The Trumbull Gallery (1832–1864) The study of the visual arts at Yale began with the opening of the
Trumbull Gallery in 1832. The Gallery was founded by portrait artist Colonel
John Trumbull with the help of Professor
Benjamin Silliman, a prominent chemist.
School of Fine Arts (1864–1950) In 1864,
Augustus Russell Street donated funds for the establishment of a School of Fine Arts at Yale. In his bequest, Street stipulated that it be “a school for practical instruction, open to both sexes, for such as propose to follow art as a profession.” The program was placed under an art council, one of whose members was the painter-inventor
Samuel F. B. Morse, a graduate of
Yale College. Yale alumnus
Andrew Dickson White was petitioned by the school's faculty to become the first dean, but instead opted to be the first president of
Cornell University. A new building for the school,
Street Hall, was completed in 1866.
John Ferguson Weir, an artist, was the first director, and later a dean, of the Yale School of Fine Arts. He played a leading role in determining the initial curriculum at the school. While he did not attend a college or university, he studied under his father,
Robert W. Weir, professor of art at the US Military Academy in West Point. As Weir began work on curriculum development at Yale he sought some guidance from his younger brother,
Julian Alden Weir, who was studying art in Paris. circa 1905 When the School of Fine Arts opened to students in 1869, it was the first of its kind affiliated with a tertiary institution in America. A three-year course in drawing, painting, sculpture, and art history was inaugurated. Two women—Alice and Susan Silliman, daughters of
Benjamin Silliman Jr.—enrolled in the first cohort of three students, and the School of Fine Arts became the first of Yale's schools to allow co-educational instruction. Albers taught that the "unique qualities of perceptual understanding in visual education are that they are applicable to all areas of art—architecture, fine arts, design, photography, and all of the crafts. Perceptual understanding always is relevant, since it transcends all styles and time frames—it is never in or out of date." Blurring the distinction between the
fine arts and
applied arts, Albers "transformed the teaching of art and design in the 20th century by asserting that the point of making of art is not the finished product, but the process—that art is not an object, art is an experience." Green Hall houses BFA and MFA students in photography and graphic design. The painting MFAs have their own building behind Green Hall; sculpture MFAs, who used to be in Hammond Hall across campus (since demolished), are now in a new sculpture building at 36 Edgewood, designed by Kiernan Timberlake and Associates. In 2021, the School of Art announced that they would be hiring the first
woman of color (and only second woman) to hold the position of Dean. Dr.
Kymberly Pinder comes to the School of Art after serving as acting president of
MassArt in Boston. ==Study==