Support our Artists and Programs
The Grand Central Atelier is an independent, not-for-profit (501c3) atelier, with an international reputation for training artists in an aesthetic sensibility and method rooted in the Renaissance tradition.
Annually, over 500 students study in our studio in Queens, with over 50 in our highly selective four-year Core Program. The Core Program consistently produces the world’s most skilled contemporary realist painters, draftsmen and sculptors. To support our growing community of working artists, we have established a robust online program, and we sponsor artistic residencies for graduates, fellowships open to the public, exhibitions, and lectures.
Grand Central Atelier (GCA) first sprang from a group of visionary artists who gathered in Jacob Collins’ studio in the 1990’s. Collectively, they worked out an aesthetic sensibility and method rooted in the Renaissance tradition. What began as a four person group in Collins’ Brooklyn studio has outgrown its housing four times now.
GCA has quickly matured into an institution capable of considerable impact. Students now compete from across the world to partake in GCA’s evolving curriculum. It is a study and practice centered on rendering the way natural light illuminates the form of a single subject. The monastic quality to life as a GCA student is echoed by a refrain heard in our studios: to practice art this way is to learn how to truly see.
Our studios are currently based in the Box Factory in Ridgewood, Queens. We also host an annual landscape painting fellowship in Northwest Connecticut at the Hotchkiss School and we also offer opportunities for study online.
Will you consider joining the unbroken 600 year old tradition of patronage to ensure that traditional fine art instruction remains available to aspiring artists? Click here to support.
Why I Support GCA
I am fascinated by observing the artistic process in young artists who are full of ambition, experimentation and passion for their work. To be able to offer scholarships to international students who can now come to the US and study at our premier school may be their dream come true. It is my privilege to help some of these students along financially and serve as a patron while they are here.
– David Boger
Spotlight on Artist & Alum Anthony Baus (click image to read)
Anthony’s exquisite technique, mastery of architectural perspective as well as his boundless imagination have produced a series of drawings evoking wondrous urban landscapes that appear both real and dreamlike. While these drawings were made on location of landmark buildings Anthony has also infused his compositions with conceptual figures drawn from both antiquity as well as the fashions of the present. The many details of these drawings must be seen in person to be fully appreciated.
“When I’m drawing my aim is to be in a constant state of wonder” Anthony has said of his process. Seeing his art in person is an opportunity for all of us to share in that wonder.
-Interviewed by Michael Fetherston, alum
After studying, teaching, and creating work in NYC, Anthony has returned to his home state of Wisconsin with his family. He still returns annually to teach in our core program.
The Best Four Years of my Life
As students, we learn through instruction but also through observing masters at work in their trade . . . the composing, framing, promoting and selling of their art. These and a host of other professional concerns are not traditionally taught in the academy or art school. At GCA, these lessons are an invaluable pragmatic skill set for today’s working artists.
– Ananda Fetherston, Alumni & Instructor