The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional art school founded in 1921 in Los Angeles, California, by Nelbert Murphy Chouinard (1879-1969).

Born in Montevideo, Minnesota, Chouinard studied at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and in Munich, Germany. Believing an art school was both necessary and important on the West Coast, she devoted herself almost exclusively to her school, setting aside her own painting. In 1935, the state of California recognized her institute as a nonprofit educational university.

Among her early students was Anthony Heinsbergen, who went on to become a leading muralist.

Nelbert Chouinard's age and health led to Walt and Roy Disney along with Lulu May Von Hagen, then chairman of the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music, overseeing a 1961 merger of the Chouinard Art Institute with the Music Conservatory to create the California Institute of the Arts.

Asked how to say her name, Chouinard told The Literary Digest: "Properly, oui as the French for 'Yes': almost shwee-nar'; but generally spoken shu-nard', u as in shun." (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.)

Contents 1 Notable alumni, in alphabetical order 2 Instructors, in alphabetical order 3 See also 4 External links

[edit] Notable alumni, in alphabetical order

[edit] Instructors, in alphabetical order

• Pruett Carter
• Jorge Juan Crespo de la Serna
• Paul T. Frankl
• Henry Grace - of MGM
• Gyo
• Ejnar Hansen
• Harwell Hamilton Harris
• Edith Head - of MGM
• Herbert Jepson
• Rico Lebrun
• Henry Lee McFee
• William Moore
• Richard Munsell
• Phil Paradise
• Ed Reep
• Millard Sheets
• George V. Townsend
• Althea Ulber

[edit] See also

• California Institute of the Arts

[edit] External links

• Chouinard Art Institute
• CalArts Chouinard page
• Chouinard Foundation
• Chouinard: A living legacy exhibit