The Art Institute of Seattle

The Art Institute of Seattle was a for-profit art and culinary school in Seattle, Washington. The school was one of a number of Art Institutes, a franchise of for-profit art colleges with many branches in North America, owned and operated by Education Management Corporation. EDMC owned the college from 1982 until 2017, when, facing significant financial problems and declining enrollment, the company sold the Art Institute of Seattle, along with 30 other Art Institute schools, to Dream Center Education, a Los Angeles-based Pentecostal organization, before closing its door. The Dream Center Foundation acquired the school in 2018 and laid off ten of its thirteen full-time teachers in October 2018. The Washington Student Achievement Council then suspended Ai-Seattle's license to operate, which blocked enrollment of new students. The school closed permanently on March 8, 2019, with 650 students unable to finish the winter quarter. Students were forced to retrieve paper copies of their documents during the last day and were offered scholarships and classes from other nearby universities, including Seattle Pacific University. History The Art Institute of Seattle was located in several buildings near the Elliott Bay waterfront in the Belltown neighborhood of Downtown Seattle, near many of the city's design studios, restaurants and corporate offices. It was founded in 1946 as the Burnley School for Art and was renamed in 1982.