Fine Arts Certificate Program
The Fine Arts Certificate program at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a three-year career training program designed to prepare students for entry-level professional roles within the visual arts and related creative industries. This comprehensive curriculum emphasizes sequential skill development, technical mastery, and professional readiness through direct, hands-on instruction in painting, printmaking, digital art, and sculpture.
Building upon PAFA’s long-standing studio-based traditions, the program integrates historical methodologies with contemporary practices to provide a rigorous foundation in both technique and concept. The curriculum is structured to advance progressively across three years, guiding students from essential visual literacy and material understanding to individualized, portfolio-based professional practice. Throughout the program, students receive intensive studio training, exposure to PAFA’s archives, collections, and direct mentorship from practicing artists.
The 3-year structure is essential to ensure adequate development of both technical and conceptual abilities necessary for professional practice in the fine arts. Unlike short-term preparatory courses, the progressive, cumulative nature of studio training requires sustained mentorship, iterative skill-building, and long-term project development to achieve occupational readiness. The program’s sequential design ensures that students acquire and integrate skills across all essential domains – drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, digital design, material handling, and professional presentation. The program culminates in a capstone public exhibition that demonstrate students’ readiness for professional employment in fine arts and related fields.
For more information, contact the Office of Admissions at admissions@pafa.edu or 215-972-7625.
Program Length
Full-Time Enrollment
The length of the program is 3 years (90 weeks). The academic year consists of 30 weeks (15 week Fall Semester and 15 week Spring Semester). A full-time student is expected to register for 12.0-18.0 credits, 270-564 clock hours, per semester and complete 30.0 credits during the academic year.
- Foundation Year (30 weeks) - 30.0 credits, 819 clock hours
- Intermediate Year (30 weeks) - 30.0 credits, 855 clock hours
- Advanced Year (30 weeks) - 30.0 credits, 948 clock hours
TOTAL Program Length: 3 years (90 weeks) - 90.0 credits, 2,622 clock hours*
*Note: Program completion in 3 years is contingent on full-time enrollment for all 3 years.
Half-Time Enrollment
Half-time enrollment is considered on a case-by-case basis for the Foundation Year and Intermediate Year. The Advanced Year is full-time enrollment only. The length of the program is 5 years (150 weeks). The academic year consists of 30 weeks (15 week Fall Semester and 15 week Spring Semester). A half-time student must register for 6.0-10.0 credits, 180-270 clock hours, per semester and complete 12.0-18.0 credits during the academic year.
- Foundation Year: 1 of 2 (30 weeks) - 12.0 credits, 369 clock hours
- Foundation Year: 2 of 2 (30 weeks) - 18.0 credits, 450 clock hours
- Intermediate Year: 1 of 2 (30 weeks) - 12.0 credits, 360 clock hours
- Intermediate Year: 2 of 2 (30 weeks) - 18.0 credits, 495 clock hours
- Advanced Year (30 weeks) - 30.0 credits, 948 clock hours (full-time enrollment only, but schedule is flexible)
TOTAL Program Length: 5 years (150 weeks) - 90.0 credits, 2,622 clock hours*
*Note: Program completion in 5 years is contingent on half-time enrollment for the Foundation and Intermediate Years and full-time enrollment for the Advanced Year.
Foundation Year
The foundation year provides a broad range of studio art courses with immersion in both traditional and contemporary media. Exposure ranges from disciplined approaches in observation to innovative methods. Traditional skills are honed through the observation of the human figure, still life, the antique cast, and interior building structure as applied in painting, drawing, and sculpture techniques. Inventive skills equip the student for creating art in digital media, printmaking, and innovative perspective techniques.
| Courses | Credits | Lecture Clock Hours | Lab/Studio Clock Hours | |
| AH 105 | Art Seminar: Philadelphia and Environs | 3.0 | 24 | 66 |
| FY 111 | Painting Practices | 3.0 | 15 | 75 |
| FY 112 | Digital Drawing and Painting I | 2.0 | 15 | 30 |
| FY 113 | Intaglio Printmaking | 2.0 | 15 | 30 |
| FY 114 | Structure & Spatial Drawing | 3.0 | 15 | 75 |
| FY 116 | Figure Drawing | 3.0 | 15 | 75 |
| FY 117 | Figure Modeling | 3.0 | 24 | 66 |
| FY 118 | Painting the Figure | 3.0 | 15 | 75 |
| FY 119 | Digital Drawing and Painting II | 2.0 | 15 | 30 |
| FY 120 | Relief Printmaking | 2.0 | 16 | 29 |
| FY 121 | Form and Structure in Sculpture | 2.0 | 15 | 30 |
| FY 122 | Inventive Drawing | 2.0 | 15 | 30 |
| SC 099A | Wood Shop Safety | 0.0 | 3.5 | 3.5 |
| TOTAL | 30.0 | 202.5 | 616.5 |
Intermediate Year
In the second-year students are presented with a series of intermediate-level courses that broaden the understanding of art and creativity as well as comprehensive courses that present tools for navigating a studio art practice.
| Courses | Credits | Lecture Clock Hours | Lab/Studio Clock Hours | |
| ID 250 | Studio Practice | 2.0 | 15 | 30 |
| DR 200 | Life Drawing | 3.0 | 15 | 75 |
| DR 207 | Narrative & Sequential Drawing | 3.0 | 15 | 75 |
| DA 200 | Handmade to Digital | 2.0 | 15 | 30 |
| DA 202 | Photography & Reference | 2.0 | 15 | 30 |
| PR 253 | Intermediate Relief | 3.0 | 24 | 66 |
| PR 259 | Print Media | 3.0 | 24 | 66 |
| PT 202 | Painting the Figure II | 3.0 | 15 | 75 |
| PT 221 | Portrait Painting | 3.0 | 15 | 75 |
| SC 201 | Building on Sculpture Traditions | 3.0 | 15 | 75 |
| SC 203 | Figurative Open Studio | 3.0 | 15 | 75 |
| TOTAL | 30.0 | 183 | 672 |
Advanced Year
In the third-year students will focus on their area of interest within the private studio supported by faculty critics. Participation in advanced-level courses will focus each individual on their relevant studio practice helping students to develop the elements that they will need for the next stage of their creative career.
| Courses | Credits | Lecture Clock Hours | Lab/Studio Clock Hours | |
| AS 300 | Critique (6 @ 3.0 credits) | 18.0 | 48 | 540 |
| AS 305 | Professional Practices | 3.0 | 24 | 66 |
| AS 311 | Seminar: Artist as Curator | 3.0 | 15 | 75 |
| AS 315 | Developing a Major Work | 3.0 | 24 | 66 |
| AS 321 | Studio: Themes in Contemporary Art | 3.0 | 24 | 66 |
| TOTAL | 30.0 | 135 | 813 |
Graduation Requirements
PAFA grants a Certificate of Completion to students who have met the following requirements:
- Satisfactory completion of 90.0 semester credits, 2,622 clock hours.
- Achievement of a minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA.
- Fulfillment of all financial obligations, the return of PAFA property and proper maintenance of private studios.
- Completion of a portfolio consisting of documentation of their visual work.
- Participation in the Annual Student Exhibition.
A Certificate of Completion is awarded upon graduation.
Our Fine Arts Certificate program provides career training while granting access to PAFA’s collections, archives, cast hall, and fine arts library.
What Alumni Say About Their Certificate Experience
JAMES LYNES (Cert '95)
"The PAFA certificate program gave me a thorough grounding in drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpting and more than that, a fundamental understanding in art-making and process in general that has translated into all art-making in the plastic as well as the performing arts (theatre, music and dance). This has been of invaluable service to me in my nearly 30-year career in arts fundraising over which I have raised more than $100 million for multiple institutions including successful capital campaigns that helped build three major new theatres in Philadelphia and New York City.
Because of my training at PAFA, I have a deep understanding of how art is made across disciplines and have developed the facility to share this with donors, foundations, corporations and government sources, as well as the positive impact of the arts for the citizens, communities and the education of young people for cities I have lived in. And I still paint and draw and show occasionally, which greatly enriches me personally."
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PAFA is licensed through the Pennsylvania State Board of Private Licensed Schools and is a nonprofit institution accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD). Program structure and details are subject to standard academic and accreditation review and may be updated accordingly.