About
Welcome to the Kansas City Art Institute. We’re glad you are here. We’d like to get to know you and work with you to create a personal path for your future.
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AboutAbout KCAI
KCAI provides a rigorous, diverse curriculum and an immersive studio experience for students who are passionate about the realization of their ideas. Of all the schools you’ll explore, we’re confident that none offers more personal guidance, artistic tools and resources, or opportunities for creative stimulation than you’ll find here.
We invite you to schedule a visit soon.
Our Purpose
Mission
Our mission is to educate artists and designers while honoring the distinct journeys of students. We forge a vibrant community that equips them to become leaders who leverage the creative process to transform the future.
Vision
Our vision is to be a regionally preeminent and nationally acclaimed leader in art and design education known for preparing artists and designers for sustainable and transformative futures.
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13 Majors Offered in B.F.A Program
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200 Yards from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
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100% of faculty are practicing artists, designers, & scholars
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9:1 Student-Teacher ratio
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16 Acre Campus
A Studio Between Two Showrooms
No question, the Kansas City Art Institute has the most beautiful, visually inspiring campus of any art and design school in the country. But that isn’t the reason that ambitious artists should insist on coming here. The real motive is more fundamental. It’s about fashioning an idea into matter. KCAI is, above all, a makers’ school.
Our faculty recognizes the need for all tools – traditional and digital – to facilitate the teaching and creative process of making. We know students still want to learn how to make things, and KCAI offers exceptional resources for both handcrafting and digital production, including a woodworking shop, kilns, and individual studios to facilitate physical construction, along with a state-of-the-art digital studio in the center of campus that houses highly sophisticated, 21st-century instruments, such as 3-D printers, a digital loom, and CNC routers.
Finally, it’s an enormous advantage that KCAI is uniquely situated between two exceptional art galleries—a world-class encyclopedic museum and a renowned contemporary art museum. Here, students can intimately experience the latest trends in contemporary art on one side of campus and collections of Impressionist paintings or ancient Chinese sculptures on the other.
KCAI is literally a studio between two showrooms—a place where passionate students can learn to transform powerful concepts into works worthy of notice, even acclaim.
We welcome you to the one-of-a-kind KCAI learning experience.
Campus Culture
In 1885, an enterprising group of Kansas Citians with a mutual appreciation for art formed a Sketch Club. They had no idea this Sketch Club would lay the groundwork for an institution that would become a distinguished four-year college of art and design.
Kansas City
A metropolitan city with a population of about two million people, Kansas City is an intersection of arts, culture, innovation and imagination. Kansas City’s ideal location in the heart of the country makes it a thriving national hub for arts and culture.
Our People
Faculty, staff and trustees at the Kansas City Art Institute are all dedicated to students’ success and want to help you thrive here.
Our Commitment: I.D.E.A.S.
We at the Kansas City Art Institute recognize that a plurality of voices and perspectives is crucial in providing educational excellence that develops visionary creators, artists and global citizens.
Corporate Partnerships
By participating in a Sponsored Studio, your company will be recognized as an official KCAI sponsor and will gain a unique creative perspective on your business challenge.