Ichen Art Academy is the first comprehensive art institute dedicated to Chinese-Western art education in the Bay Area. The mission of Ichen Art Academy is to educate its students artistically and intellectually through a systematic and comprehensive visual art program, which emphasizes the development of creativity and techniques. All academy instructors have advanced art degrees and strong teaching experience, and students are encouraged to develop a life-long passion for making and appreciating the arts. Since March 2020, the company has transitioned all of its more than 100 art classes to online instruction.

“We have worked out many issues associated with online/remote learnings by reducing class size, and training our teachers to provide more interactive communications with our students before, during, and after the class,” says Ichen Wu, the accomplished artist who is Co-Founder, Principal, and Art Director of Ichen Art Academy. As a result, “our students have been able to make great progress during the Covid-19 situation.”

Art education is very important to a child's development and finding a high-quality art school with a solid track record is critically important. Wu encourages parents to consider the quality of students' artworks at every age group, college admission results for high school graduates who have taken art classes, and major national art contest results when choosing an art program for their children. “By building a high-quality, systematic, and comprehensive K-12 art program with a strong track record, we have helped many students realize their dreams in art-related fields,” she says.

Two Ichen Art Academy students, freshly graduated from high school, were admitted into the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts in 2018, for example. The CalArts Character Animation program offers the world's best animation education, according to Wu, and accepts a tiny fraction of those who apply. In 2019, two more academy students were admitted to the same program at CalArts. In 2020, a long-time academy student and new high school graduate was accepted by ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena as an Entertainment Design major, another highly competitive program.

“The average age of freshmen students for the Entertainment Design major is about twenty-six,” notes Wu. “This tells you a lot about the caliber and quality of our art program. We also help non-art-major students develop a strong supplemental art portfolio for their college art applications, which demonstrates their creativity, imagination, and personality. Each year, we have many such students admitted by top private schools such as Harvard, Stanford, and MIT.”

The Scholastic Art Awards is the nation’s largest art contest. In 2021, Ichen Art Academy students won 18 gold keys, 13 silver keys, and 23 honorable mentions. In 2020, the results were 16 gold keys, 17 silver keys, and 31 honorable mentions. “The quality of our art program is 100 percent reflected in our students' artwork and their achievements,” she notes.

In January 2015, Wu co-founded the Ichen Art Academy, Pleasanton campus and moved into Hacienda after co-founding the Fremont campus in 2012. The Pleasanton campus in Hacienda serves the Tri-Valley and nearby communities with eight employees. The academy works closely with Youth Art Foundation, a nonprofit organization to help provide art education to low-income families. Many of its students are members of the nonprofit as well and utilize their artistic talents to help local communities.

Art classes are not limited to minors; adult classes are also available. Moreover, the academy offers a free trial class for each new student. Details on the upcoming 2021 summer art program, which Wu promises will be the best ever, will be available on the academy website later in the year.

For more information about the Ichen Art Academy, please visit www.ichenartacademy.com/pleasanton.html.

To see examples of artworks by students of the Ichen Art Academy, please visit www.facebook.com/IchenArtAcademy.