Cornish College of the Arts

Cornish College of the Arts is an integral part of Seattle’s landscape, history, and future. As a hub for artists, Cornish thrives in the perfect city for an Art School. The Cornish of today is a lab for creativity and transformation, where talented students are empowered to become artists, citizens, and innovators.

The Cornish campus lives at the heart of Seattle, surrounded by theaters, museums, music venues, and galleries, connected with design firms, production companies, and creative agencies. Seattle landmarks, vast forests, mountains, and bodies of water serves as our backdrop.

The College’s founder Nellie Cornish, and the many teaching artists who followed her, believed in education through exposure to all the arts.

Our Mission:

The mission of Cornish College of the Arts is to provide students aspiring to become practicing artists with an educational program of the highest possible quality, in an environment that nurtures creativity and intellectual curiosity, while preparing them to contribute to society as artists, citizens, and innovators.

Our values:

Cornish College of the Arts is committed to the following core values:

• Providing an educational environment that offers personalized attention and acknowledges the whole person, cultivating artistic potential and individual voice.
• Supplying a rigorous and balanced arts education that encourages experimentation and innovation while providing a solid grounding in technique and craft.
• Providing a fine arts education that develops imaginative and critical thinking capacities grounded in knowledge, producing not just trained, but educated artists.
• Creating a college environment that demonstrates respect for equal opportunity for all persons and the inclusion of diversity in the curriculum and in the ranks of the student body, faculty, staff and Board of Trustees.
• Offering a faculty of practicing artists whose accomplishments serve to inspire and inform students seeking a professional career in the arts.
• Contributing meaningfully to the cultural vitality of the community.

Our City, Our Campus:

The Cornish campus locations are surrounded by theaters, museums, music venues, and galleries; iconic Seattle landmarks like the Space Needle; the national headquarters for some of the country's fast-expanding tech corporations; and, of course, many coffeehouses.

Statement of Difference + Inclusion:

Cornish College of the Arts is enriched by a diverse population of students, bringing their unique personalities and voices to their art forms. Placed in the vibrant city of Seattle, artists thrive among the wide variety of people and broad spectrum of creative thought that surrounds us. The College supports and engages the many cultural, personal, and spiritual facets of our community.

Cornish commits to demonstrating respect for individual expression and integrity; to promoting the equality of opportunity and rights of all persons within the community and to actively encouraging and maintaining the representation and inclusion of diverse cultures and backgrounds within the student body, faculty, staff and curricula.

We believe that diversity refers to a number of human qualities and characteristics. National origin, race, gender, age, socioeconomic background, religion, sexual orientation and disabilities are characteristics that combine in unique ways, forming the multiple identities we all hold. Those diverse characteristics contribute positively to the environment of Cornish and to an education that accurately reflects and contributes to the complex interplay of art, culture and society.

We hold ourselves responsible to fulfill the mission of Cornish by preparing students “to contribute to society as artists, citizens, and innovators,” and believe that the mission is best served by actively cultivating a positive environment in which to explore and express the diverse perspectives of a pluralistic society.

In addition to your transcripts, supplemental application materials including those listed below may be required.

• Recommended Minimum GPA: 2.5
• Evidence of English Proficiency*:
• TOEFL: 75;
• IELTS: 6.0;
• PTE: 54
• Essay: Artist Statement
• Portfolio or Audition: Varies by program

*English Waiver Policy - Proof of attendance in an all-English speaking school for more than five years

For additional information on admission requirements, kindly contact our admissions counsellor!