A former for-profit art school in Seattle that operated from 1946 to 2019.
The Art Institute of Seattle was founded in 1946 by Edwin Burnley as the Burnley School for Art and Design, opening its doors in 1947 at the end of World War II. The school was purchased by Jess Cauthorn in 1959 and operated privately until 1982, when it was sold to Education Management Corporation and renamed The Art Institute of Seattle. EDMC owned and operated the school for 35 years until 2017, when facing significant financial problems and declining enrollment, the company sold the institution to Dream Center Education, a Los Angeles-based Pentecostal organization. The Dream Center Foundation acquired the school in 2018 but laid off ten of its thirteen full-time teachers in October 2018.
The school offered programs in art and design disciplines. It received accreditation from the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology in 1984, became fully accredited by the National Association of Trade & Technical Schools in 1985, and was granted regional accreditation by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities in 1999. In 2006, the school was granted accreditation at the baccalaureate level to offer programs leading to the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
The Washington Student Achievement Council suspended the school's license to operate in late 2018, blocking enrollment of new students. The Art Institute of Seattle closed permanently on March 8, 2019, leaving approximately 650 students unable to finish the winter quarter. Students were offered scholarships and classes from nearby universities, including Seattle Pacific University, and were required to retrieve paper copies of their documents on the final day.