Watkins Institute

Watkins College of Art, Design & Film

Watkins College main entrance
Type	Private
Established	1885
President	Joseph Kline, Ph.D.
Students	400+
Location	Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Campus	Urban
Website	watkins.edu

Watkins College of Art, Design & Film is a four-year art and design college located in Nashville, Tennessee.

Watkins College offers Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degrees in film, graphic design, interior design, fine arts, and photography as well as post-graduate certificates in film and graphic design. As of 2005, about 400 students were enrolled, mostly full-time. The college resides in a 60,000-square-foot (5,600 m²) facility in the MetroCenter area of north Nashville and offers limited on-campus housing.

The Community Education Program serves students age four to adult through the Young Artist Program, the Adult Community Education Program, the Artist Lecture Series, and various outreach programs. Classes run on a semester basis: Fall, Spring, and Summer.

Watkins was founded as Watkins Institute in 1885 by Samuel Watkins, a self-educated Nashville businessman. The school became nationally accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) in 1996. Watkins is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD). First located on Church Street in downtown Nashville, the school moved to temporary facilities in the 100 Oaks area in 1999, and then to its current location in 2002. Watkins opened its first residence hall in 2005 and its second one in Fall 2008.

The Adult Community Education (ACE) Program offers classes for beginning students to advanced artists. The classes meet once a week for nine consecutive weeks. Classes in the classic arts such as photography, drawing, painting, and figure study are offered. ACE also offers specialty courses such as Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, furniture building and screenwriting. In addition to the nine week courses, smaller focused workshops are offered throughout the semester. These could be one day or last up to six weeks. Workshops cover such subjects as jewelry making, custom framing, tile mosaics, and silk-screening. These workshops change every semester with requests and needs of the community.

The staff of artists/instructors in the Young Artists and Teen Program is dedicated to continuing the legacy of Watkins College by providing the finest studio art instructional experiences to all students. The Young Artist Program (YAP) serves students ages 4–18. During the Fall and Spring semesters YAP offers Saturday morning classes that last for six consecutive weeks. A Spring Break program is also available which coincides with Metro Nashville Public School’s Spring Break. In the summer YAP presents five weeks of half day or full day classes for students in the Summer of the Arts program. Classes for ages 4–13 include cartooning, ceramics, drawing, and painting as well as more focused subjects such as kinetic art or learning about art through art history. For teens classes are focused specifically for portfolio-building needs and include filmmaking, photography, drawing, painting, digital arts and more.