If streetwear and NFTs have taught us anything, they have shown us that art can live anywhere. No longer limited to a canvas, art can live on a T-shirt, in the Metaverse, or even on a tote bag.

And one of the oldest and most prestigious fine arts institutions in the world is at the forefront of the revolution, empowering the next generation of brilliant artists to create their own universes however they see fit.

The Yale School of Art has always been a trailblazer, stamped in history as one of the first colleges of higher learning to have an art school and gallery attached to it in the mid-1800s. The school takes a more hands-off approach, allowing the students to develop their own voices and style in an environment where they can receive invaluable constructive criticism instead of traditional instruction.

Yale School of Art Director of Student Financial Resources David Blackmon, who was the school’s lead coordinator on this project, gave me a tour of the school’s gallery where current students in the mediums of graphic design, painting and printmaking, photography, and sculpture present a wide array of work for critique by their professors and distinguished visiting artists.

“We’re studio-based and we focus on the art,” Blackmon told me. “The school accepts about 60 students a year from over 1,200 applicants, and they come here to hone their practice, develop their thesis, and receive critique on their work.”

The gallery houses both the studios of current students working on pieces in progress and space for finished work to be shown and critiqued. We saw breathtaking pieces from many current students, including painters Brianna Bass, Alexander Puz, Bhasha Chakrabarti, and Brennen Steines, among many others.

David Blackmon and Bobby Hundreds connected a little while back over the internet when our co-founder put out a call for exciting new artists and David offered him a laundry list of brilliant candidates. The conversation continued and led to this collaboration, which looks to the future of what art could be more than where it has traditionally been.

“I’m probably one of the few administrators here that haven’t come from an art background. So, I think about art a little bit differently,” Blackmon explained. “I think about it in terms of street art and streetwear and things like that. There’s a big disconnect between that and fine art that we really focus on. And so my ultimate thought was, ‘How come we can’t connect those two worlds?’ A lot of the work that our students do ends up in galleries but I think there is an appetite for it outside of the School of Art and outside of that gallery world. And I think it’s great when we can do more to highlight our artists and give them an opportunity to build their platform but also democratize their work and make sure that they have a following and an audience.”

Three MFA graduates of the Yale School of Art designed Tote Bags for The Hundreds, and all proceeds will go back to the school to further their mission of propelling artists and designers of “unusual promise and strong motivation” forward into the art world.

We also spoke with brand new Yale School of Art Dean (and Yale alumna) Kymberly Pinder about the importance of this historic art program taking a leap into the future.

“Being the top art school means that what Yale does, others follow. I hope to work with our faculty and students to see how far our educational project here can impact the world. What happens when 100+ talented and thoughtful makers come together, collaborate, and discover for the purpose of effecting change?”

We can’t wait to see.