The Chicago Mosaic School is the only non-profit fine art school in the world dedicated to preserving and promoting the mosaic art form through education and community partnerships. In the five years since its inception in early 2005, the school has been committed to providing an inspirational and creative environment that fosters an appreciation and awareness of both classical and contemporary mosaics.
The Chicago Mosaic School was founded by award winning classically trained sculptor and mosaic artist Karen Ami. When Ms. Ami sought post -graduate educational opportunities in mosaic art, she was surprised to find that she would have to go outside of the United States for academic study. In response to her experience of study abroad,  Ms. Ami collaborated with four local professional mosaic artists to create what is now The Chicago Mosaic School. In five short years it has become a thriving creative community that is filling the void in mosaic art education in the United States
The range of work created by today’s mosaic artists is vast, from soaring sculptural mosaics utilizing advanced architectural techniques to the intricate details in micromosaics that are assembled with the use of a magnifying lens and tweezers. What they commonly possess is the interweaving of units or pieces of materials to produce the completed whole. Even the material in use by contemporary mosaic artists shows the diversity of this art form. Contemporary mosaic artists use a variety of materials in theirs works, including vitreous glass tile, smalti, handmade ceramic tile, porcelain, marble, and stone, among many.
The Chicago Mosaic School has become an educational source for lectures, demonstrations and presentations from local, national and international artists. The school serves a wide range of students including both professional and novice artists, teachers and educators, school children, college students, seniors, architects and designers. The school provides all students with opportunities to experiment with tools and materials, in addition to providing opportunities to work on public art projects and mosaic restorations.
The Chicago Mosaic School offers courses utilizing all approaches in design and construction of fine art and architectural mosaics, for beginning through advanced levels of study. Some courses offered are: Architectural Mosaics, All-Level Mosaic Studio, Glass on Glass, Classical Mosaic Reproduction, Italian Smalti Intensive, Sculptural Forms and more. New courses will be added every semester as our school and curriculum grows. All courses are structured to address the individual student and their specific goals and projects.
The Faculty of The Chicago Mosaic School are professional, exhibiting mosaic artists with degrees in fine arts. Our faculty is educated in all areas of mosaics, from mosaic design to architectural installation. For more information about our faculty, please see the Faculty and Staff page link.
Since the school opened in June 2005, students have come from all over the world to attend classes and workshops in Chicago. The Chicago Mosaic School continues to build relationships with art schools and universities internationally to fill the void in a premier education in Mosaic Arts.
