Shorelight Group - Cornish College Of The Arts Seattle USA 2025

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.

Historic Cornish

Begun in 1914, Cornish College of the Arts offers Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in the performing and visual arts and a Bachelor of Music degree, along with year-round public programs and extension courses.

The College’s founder Nellie Cornish, and the many teaching artists who have followed her, believed in education through exposure to all of the arts. This approach continues to inform the College’s curricula and community involvement today. Our holistic approach to education promotes experimentation, discovery, and innovation, giving artists the creative intelligence they need to thrive in their disciplines and beyond. We have been inspiring artistic and academic excellence for more than 100 years.

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.