15 Summer Art Programs for High School Students
- Stephen Turban
- 30 minutes ago
- 10 min read
If art is something you want to explore, high school is a good time to take it seriously. Summer art programs are designed for students who want focused time to create and explore the academic aspects of the subject. They bridge school and college and give you space to understand what sustained creative work looks like.
Why should I participate in a summer art program in high school?
You will work in studios, design spaces, and group critique settings where your work is discussed and refined. University and institute programs often follow a clear framework that includes project briefs, revisions, and instructor feedback, helping you understand expectations in formal art education. These programs also help you decide your future academic and career direction. An art program gives you a sense of what studying art involves and whether it fits your goals. At the same time, it strengthens your college applications by showing consistent interest in art and effort.
With that, here are 15 summer art programs for high school students worth exploring!
Location: Virtual
Cost:Â Varies; financial assistance offered
Dates:Â Multiple sessions, including summer, spring, fall, and winter cohorts, are scheduled each year
Application deadline:Â Varies by cohort
Eligibility:Â High school students; accepted students typically have an unweighted GPA of 3.3 out of 4.0
The Lumiere Research Scholar Program is a rigorous 12-week program for high school students interested in developing their research skills. As a participant, you can explore a broad range of subject areas, including psychology, economics, data science, computer science, chemistry, international relations, and more. The program will pair you with a Ph.D. mentor to work one-on-one on an independent research project. At the end of the program, you'll have developed an independent research paper that you will present at the symposium. For more application-related details, please visit this link.
Location:Â Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), New York, NY
Stipend:Â $16.50/hour (Artslife) | RECESS also awards stipends (amount not specified)
Dates: Artslife: July – August | RECESS I: February 18 – 21 | RECESS II: April 15 – 18
Application deadline:Â Artslife: April 21 | RECESS: January 12
Eligibility: Artslife: Rising high school sophomores and juniors in NYC | RECESS I and II: Students, ages 13 – 18, in NYCÂ
The Museum of Arts and Design runs two teen internship programs that place you inside a working museum. One is Artslife, a six-week summer internship where you learn how a museum runs. You rotate through teams like curatorial, education, communications, visitor services, and development. After orientation and team building, you spend most of the time working on group art and design projects with museum staff and professionals. The second program is RECESS. It is shorter and paid, usually for one week. Here, the focus is on how museums talk to young audiences and how exhibitions are explained to the public.
Location: London, New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo
Cost: Varies according to program. Financial aid available
Dates: 2 weeks during the summer
Application deadline: Multiple summer cohorts with rolling admissions
Eligibility: High school students aged 15-18
Immerse Education’s Career Insights Program lets you explore creative career pathways through its Fine and Digital Art Track, with an emphasis on how artistic practice connects to real industries. You will examine how fine art, digital design, and creative problem-solving function in professional settings. You take part in project-based learning alongside interactive workshops and visits to working environments such as studios, offices, and creative hubs shaped by the local industry. Weekly career coaching gives you direct feedback on your resume, academic direction, and longer-term goals. The program concludes with a final presentation, where you synthesize what you have learned and articulate how your view of creative careers has changed. You can find more details about the application here!
Location: Spelman College, Atlanta, GA
Cost: None
Dates: June 20 – July 17
Application deadline: April 1
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors and seniors
Spelman College runs a four-week summer program for high school juniors and seniors who are curious about art, museums, and how exhibitions are made. You will take an undergraduate course called Ways of Seeing: Art History, Curating, and Museums. In the class, you study African American art and Western art and look at how history, culture, and institutions shape the way art is shown and understood. You spend time on the Spelman College campus, around the Atlanta University Center, and inside the High Museum of Art. You work on exhibition-based projects, study artworks closely, use sources, and learn how curators decide what the public sees and how they explain it.
Location: Tyler studios at Temple University
Cost: Varies by program; full/partial scholarships available for select programsÂ
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Moderately selective; typically 12 – 18 students per class section
Dates: Various two-week sessions in July
Application deadline: Rolling admissions
Eligibility: High school students entering grades 10–12
Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture runs pre-college summer programs where you actually work inside studios, not just sit in lectures. You will learn from practicing artists, designers, and architects who teach you the basics of how studio work happens. The programs are usually two weeks long, and you choose workshops in areas like painting, printmaking, architecture, or design. Your day is split into morning and afternoon sessions, so you get time to try more than one medium. If you are serious about college applications, you can join the Portfolio Bootcamp. This is more intense and focuses heavily on observational drawing and finishing strong pieces you can submit with applications. If you live in or around Philadelphia, there is also the Creative Scholars Program.
Location: Yale University, New Haven, CT
Cost: Varies; financial assistance is available
Dates: Session A: May 25 – June 26; Session B: June 29 – July 31
Application deadline: April 3
Eligibility: Current high school juniors or seniors who are 16 years of age or older by the program’s start date
Yale Summer Session lets you take real undergraduate art and design classes at Yale. You study in Yale studios and classrooms and follow the same structure as Yale College students. Courses include Visual Thinking, Basic Drawing, Painting Basics, Digital Photography, and Interactive Design. You learn by doing. You attend lectures, work on projects, and sit through critiques. You build skills like composition, color, and visual analysis. The workload is serious, and you are expected to perform at a college level, not like a summer hobby course.
Location: Moore College campus, PA
Cost: $6,755; financial aid is available
Dates: July 12 – August 7
Application deadline: May 1
Eligibility: U.S. high school students in grades 10 – 12; English proficiency requirements apply for international students
Moore College of Art and Design runs a four-week summer program where you live on campus and spend most of your time inside studios. You will work in areas like illustration, animation, painting, photography, and graphic design. You make your own work, watch demos, sit through critiques, and learn directly from faculty who push you to improve your technique. By the end, you walk away with pieces you can actually use in a portfolio. Outside the studio, you go around Philadelphia for field trips, film screenings, and visits linked to art and design work in the real world. You also spend time in museums and cultural spaces, which helps you see where your work fits in history and where it stands today.
Location: Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Cost: Residential: $12,495; Commuter: $9,595 + $60 application fee (non-refundable) + additional costs apply; limited needs-based scholarships are available
Dates: June 27 – August 1
Application deadline: January 30
Eligibility: 10th and 11th graders between 16 and 18 years old
RISD’s Pre-College Program is a five-week residential experience structured to closely resemble a full undergraduate semester at the school. High school students participate in intensive, day-long courses that include a major studio, a drawing course, and a design class, all taught by RISD faculty. Coursework is focused on experimentation, material exploration, and conceptual problem-solving across fine arts, design, and architecture. Regular critiques and ongoing projects mirror the expectations placed on RISD undergraduates, helping you adapt to the rigor of a college art environment. The summer art program for high school students also includes museum visits, artist talks, and access to campus studios and fabrication facilities.Â
Location: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Cost: 6 Weeks: Residential - $12,204; Commuter - $9,039 | 3 Weeks: Residential - $7,945 and Commuter - $6,184 + Application Fee: $50; need-based financial aid and merit scholarships are available
Dates: 3 Week: June 20 – July 11; 6 Week: June 20 – August 1
Application deadline: April 15
Eligibility: Students must be 16 years old by June 20 and between 10th and 11th grade, or 11th and 12th grade
The Carnegie Mellon Pre-College School of Art puts you inside a real studio setting, not a classroom pretending to be one. You will work across four areas: electronic and time-based work, sculpture and installation, drawing and photography, and social practice. Alongside basic skills like drawing and animation, you spend a lot of time in the Concept Studio, where the focus is on ideas, problem-solving, and how contemporary art actually thinks, not just how it looks. During the program at Carnegie Mellon University, you make large-scale work, use tools like laser cutters, face serious faculty critiques, and end with a gallery exhibition of your work. You live on campus and work like an artist in residence.
Location: Online or Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Cost: Varies as per format; need-based financial aid is available
Dates: Varies by course and format (typically, June to August)Â
Application deadline: Varies as per course and format
Eligibility: Online: Students between 15 – 19 years | Residential: Students between 16 – 18 years | Commuter: Students between 16 – 19 years
Cornell’s Art Summer Program lets you take real, credit-bearing studio classes while you are still in high school. You will work in areas like drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, print media, and digital or experimental art. Some courses, like Art as Experience, let you try many forms at once, from collage and digital photography to video and installation. Alongside making work, you read, sit in critiques, and listen to guest artists so your studio practice connects to how contemporary art is discussed and understood. In the TransMedia studio, you work directly with tools like cameras, audio recorders, physical computing boards, and editing software. Other classes stay more focused on materials and technique, but you are still expected to develop your own ideas.
Location:Â Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
Cost:Â $2,500 (includes three college credits, housing, meals, and supplies)
Dates: Session 1: June 14 – 26 | Session 2: July 19 – 31
Application deadline:Â March 1 (scholarship application deadline and priority studio placement cut-off); applications accepted until program is full
Eligibility:Â High school students
Pre-College ArtLab at the Kansas City Art Institute is a two-week residential program that allows high school students to earn three college credits while engaging in studio work. You can select one studio concentration, choosing from options such as Animation, Illustration, Ceramics, Painting, Interdisciplinary Studies, or 2D+3D Design, depending on session availability. In addition to focused studio instruction, the program includes coursework in areas like art history and life drawing to support broader visual understanding. You work in shared studio spaces under the guidance of professional artist-instructors who model college-level expectations.
Location: Online
Cost: $1,908 for the half-day course, $3,816 for the full-day course; merit scholarships or need-based financial aid are available
Dates: June 15 – 26
Application deadline: Typically, until the classes begin
Eligibility: High school students who have completed their sophomore year and are between the ages of 15 and 18Â
SAIC’s Early College Program Online Summer Institute lets you study art and design at a college level without leaving home. You will take online classes in areas like drawing, painting, animation, architecture, fashion, and graphic design, taught by faculty from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The classes are live and interactive. You watch demos, take part in critiques, and meet instructors for feedback. The work is serious and contemporary. Depending on the course, you use traditional materials, digital tools, or both. You complete multiple projects over the summer, build portfolio-ready pieces, and in some classes, you can earn college credit.
Location: NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York City, NY
Cost: $7,360
Dates: July 6–August 2
Application deadline: Financial Aid & International Students: February 15; Regular Decision: March 1
Eligibility: High school students currently enrolled in grades 9–11
New York University Steinhardt’s High School Summer Art Intensive is a four-week residential program that places you in a real art school setting. You will study digital art, painting, and sculpture, balancing structured classes with open studio time to develop your own work. Taught by NYU faculty, the program emphasizes technical skill, artistic voice, and portfolio development. You also explore New York’s contemporary art scene through museum and studio visits while living on campus near Washington Square Park.
Location: UCLA Department of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Cost: Commuter (Session B.2, July 7–18): $3,200–$4,000 tuition + materials; Residential (Session B.1, July 6–19): $4,508 (includes UCLA housing)
Dates: July 7 – July 18
Application deadline: Session B.1 (Residential): June 6; Session B.2 (Commuter): June 13; (Rolling admissions starting February 15); Enrollment Deadline: Session B.1: June 27; Session B.2: July 4
Eligibility: Grades 9–12 (minimum age 15 years old; residential option only for age 17+); cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher
University of California, Los Angeles’s Summer Art Institute is a two-week intensive program where you study college-level studio art with faculty who are working artists. You choose a focus in drawing, painting, photography, or sculpture and spend each day in hands-on studio work supported by artist talks, critiques, and individual feedback. The program is open to all skill levels and emphasizes experimentation alongside technical and conceptual development. You earn three units of undergraduate college credit upon completion and have full access to UCLA art facilities, professional materials, and a collaborative studio environment designed to help you produce portfolio-ready work.
Location: Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA
Cost: $5,500–$7,000 for full-day program (Specialization + Drawing course; varies by specialization); residential housing available at additional cost; scholarship and early registration discounts available
Dates: July 6–31 (four weeks, Monday–Friday)
Application deadline: International Student: May 14; Final: June 23
Eligibility: High school students and young creatives ages 14.5–19
Otis College of Art and Design’s Summer of Art is a four-week pre-college program that places you in college-level studio art and design courses in Los Angeles. You will choose a specialization such as animation, illustration, graphic design, painting, ceramics, or interdisciplinary studies and pair it with a drawing studio to build both focus and fundamentals. Classes are taught by practicing artists and designers and center on hands-on work, critique, and experimentation. Full-day students earn three transferable college credits, and the program ends with a final exhibition where your work is shown in a professional gallery.
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a Ph.D. student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program in which students work one-on-one with a mentor to develop an independent research paper.
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