Art school · Mumbai, Maharashtra
Sir J. J. School of Art
Founded in 1857, the oldest art school in Mumbai, now part of a deemed university. Its neo-Gothic campus has trained painters, sculptors and designers for more than 160 years.
See first
- The 1878 neo-Gothic main building
- Kipling House, the Dean's Bungalow
- The annual exhibition of student work
The school’s first class, in drawing, met on 2 March 1857 at the Elphinstone Institution. It was named for Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, the merchant and philanthropist who endowed it with a lakh of rupees. In 1878 it moved to its own neo-Gothic building, designed by George Twigge Molecey, where it still is.
Two of its early teachers left long marks. John Griffiths, principal from 1865, spent 1872 to 1891 copying the Ajanta murals with the help of his students. Lockwood Kipling set up its studios for decorative painting, modelling and wrought iron in 1866; his son Rudyard was born on the campus in 1865. The Dean’s Bungalow now called Kipling House was built later, near the site.
Architecture began here in 1900, and in 1958 the school split into three: art, architecture and applied art. In 2023 they were brought back together as a deemed university, Sir JJ School of Art, Architecture and Design.
The campus is a heritage site. The student shows are where to see what it does now.