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.

There are numerous different schools in NYC dedicated to teaching pottery and all of its associated artistic skills. At Pottery NYC, you can be trained in the use of the pottery wheel regardless of your prior experiences with the pottery and you can learn how to make projects as complex or as simple as you see fit. Perfect for beginners and experts alike, this wheel throwing course will give you the training you need to start working on personalized pottery projects that are sure to impress.

Surprise the art lover in your life with a gift card for art classes. A gift card to take an art class in NYC is great for any experience level and helps find their inner artist, with the ability to select from nearly every type of medium, including painting, drawing, or mixed-media workshops. These art classes are taught by skilled artists and often provide access to premium materials, meaning participants can focus on learning and enjoying each step of the creative process. Another perk of choosing an art class gift card is the ability to meet like-minded creatives who you can gain inspiration from in a supportive environment.

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.

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.

Learning how to sew can be an art in and of itself. While there are practical applications to learning how to work with textiles, those skills can also be applied to creative art projects focusing on making or altering your existing garments. You can take a class in embroidery to learn how to create personalized decorations or add extra flair to your clothing. You can take a class in knitting or crochet to learn how to make personalized hats, socks, even sweaters that make perfect gifts. No matter the size of the project, there is something for everyone who is looking to learn to sew.

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.”

Working with clay or stone, you can enroll in a course at The Compleat Sculptor and learn the art of making abstract and representational sculptures. You’ll get hands-on training working with skilled instructors as you build your own personal creative masterpiece. They offer introductory classes for beginner sculptors just learning their way around a piece of stone and advanced courses that cover the finer art of recreating the human body in stone. Sculpting is a difficult but rewarding artistic skill and if you want to learn how to do it, The Compleat Sculptor is the place to go.

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.

New York City is one of the most photogenic cities in the world and if you are looking to take advantage of the scenic vistas and amazing architecture with more than your phone’s camera, you may want to consider enrolling in a Photography class. These courses come in two general varieties: courses that will help you learn how to use your specific digital camera and practical courses that will have you working with models or venturing into the city to take photographs with the assistance of an instructor. These courses also make for a good excuse for you and a friend to visit a part of the city that you might not normally.

If the idea of diving right into a pottery class sounds up your alley, consider enrolling in this 8 week immersive training course. The course is perfect for beginners, opening with an introduction to the basics of wheel throwing and proceeding through practical skills, trimming and molding over the next several weeks. You will work on multiple small projects throughout and everything will be fired in time for a group session breaking down your work station and admiring you and your classmates finished works.

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

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.

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.

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.

Pottery is one of the oldest and most well-developed art forms and learning pottery can be as practical as it is expressive and relaxing. In this course you’ll learn the basics of wheel throwing (the kind of pottery that invokes the most vivid image of a potter furiously working with spinning wet clay). An experienced instructor will guide you through all of the steps and help ensure that you are comfortable with using the wheel and spinning your own pottery creation. No experience is needed and at the end of the course, you’ll have your own personalized piece to be fired and picked up.

The Ayaka Nishi Jewelry Design School is a perfect place to look for courses if you are interested in learning how to make your own bespoke jewelry (either as gifts, personal adornment or to sell). Their classes are semi-private affairs, never more than four students to an instructor and the courses all focus on hands-on training in the art of jewelry making. Courses are available for students looking to learn how to make rings, pendants, necklaces and even wax jewelry. This is the perfect course for anyone looking to explore the plastic arts.