tones that watercolor painting is known for. Students of any level can find something to take away from this class, so even if you’ve never painted before, consider signing up.

Once you’ve begun to understand the basics of wheel throwing, you can up your game by enrolling in this week-long, small group, immersive wheel throwing course. You’ll learn fundamental pottery skills and by the end of the course, you’ll be ready to take on advanced challenges and design projects. The course operates in a workshop format, so you’ll spend most of the fifteen hours getting hands-on pottery experience and you’ll work with your cohort (and some advanced students) to critique and review your work. This course is a great way for beginners and advanced potters alike to get hands-on training, including time spent glazing and firing their pieces.

Shutterbugs of all types can fine something to learn here at New York’s City preeminent photography school, where instruction is offered on all formats and sizes of cameras, including iPhones.