Vienna Academy of Fine Arts

Study fine Arts in Vienna (Wien) Austria, Study painting and sculpture to photography, video, performance and conceptual art, and also includes architecture, scenography and restoration.
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna is an institution of higher education in Vienna, Austria. Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with Five buildings covering a total area of 33,500 square metres are available at the Academy for teaching and research. All the different sections have state-of-the-art laboratories, workshops and studios. The video and the sound studio are among the best of their kind in Austria.

Today, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna almost one thousand students a variety of courses which range from painting and sculpture to photography and video, performance and conceptual art, and also includes architecture, scenography and restoration. The institutes for Art and Cultural Sciences and for Natural Sciences and Technology in the Art ensure a high theoretical standard in all the departments, through seminars and projects. Closely linked to this is the training of art teachers, which Academy of Fine Arts regard as an essential contribution to the communication of art. Th
e possibility for students to make individual choices of courses at both these institutes enables wide-ranging qualifications.

The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy by the court-painter Peter Strudl, who became the Praefectus Academiae Nostrae. In 1701 he was ennobled as Baron of the Empire. With his death in 1714, the academy temporarily closed.

On 20 January 1725, Emperor Karl VI appointed the Frenchman Jacob van Schuppen as Prefect and Director of the Academy, which was refounded as the k.k. Hofakademie der Maler, Bildhauer und Baukunst (Imperial and Royal Court
Academy of painters, sculptors and architecture). During the rule of Empress Maria Theresa, a new statute reformed the academy in 1751. The prestige of the academy grew, and in 1767 Archduchesses Charlotte Karoline and the archduchess Maria Anna were made the first Honorary Members of the Academy.

In 1772, there were further reforms to the organisational structure. Chancellor Kuntz integrated all existing art schools into the k.k. vereinigten Akademie der bildenden Künste (Imperial and Royal Unified Academy of Fine Arts). The word "vereinigten" (unified) was later dropped.

In 1872 Emperor Franz Joseph I approved a statute making the academy the supreme government authority for the arts. A new building was constructed by Theophil Freiherr von Hansen during the building of the Ringstraße. On April 1, 1877, the new building at the Schillerplatz was inaugurated, where it remains today.