Transcarpathian Art Institute

The academy is one of the few schools of art in Ukraine that trains specialists in higher education which helps address issues of economic stagnation and brain drain in the region.

Two graduates of the Royal Hungarian Art Institute, Adalbert Erdeli (1891-1955) and Joseph Bokshay (1891-1975), wanted to found an art school. Due to lack of land for the school, Erdeli settled in Mukachevo and became a teacher in the local civil school and teachers' seminary, where he worked from 1916 to 1922. In 1919, after returning from the Russian front in World War I, Bokshay found employment as a teacher in Uzhhorod, and remained in that position until 1945.

Their initial institution was a public school, founded in 1927, and the first art school in Transcarpathia was founded in March 1946. It was called the Uzhgorod State Arts and Crafts College, and was led by Erdeli. In 1947, the director was John Harapko. Former students succeeded Harapko, including Paul Balla (1958-1962), John Barnych (1962-1971), Joseph Pal (1971-1974), John Manaylo (1974-1980), John Kohutych, Boris Slivka (1985-1990), John Nebesnyk (1990-2003), Marina Kiyak (2003-2011), and Peter Petrysche (February 2011).

Among the faculty that taught painting and woodcarving, many had careers as artists, including Joseph Bokshay, Theodore Manaylo, Andrew Kotska, Adalbert Boretsky, Ernest Kontratovych, John Harapko, Basil Svyda, and Sandor Petkov.

Graduates included Vladimir Nikita, Paul Bedzir, Edith and Nicholas Medvetsky, Ferenc Seman, and Elizabeth Kremnytska. In December 1965, the institution was subordinated to the Ministry of Local Industry of the USSR, and renamed Uzhgorod College of Applied Arts. The school continued the tradition of the founders with a new generation of art education teachers, college graduates and the Art Institute of the Soviet Union. These included Edita Medvetsky, Ivan Didyk, and Basil Petretskyy.

From 1998 to 2004, the college held dual-stage ("junior specialist", or bachelor's degree) training for integrated curricula.

Founded in 2004, it prepares bachelor and master level specialists in the following majors: graphic design, interior design, and environment design. It has full-time and part-time learning. The department is headed by Ph.D. of Art History, I. I. Nebesnyk (junior).

The department has developed appropriate curricula and programs for professional disciplines and specializations. The topics of coursework are diverse and adapted to the scientific research of the department, with the implementation of design and practical tasks directly related to majors. In particular, topics include designing advertising and publishing products, editions of the main book groups, branding and packaging and labeling products, interior design of residential and public spaces, and landscaping and greening of the territory of parks, squares and recreation areas.

Created in 2004, the department trains bachelor-level students in the following majors: painting, metalwork, ceramics, and woodworking. It has full-time and part-time learning. Experienced teachers are also engaged to teach professional subjects. Most of the teachers are members of the Union of Artists (NSHU). The department is headed by Ph.D. of Pedagogical Sciences A. V. Voloshchuk.

Students of the department are actively involved in various symposia, exhibitions and plein airs at the regional and national level not only in Ukraine, but also in Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland. The Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine annually holds the All-Ukrainian Painting Olympiad at the academy. The department maintains ties with art academies, colleges, schools, and art schools in Ukraine.

Covering general academics, the task is to ensure that students of all majors master classic humanitarian examples of world and national culture; to teach to be aware of worldview problems in the context of past and present, social and cultural life; to educate the ability to think independently, based on the achievements of national and world classical culture. The department is headed by Nebesnyk Ivan Ivanovych – Professor, Ph.D., a member of the Union of Artists, and Honored Worker of Education of Ukraine.

Here, in particular, the following disciplines are taught: pedagogy and psychology, cultural studies, history of Ukraine; aesthetics; ethnopsychology, foundations of law; basics of economic theories; Ukrainian business language, philosophy, copyright, religious studies, sociology and political science, basics of management and marketing, teaching methods of special disciplines and others.

The department serves as a base for holding the annual national conference on "Erdeliv Readings", based on the materials of which, since 2008, the Scientific Bulletin of the Transcarpathian Art Institute has been published, where articles by researchers in the fields of pedagogy, design, art history and art education are published.