Christiania Art Academy fosters an art discipline rooted in the classical principles of visual arts through teaching and research. The Academy is a dynamic meeting point for classical and modern artistic forms of expression and it is an inspiring studio and work-community for students, teachers and course participants.

Christiania Art Academy casts light upon the hidden principles and the solid knowledge of the craft that is visible in the language of the classical “Grand Manner”. Through forty years of analyses, the founder of the Academy – Jan Cato Bøttger – has discovered and systematised the knowledge, which the greatest masters knew and applied: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rubens, Picasso, van Rijn, Cézanne, and the Norwegian Bjarne Ness. Christiania Art Academy teaches this knowledge to its students with a glowing hope that it will not be forgotten, but rather contemporarily revived.

Christiania Art Academy was established in 2002 with the goal of preserving and revitalising the historical knowledge about the monumentalistic principles and the classical craft qualities in the visual arts. Through research and a vivid teaching environment we contribute to giving new life to these methods and make them available for today’s creative and artistic fields.

The Academy’s students are of all ages, from 18 to 80 years old, with different backgrounds and levels of experience. Some have studied here half a year, some for 25 years. Some want to be painters, others have been painters for a long time, but want to improve their abilities in painting and drawing, and some have just finished their master in art. Among our students you find engineers, photographers, teachers, doctors, designers, curious, amateurs, professionals… you are welcome with your background and your goals! As a student at the Christiania Art Academy you are part of our vision of lifting the knowledge of the monumentalistic principles into the arts of today and restoring the classical qualities in the visual arts.