Southwest School of Art

The Southwest School of Art & Craft is a nationally-recognized leader in arts education, offering studio programs for more than 4000 adults, children and teens annually. Classes and workshops are taught by outstanding local, regional and national artists in state-of-the-art facilities; the school offers a certificate program for professional artists and craftspersons. The school also organizes contemporary art exhibitions, lectures, and concerts, as well as houses a history-based Visitors Center Museum , a Gallery Shop, and a lunch café. During a typical year, more than 225,000 people attend events, view exhibits, take classes or visit historic site. Located on two adjacent campuses, the school’s Ursuline Campus is the former home of the Ursuline Academy & Convent, originally founded in 1851 as the first school for girls in San Antonio. On this campus are the school’s extensive ceramics and weaving studios, its Young Artist Program area, and the tranquil gardens, arching pecan trees, and historic buildings that make the school San Antonio ’s “downtown oasis.” The Navarro Campus is the site of the school’s contemporary exhibition galleries and its high-tech classrooms and studios for photography, metals, printmaking, digital imaging, paper and book arts, as well as drawing and painting. Reflecting our long-standing role as a core San Antonio arts institution, our Mobile Arts Program disperses artist-teachers to more than 60 schools and social service agencies during the year, giving local children hands-on learning in fine art and traditional craft media; attendance in this program exceeds 40,000 annually.