Art & Architecture: Summer at Penn | Ages 15-18

• 4-week program
• Residential and day sessions
• Campus life at the University of Pennsylvania
• Full academic details
• Choice of Saturday trips

Explore the Arts and Architecture

The University of Pennsylvania School of Design offers a four-week art and architecture summer program for high school students. Art students choose major courses and two-week project minors. Architecture students follow a full-day studio intensive every day and do not study a minor. This pre-college program, prepares students for college admissions as you experience college life and create your digital portfolio.

Courses include:

• Animation

• Architecture

• Ceramic Wheel Throwing

• Digital Photography

• Drawing 

• Experimental Photography

• Figure Drawing

• Filmmaking

• Graphic Design

• Movie Screenings & Film Analysis

• Painting

• Photography

• Printmaking & Book Arts

• Sculpture

• Screenwriting

• Web Design

Improve your portfolio and your artistic skills

Working with Penn faculty and students from around the world, you will experiment with different disciplines, learn new skills and build your portfolio. The curriculum is taken from regular Penn courses and is sequenced and paced for the age and experience of the students. Classes are small to encourage close interaction between teachers and students.

All student work is displayed in a final exhibition which takes place on the last Friday of the session.

Your choice of Saturday trips

Two trips are offered each Saturday. You chose one. We leave after breakfast and return in the evening. See Weekend Trips and Destinations for this summer’s schedule, subject to change.

For full course descriptions visit The University of Pennsylvania School of Design site.  

Architecture Majors

• Express your personal ideas as you go from basic architectural design process to hand drawing to creating digital models. Plus, you'll go beyond design and look into future career opportunities and what is means to be an architect. With a limited number of students per studio, you'll receive 1:1 personal attention from Penn faculty every day. Working alongside a diverse mix of international students, you'll use Philadelphia's architectural icons as inspiration and produce your own digital portfolio. Students study this major for the full day and will not take a minor.  An additional two-week internship may be added to this course to round out your summer experience.  

Art Majors

• Animation - The animation major focuses on the fundamentals of analogue and digital animation. Explore a variety of mediums as you learn the core principles of animation including hand-drawn, stop-motion, 2D and 3D animation. Projects are designed to enrich individual techniques while discovering the intricacies of collaboration. Adobe AfterEffects, Photoshop, Flash, and Maya are present on all student workstations. Students take home a DVD of their completed animated work. The University of Pennsylvania animation graduates have worked on eight Oscar nominated animated films including A Bug’s Life, Toy Story I and II, and Monster House.

• Drawing - An exploration of the techniques, materials and processes used in creating two-dimensional art. Working primarily from observation, students will study a wide range of concepts in order to reinforce their perceptive and descriptive drawing skills. This studio class will include materials such as charcoal, graphite, pastels, and ink. Attention is paid to the development of the eye and the mind, as well as the hand. In addition to drawing landscapes and still-lifes, students may study the analytical and emotive approaches to depicting the human form. Note that the nude model is occasionally used in this class as is appropriate to the study of anatomy and structure and function.

• Filmmaking - Learn digital filmmaking tools and processes from production planning to scriptwriting to storyboarding.  Then, shoot and edit your film while learning from full time University of Pennsylvania instructors. We provide a balanced presentation of theory, technical skills, and practice, while developing your visual vocabulary, representation strategies and genres, and point of view.  Students work in the Final Cut Pro digital video editing lab in Addams Hall and use MacPro dual processor workstations, Sony VX2000, VX2100, HC7 video cameras, Lowell light kits, and Sennheiser microphones. All levels welcome. 

• Painting - The painting major studio focuses on oil painting. Students work from direct observation of still lives, the figure, nature, and from the imagination. A basic knowledge of materials and a repertoire of techniques and methods will be offered. The small size of the class will enable individualization within the course with each student working at his or her level of painting experience. Students are able to enjoy open studio time after class and in the evenings.

• Photography – Students move from basic black and white photography to more advanced large format photography. Discover the properties of color through the processing and printing of their own color photographs. Photography students work in Addams hall which houses three analog darkrooms, two Mac labs, print finishing room, film processing area, and shooting studio. 

• Sculpture - Discover your three-dimensional creative potential in the University of Pennsylvania’s state of the art wood, metal and CNC shops and ceramic studios. Sculpture students work with assemblage, additive and substractive construction, modules, hand-building, slip-casting and wheel-throwing techniques, along with surface treatments such as paint, varnish, wax, varied embellishments, high fire glaze processes, china paints, and luster firing. In addition, slide lectures, field trips, critiques, and exhibitions will support student’s artistic experience. All levels welcome.

• Screenwriting - Have a great idea for a movie but don't know where to begin?  This workshop-style course focuses on the basic tenets of classical dramatic structure. By the end of the course, students will have parts of their screenplay written, but be equipped with the tools to continue it when they return home.  Plus, students will become acquainted with the business of selling and producing one's screenplay. Some scenes from your screenplay will be filmed by the filmmaking students for a complete "script to screen" experience. 

Art Minors

• Ceramic Wheel Throwing – The clay wheel class take place in Penn’s beautiful clay studios. Under a view of the Philadelphia skyline students will develop wheel throwing skills while crafting vessels and sculptures. Stoneware, earthenware and porcelain clay bodies are available as is a comprehensive stock of glazes. The clay studios include two throwing rooms, one handbuilding room with a slab roller, extruder, Fordhams, work tables, and a kiln room with five electric and gas kilns and a glaze mixing area. In addition to the instructor, the University’s ceramics technician oversees all the chemistry and the kiln firings.

• Digital Photography I - This course offers a brief introduction to digital photography. Both “point & shoot” and digital manual SLR cameras will be covered.  Working with Penn faculty, you'll understand the relationship between traditional photographic practice and digital image making. Methods of image input and output, basic color management and workflow will be covered. Photoshop CS5 will be our primary program as we work toward making a small portfolio of both B/W and color digital prints.

• Digital Photography II (for advanced students) – Take your levels to new heights with the advance photography course.  Students applying to this minor must submit a portfolio of current work and be fluent in Photoshop.  

• Experimental Photography - Explore alternative chemistries, large scale mural printing, large format photography and unconventional ways of using photography. Create works of art as you experiment with all photography's possibilities. Plus, you'll have access to the analog labs and equipment.

• Figure Drawing - Figure drawing students begin to understand the human form, that most quintessential of forms in art history, by studying and working directly from the nude model. The focus is on articulation through an understanding of anatomical structure and function. Students will investigate a broad variety of drawing techniques and materials. The model will be used as the sole element in composition and as a contextualized element. Parental permission is needed for students to enroll in this class.

• Graphic Design - The graphic design class introduces students to print media and visual communication.  Discover the foundation concepts of composition, typography and image manipulation. Graphic Design projects include personal identity packages, CD covers/inserts, poster design, packaging design, zenes or book covers. You'll leave the course with a great start on your digital portfolio.

• Movie Screenings & Film Analysis – Offered on Monday, Tuesday & Thursday evening, students will view a wide variety of film genres followed by dynamic discussion lead by Penn's film faculty.   

• Printmaking & Book Arts - Working in Penn's printmaking shop, you'll have all the equipment needed to create custom prints. The shop has presses and equipment for intaglio, etching, serigraphy, letterpress, and digital printing. Printmaking projects include small editions of prints, a collected folio, mixed media prints, screenprints, broadsides, chapbooks or posters. Combining the prints with book craft produce actual bound texts, non-traditional books, and unbound collections of work in traditional and non-traditional formats.

• Web Design - The web design minor class offers an introduction to creating and designing websites. Whether you have built many website before or you are just beginning, we'll take your skills to another level.  Our web design faculty will help you learn the tools to create and build interactive websites in a 20-station computer lab. The course focuses on Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop and Illustrator.

Architecture Internship

For students enrolled in the Architecture Major, a two-week internship may be added to your summer at Penn. You'll be placed in one of Philadelphia's top architectural firms and work hands-on alongside an architect. Explore the possibilities of a career in architecture through this rewarding, yet practical, look into the industry. From planning and design to construction and project management you'll get a glimpse of what a career in architecture really means. You'll be giving yourself a competitive edge with real job experience that will boost your resume and future college applications. Positions are available to a limited number of rising high school seniors immediately following the Architecture program.  

University of Pennsylvania Faculty

Students enrolled in Art & Architecture learn from world-renown faculty from Penn's School of Design. Full faculty bios.     

• Ellen Reynolds – Filmmaking & Video 

• Ivanco Talevski – Figure Drawing & Printmaking

• Deirdre Murphy – Painting

• Matt Courtney – Sculpture & Cermaics

• Matt Neff – Drawing & Printmaking

• Alexandria Schmidt-Ullrich – Architecture

• Julie Saecker Schneider – Drawing & Painting

• Erinn Hagerty – Lecturer, Animation, Graphic & Web Design

• Karen Rodewald – Photography

Art & Architecture Dates

Art & Architecture Tuition

Application Fee: $75

Architecture Internship Dates

Architecture Internship Tuition