The school was founded in 1885 when art enthusiasts formed the "Sketch Club" with the purpose of "talking over art matters in general and to judge pictures." Meetings were originally in private homes and then moved to the Deardorf Building at 11th and Main in downtown Kansas City. The club had its first exhibition in 1887 and 12 benefactors stepped forward to form the Kansas City Art Association and School of Design.
In 1927, Howard Vanderslice purchased the August R. Meyer residence, a Germanic castle entitled Marburg and its 8-acre (3.24 ha) estate at 44th and Warwick Boulevard adjacent to the planned Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. A Wight and Wight addition was added to the building. The residence was later renamed "Vanderslice Hall" and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places along with another building on the campus—Mineral Hall. The campus has since expanded to 15 acres (6.07 ha).
In 1992, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art opened on the west side of the campus. On the occasion of its 130th anniversary in 2015, the Kansas City Art Institute received an anonymous donation of $25 million, one of the largest gifts ever to an American art school. The money will be used to bolster the school's general endowment, improve and renovate its campus adjacent to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and, in the form of a challenge grant of $6 million, sharply increase the number of scholarships the school is able to give out.[4]
Presidents
Lawrence S. Brumidi – (1888)
Elmer Boyd Smith – (unknown)
J. Franklin Steacy – (unknown)
Alfred Houghton Clark – (unknown)
Howard Huselton – (1893–1910)
Thomas Tyron –
Virgil Barker –
H.M. Kurtzworth –
Robert A. Holland – (1924–1927)
Rossiter Howard – (1932–1940)
Keith Martin – (1941–1943)
Wallace W. Rosenbauser –
Dr. J. B. Smith – (1950–1954)
David L. Stout – (1955–1958)
Richard H. Burnell – (1959)
Andrew W. Morgan – (1960–1969)
John W. Lottes – (1970–1982)
Richard W. Dodderidge – interim president (1983–1985)
Victor Papanek – UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) Designer/Mediator; Author; Chair of Graphic Design Department (1976–1980)
John Douglas Patrick – Painter, Draughtsman, KCAI teacher circa 1909–1936, member French Salon 1886–1889, Earned Bronze Medal 1889 Universal Exposition