NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti

Year founded: 1980

Number of students: over 5,000

Areas of teaching: Communication and Graphic Design, Design, Fashion Design, Media Design and New Technologies, Set Design, Visual Arts

Locations: Milan and Rome

Industry Relations and Career Service office: as a bridge between NABA and the working world during the study path, it involves students in innovative collaborations and projects with over 900 leading companies in different fields every year.

NABA is an international Academy focusing on arts and design: it is the largest Academy of Fine Arts in Italy, and the first one to have been recognised by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR), back in 1981. NABA is considered as one of the world’s top schools for art and design: it was named as the Best Italian Academy of Fine Arts in the Top 100 Worldwide in Art & Design field in the QS World University Rankings® by Subject; moreover, it was selected by Frame and included in the Masterclass Frame Guide to the 30 World’s Leading Graduate Design and Fashion Schools, and it was chosen by Domus Magazine as one of the Europe’s Top 100 schools of Architecture and Design.

The Academy was founded by Ausonio Zappa in Milan in 1980 with the involvement of Guido Ballo and Tito Varisco in a first phase, then attracting to its faculty artists such as Gianni Colombo and many other, with the aim of leaving rigid academic traditions behind and introducing new visions and languages based on contemporary artistic and professional practice.

With its two campus, NABA provides a wide range of programmes to meet the needs of Italian and international art and design students:

– Three-year Bachelors of Arts (180 CFA): Graphic Design and Art Direction, Design, Fashion Design, Creative Technologies, Film and Animation, Set Design, Painting and Visual Arts
– Two-year Masters of Arts (120 CFA): User Experience Design, Visual Design and Integrated Marketing Communication, Fashion and Costume Design, Fashion Design, Textile Design, Interior Design, Product and Service Design, Social Design, Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies, Creative Media Production
– One-year Academic Masters (60 CFA): Photography and Visual Design, Contemporary Art Markets, Creative Advertising, Sustainable Innovation Communication, New Urban Design, Fashion Digital Marketing, Screenwriting for Series, Art and Ecology, Fashion Law*
– Semester Abroad Programmes, Summer Courses, Foundation Year, Gap Year

* University Master’s Degree in collaboration with and accredited by International Telematic University Uninettuno (60 CFU)

The three-year Bachelor of Arts Degree Programmes, the two-year Master of Arts Degree Programmes and the one-year Academic Master Programmes lead to the attainment of legally recognised degrees and to the achievement of educational credits that allow students to continue their studies in Italian and foreign academies and universities.

Currently the courses are attended by over 5,000 students from all over Italy and from more than 90 international countries.
The continued success of NABA is based on the multidisciplinary approach of all its programmes and relies upon a well-balanced combination of theory taught by distinguished professionals and practical work with leading companies and studios.

Students and graduates of NABA have access to the school’s network of relationships with prestigious companies and have been successfully placed in leading firms in the fields of art, design, fashion, graphics and media including – among others – Bulgari, Canon, CAP Group, Cosmopolitan, Fondazione Cinema per Roma, Frette, Honor, LaFeltrinelli, Centri Porsche di Milano, Seletti, Sunnei, Toshiba.