For the New York School, an informal group of American poets, painters, dancers, and musicians active in the 1950s and 1960s in New York City, see New York School .
Parsons School of Design (known colloquially as Parsons) is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is one of the seven colleges of The New School. Parsons was the first school in the United States to offer programs in fashion design, advertising, interior design, and graphic design.Parsons offers 13 undergraduate bachelor's programs and 17 graduate master's programs, and it is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious art and design schools in the world.It is currently ranked as the #1 art and design school in the United States and #2 in the world, just behind the Royal College of Art in London.
Parsons has a renowned fashion design program and has educated some of the most respected designers in the industry including Donna Karan (founder of DKNY), interior designer Scott Salvator, Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang, Tom Ford, Anna Sui, Jason Wu, Narciso Rodriguez, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez (founders of Proenza Schouler), Isaac Mizrahi, Derek Lam, Prabal Gurung, and Jenna Lyons (President and Creative Director of J.Crew).
In addition to fashion, Parsons is also known for other areas of art and design and is the alma mater of Jasper Johns, Paul Rand, Alexander Calder, Roy Lichtenstein, Norman Rockwell, Duane Michals, Ai Weiwei, Joel Schumacher and Jasper Conran among others.
Parsons is a member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) and the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD).