Accredited

City College, Department of Art, CUNY $$$
160 Convent Ave, New York, NY 10031
BFA and MFA programs.

Columbia University, School of the Arts $$$$$
305 Dodge Hall, MC 1808, 2960 Broadway, New York, NY 10027
MFA program.

The Cooper Union, School of Art $
Cooper Square, New York, NY 10003
BFA program.

Hunter College, Department of Art, CUNY $$$
695 Park Avenue, 11th Floor North Building, New York, NY 10021
BFA and MFA programs.

New York Academy of Art $$$$
111 Franklin Street, New York, NY 10013
MFA program.

New York Studio School $$$$
8 West 8th Street, New York, NY 10011
MFA program

New York University, Steinhardt School $$$$$
34 Stuyvesant Street, New York, NY 10003
MFA program.

Parsons The New School for Design $$$$
25 East 13th Street, New York, NY 10003
BFA and MFA programs.

Pratt Institute $$$$$
200 Willoughby Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11205
BFA and MFA programs.

Purchase College, SUNY $$$
735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY 10577
BFA and MFA programs.

Queens College, CUNY $$$
65-30 Kissena Blvd, Flushing NY 11367
BFA and MFA programs.

School of Visual Arts $$$$
209 East 23 Street, NY, NY 10010
BFA and MFA programs.

Not Accredited

The Art Students League of New York $$$
215 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019
Membership organization. Offers monthly workshop classes in drawing, painting, sculpture and printmaking.

Brooklyn Artists Gym $
168 7th Street, 3rd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11215
Artist studio and gallery facility in the Park Slope/Gowanus area of Brooklyn

National Academy School of Fine Arts $$
5 East 89th Street, New York, NY 10128
Membership organization. Confers diplomas.

The Pen and Brush $$
16 East 10th Street, New York, NY 10003
Membership organization for women.

The Reilly League of Artists $$
230 Ferris Avenue, White Plains, New York 10603
Membership organization.

Salmagundi Art Club $$
47 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10003
Membership organization.

Spring Studios $
64 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012
Studio in Soho that offers drop-in life drawing classes for $14 per session with discounts of up to 45% for pre-purchase of multiple sessions.

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(some schools offer financial aid).

Accreditation means that an independent organization has examined the institution and verified that it meets its standards. In New York State, the New York State Board of Regents is the accrediting organization. While an institution can confer diplomas without holding accreditation, such credentials are not generally recognized by other educational institutions. A degree from an accredited school is a requirement for work at public high schools, colleges and universities. For more, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_accreditation

The concept of accreditation is somewhat problematic for fine art schools. The accreditation process exists to ensure that current methodologies and best practices are being taught at the institution. In the practical arts – math, science, letters – there exists a generally recognized body of material that is to be taught. This is not so much the case for the fine arts, as the process of making art does not readily lend itself to measurement. For example, Mark Rothko, John Singer Sargent and Pablo Picasso are all recognized as masterful fine artists, yet finding a common basis to measure their ability would be difficult if not impossible.

Further, the way secondary education has developed in the United States – private, non-profit institutions supported by a hodge-podge of federal, state and private programs as well as federally guaranteed loans and grants – inflates the cost of an art education. Fine art is demanding of the art student’s time yet not so much of other resources; most courses of study in the sciences and liberal arts are the opposite – a fixed body of knowledge which can be acquired within a predictable span of time. Contrarily, for art is difficult to predict how each individual student will develop over the short course of two or three years and at what point in time they will succeed in mastering the skills required to be considered a fine artist.