The State Drawing School was opened on 1 October 1896 by Decree signed by Prince Ferdinand. This Act made legitimate the oldest institution for higher education in Bulgaria. The archive documents for the setting up of the present Academy reveal the names of outstanding public figures, artists Anton Mitov, Ivan Markvichka and Boris Shats and men of letters Konstantin Velichkov and Ivan Shishmanov.

In 1911 the teaching staff submitted a plan for development to the Ministry of Education in which they also put forward their request the School to be renamed to Academy of Art. Ten years later in 1921 following a proposal by Stoyan Omarchevski, Minister of Education, the State Drawing School was renamed to Academy of Art.

Today the former Drawing School is called National Academy of Art, which till this very day is still considered to be the most prestigious Bulgarian institution for training professional artists in the
field of fine and applied arts, design, conservation and restoration and history and theory of art (in BA, MA and DA degrees).

The academic 2007/2008 marks the beginning of the four-year management of the new Board. This was the year, in which the new Board continued to peruse the crucial mission of the academy, upholding the inherited ideas from the former board and giving start to projects, which in their majority are new, aiming
to achieve optimal contents and the best possible image of the National Academy of Art. Due to the nature of the projects’ scale, part of them is still in process of elaboration but nevertheless the team has focused their ambitions on their materialization in full during the next few years.

Project for reconstruction and modernization of the building of the National Academy of Art, arch. Stefan Dobrev.

First of all the spirit of succession affects the project for reconstruction and modernization of the building of the National Academy of Art, which has been started by the former Board. This project envisages a new building to be added to the already existing one (monument of culture), which in its turn will lead to
radically solving the problem with training studios of the oldest and most prestigious school for visual and visual-plastic arts.

During the past year an archeological survey, preceding the construction works, was prepared to be done in the yard of 1, Shipka St., (along with archeologists from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Old Sofia and Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia). It is quite possible the National Academy of Art to host the biggest city collection of pieces belonging to the late ancient and early Christian art, which will be conserved and restored at the site, owing to that the project for the new building can undergo amendments depending on the situation and parameters of the concrete findings. In that way the center of our city would come in possession of another important cultural place where both past of our ancestors and future of the Bulgarian artists will co-exist.

This will be the place where monuments of ancient Serdica and the most actual works of contemporary Bulgarian and worldwide art will be displayed. Not by chance the project for the new building of the National Academy of Art along with the new studios will incorporate gallery space of 900 m2, and apart of that also depot and exhibition space to house the rich museum collection, lecture and multifunctional halls able to host the rich educational and cultural life opened towards the citizens and visitors of Sofia.

Our efforts to achieve this lofty goal go in parallel with our concern for the educational process in each discipline, which is unique by its specificity. Priority of the present day policy of the academy is improvement and innovation of the contents of the curricula, study plans and material base and adopting new methods and technologies in the education and training. This is a clear concept responding to the needs of our present and future students. In that sense the new discipline Digital Arts in MA course is a new step in understanding the place of the National Academy of Art as educational institution of contemporary character.

A special attention is paid in helping the creative and scientific projects by organizing competitions, the results of which are visible. They include completion of numerous creative tasks including cataloging and incorporating their documentation in the different disciplines, holding of scientific conferences and compiling and publishing of scientific books, reconstruction materials and technical base for experimental or creative aim, etc. The web site is renewed and its new version will intensify the dialogue between different spheres and activities in one inevitably getting more and more complicated institutional infrastructure. The Library of the National Academy has its collections permanently enriched with the latest editions in all areas of creative work; there is Automated Catalogue as well. The exhibitions at Academia Gallery are addressed to the students and the wide public audience.