Chrysean Academy of Fine Arts
The Chrysean Academy of Fine Arts is a art school located in Chryse, capital of the Benacian Union. It was first established in 1724 AN under the auspices of the Guild of Academicians with the remit to perpetuate, preserve, and promote the Benacian Academy style of art which had become the hallmark of official culture in the Union-State in the years after its foundation. The inaugural rector of the academy would be Albrecht Dalle, an artist of Whales who had flourished in the Harmonious Society of Benacia.
The academy has been developed to offer a wide range of programmes for aspiring artists in fields such as painting, sculpture, graphics and printmaking, fine arts education, conservation and restoration, and stage design. Students can pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees accredited with the Benacian Academy, as well as participate in various workshops and courses.
In addition to providing high-quality art education, the academy is also intended to house a museum and gallery that will showcase works by its students and alumni.
Facilities and Campus
The academy is housed in a grand Neoclassical edifice located in the artistic district of Chryse, near the banks of the Aureate River. The main building features the Grand Gallery, a vast skylit atrium which displays some of the academy's most prized works and serves as the ceremonial heart of the institution.
Surrounding the Grand Gallery are studios, workshops, lecture halls and other instructional spaces outfitted with the finest materials and equipment. The academy's sculpture courtyard allows students to work on their pieces under the open sky, while a quartet of atriums provide naturally-lit painting studios.
The campus also includes official apartments for senior faculty members, dormitories for students, a research library, private apartments where visiting masters can reside, and gardens modeled after the classical landscapes that have inspired generations of Benacian artists.
Curriculum and Specialty Programmes
In keeping with its mandate to uphold the Benacian Academy tradition, which blends qualities of Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Neo-Babkhan Orientalism and Humanist Realism, the core curriculum emphasises the mastery of perspective, anatomy, composition, color theory and other fundamental techniques.
The fresco painting programme is particularly renowned, with students learning the complex craft of painting with freshly laid lime plaster on recreations of monumental chapel ceilings and apse walls. The academy's stage design courses are highly sought after, teaching skills for opera, drama and ceremonial pageantry productions.
For graduate students, there are advanced studies available in art scholarship, conservation science, arts administration and pedagogical training to become accredited instructors themselves. Summer workshops bring in distinguished visiting artists to lead intensive masterclasses.
As a bastion of tradition, the academy maintains a conservative aesthetic outlook, steering clear of modern avant-garde movements in favour of upholding and refining the established Benacian Academy style.
