History

The Art Department was created in 2009 by founders of the award-winning Illustration Academy and leading art education portal Conceptart.org.  For the past 15 years, the Illustration Academy has taken a unique approach to training professional illustrators by creating a summer program where artists are immersed in learning for weeks with some of the most acclaimed illustrators in the industry today.

Conceptart.org, founded in 2000 by a group of entertainment design professionals as a way to share artwork and help each other grow online, is now a leading art education portal in arts and entertainment. Conceptart.org has also hosted numerous international art and design workshops so that members all around the world can together in-person for immersive educational experiences.

Calling upon all the lessons learned in creating ConceptArt.Org and The Illustration Academy, the two organizations merged to forge an invaluable partnership, and The Art Department was born.

Experience

TAD Faculty include two Hall of Fame members and four Hamilton King winners from the Society of Illustrators.

TAD Faculty have been awarded a total of 64 medals from the Society of Illustrators, receiving more awards from the organization than the top ten illustration programs combined.

TAD’s entertainment design faculty have created for hundreds of the big blockbuster feature films, hit video games, toys, graphic novels and internet industries.

TAD has created and produced educational events for more than 8000 attendees from over 400 companies in Amsterdam, Bucharest, Austin, Berlin, Montreal, Prague, Seattle, San Francisco and New Zealand.

TAD is the exclusive partner of Conceptart.org, an online community and social network of international artists with 200,000 members, 3,000,000 works of art, and 4000 companies working in arts and entertainment.