The idea of establishing an art academy in Lviv arose more than 100 years ago, and this educational institution, which represents one of the most interesting sectors of higher education in Ukraine, namely, the professional training of creative individuals in the field of figurative, decorative, and applied arts, design, restoration, culture and art studies, and art management, upholds the best traditions and achievements of art education established in Lviv in the mid-19th century.
The history of art education is associated with the Art and Commerce School (1876), the Free Academy of Arts (1905), the Oleksa Novakivsky Art School (1923), and other institutions of higher learning. Among the alumni, and later teachers, of these art institutions were such prominent artists of European renown as Ivan Trush, Yosyp Kurylas, Anton Monastyrsky, Olena Kulchytska, Hryhorii Smolsky, Sviatoslav Hordynsky, and many others.
This art institution was opened in Lviv in 1946 to meet Ukraine’s need for specialists in decorative, applied, and figurative art. Such academic departments as painted textiles and ceramics, wood, sculpture, and painting have been playing a leading role for many years. Closely tied with the traditions of folk art, at the same time they have continued to incorporate the achievements of European art and artistic education.
Among those who played a major role in shaping the academy were such well-known Ukrainian educators, artists, and art theoreticians as I. Bokshai, I. Severa, R. Smolsky, V. Monastyrsky, K. Zvirynsky, M. Fediuk, P. Zholtovsky, and others, who were the first to found their own schools of painting, sculpture, decorative and applied arts, set design, and the history and theory of art. Today, educational studios (art classes) taught by leading professors are still playing a crucial role as a unique art education structural form of teaching. The fact that the academy offers both professional and spiritual training to artists worthy of public acclaim is borne out by statistics: 21 graduates of the academy have won the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine.
But time requires innovations, and today the academy offers specialties that meet contemporary challenges, such as exclusive trends in graphic design, artistic methods of advertising, monumental painting, artistic metal design, interior design, furniture design, new types of ceramic art, stained glass, and painted textiles. The exhibition organized by the faculty and students in honor of the academy’s jubilee stunned everyone with its sheer size: about 600 works were displayed on the three floors of the fine arts palace. The exhibit began with works of decorative and applied art, the academy’s specialty, and the sphere of its greatest achievements. At the same time classical works were by no means underrepresented. The high level of art that the academy continues to produce is unquestioned.
