The Halstead School of Portrait and Figure Art is the only school in the Midwest that specializes in portraiture. It was founded in 1984 as The Halstead Academy of Portrait Art specifically to encourage and perpetuate the art of portrait making. Activities at the school are all part-time programs that include weekend classes, evening lectures, and week-long workshops. The convenience and variety of these offerings allows anyone who is interested in portraiture and figurative art to participate, whether they are working full-time in the arts or in other professions, studying in colleges or universities, raising children, or enjoying retirement.

The primary function of the school is to teach artists the technical and aesthetic means for depicting individual character, but the underlying objective is, as it always will be, to enlighten people to the beauty of the human form. To further these goals, the school has evolved over the years to include classes in drawing and painting the human figure. Consequently, many artists enroll in the school’s figure classes to build foundations that are useful to them in artistic expressions other than portraiture. Classes at the Halstead School of Portrait and Figure Art provide a sound foundation for any artist or aspiring artist who wants to create art that includes some elements of realistic imagery.