The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is the birthplace of American art and an incubator for artistic expression. As the country’s first fine arts school and museum, PAFA trains many great artists and is home to one of the most important collections of American art anywhere.

Several years after our original redesign, which had information about both the museum and the school rolled into one website, PAFA decided to split them into two separate sites. For this project we completely redesigned the school website from the ground up. Both faculty members and students alike felt that their existing site wasn’t properly communicating to prospective new students. They were being seen as being a stuffy, old and boring institution when in reality they are the birthplace of American art and an incubator for artistic expression.

The new design invites the prospective student (or parent) to experience what’s behind the pristine veneer of the museum — to walk the paint-splattered halls and see the freedom of expression first hand.