YOUR ART AND DESIGN ACADEMY IN ROME AND MILAN.
Getting to know RUFA
RUFA, Rome University of Fine Arts, is a multidisciplinary and international educational institution – officially recognised by the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research (MUR) – offering valid and innovative programmes in Art, Design, Audiovisual Arts, Fashion, Game Art, Visual Communication and Media Art.
RECOGNISED BY THE MUR
MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH
INNOVATIVE EDUCATION
HIGH-LEVEL TRAINING
RUFA, where dreams become real projects.
RUFA – Rome University of Fine Arts is the international academy where you can study Art, Design, Audiovisual Arts, Fashion, Game Art, Visual Communication and Media Art. Founded in Rome in 1998 by Maestro Alfio Mongelli and recognised by the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research (MUR), RUFA welcomes Italian and international students every year, offering first- and second-level Academic Programmes equivalent to Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, Academic Masters and PhD programmes.
Looking back towards the future
By studying art and design in Rome and Milan you experience two cities that embody the complementary sides of Italian creativity. In Rome, you breathe in the history, art and cultural heritage that have shaped generations of artists. In Milan, you immerse yourself in the heart of innovation, contemporary design and the creative industries.
At RUFA, the cities become an active part of your journey: museums, studios, festivals, companies and creative districts become an extension of the classroom. You have the opportunity to engage with tradition, experiment with new languages and develop a forward-looking vision that brings together culture, technique and design thinking.
Studying at RUFA means entering a practical, future-focused environment where theory, experimentation and method are closely connected to the professional world. You will work alongside lecturers, professionals, creative studios and companies in the sector, developing practical skills and building a pathway that genuinely prepares you for the challenges of the global market.
Studying at RUFA means turning your ideas into real projects and your talent into a solid professional future, both in Italy and abroad.
Alfio Mongelli
RUFA President
A study method designed for you
LEARNING BY DOING
In RUFA, you learn by doing. Alongside the solid foundation of a university-level education, you will develop a hands-on approach that allows you to work on real projects, experiment, and build immediately applicable skills. Each course helps you transform ideas into prototypes, artworks, videos, concepts, installations, or products.
EXTRA DIARY
Workshops, laboratories, exhibitions, talks, and collaborations with companies are an integral part of the learning experience. The classroom opens up to the professional world and becomes a space where you engage every day with professionals, creative directors, artists, and designers. This allows you to understand how the industry you want to grow in truly works.
RESEARCH AND CROSS-POLLINATION
Every discipline becomes a space for experimentation. RUFA encourages you to blend languages, visions, techniques, and tools, combining artistic tradition with technological innovation. Here, you can explore, experiment, create connections, and find your own creative identity.
RUFA offers you a solid, innovative education deeply connected to the professional world. For over 25 years, we have worked to integrate academic learning, experimentation and practical skills, enabling you to develop a creative profile that responds effectively to the needs of the sector. Recognised by the MUR and rooted in an international context, RUFA supports you through internships, collaborations and ongoing guidance, so that your studies already represent a tangible step towards your profession.
Fabio Mongelli
RUFA Director
A broad, contemporary and future-focused educational offer
At RUFA, you can choose a course of study aligned with contemporary creative languages and led by professionals from the Departments. You can build a strong creative profile by choosing from first- and second-level Academic Programmes, Academic Masters, PhD programmes and short courses designed to develop specific skills.
RUFA’s educational offer is also designed for international students to meet the growing demand from overseas students and support the Academy’s internationalisation strategy.
Master of Arts Programmes
Short Courses and Summer Academy
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Fundamentals of Screenwriting
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Expressive Drawing Techniques
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Visual Arts – Performing Rome
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Street Art photography: Rome, portrait of a city
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Mural Art: Rome in Color!
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Neorealist Filmmaking – Rome, Now
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Interior Design – Timeless spaces
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Circular Fashion Design
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Art Curating and Design management
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Visual Design Lab
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Animation
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Digital Illustration
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Editorial Lab
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Performance
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Fotoreportage
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Fundamentals of Sculpture
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Fundamentals of Painting
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Fundamentals of Printmaking
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Basic Artistic Drawing
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Advanced Artistic Drawing
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Watercolour
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Creative Industries – IA and Creatività
RUFA Cares
CREATIVITY AS A VALUE FOR THE COMMUNITY.
A strong project can make a real impact. At RUFA, you learn to transform your artistic and design expertise into a tool that contributes to the wellbeing of the community. Creativity becomes an active part of the dialogue with local communities, people and organisations that choose art as a means of raising awareness and driving change.
Sharing skills and talent to support causes and values we believe in is central to the Academy’s mission. This is why RUFA:
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collaborates with organisations, companies and institutions that see creativity as a strategic tool for communicating values;
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supports high-impact social initiatives, where art becomes a means of encouraging reflection and transformation;
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promotes authentic, lasting projects, built on the strength of collaboration and the sensitivity of artistic language.
This approach creates strong relationships and projects that leave a tangible mark: experiences in which your creative vision can become shared energy and a driver of real change.
RUFA, an international community in constant evolution
Joining RUFA means becoming part of an international creative community that grows every year and values creativity as a tool for research, innovation and cultural exchange. Here, you are part of an open, dynamic and interdisciplinary environment, where interaction between students and lecturers is an integral part of learning and helps continuously improve teaching and learning methods.
RUFA is a Full Member of CUMULUS, the global network bringing together leading art and design higher education institutions. Through this membership, you can take part in cooperation projects, exchange programmes and joint initiatives with universities around the world.
RUFA is officially accredited by the Council of International Schools (CIS), an international recognition certifying the quality of its educational provision, its commitment to student wellbeing and its focus on global citizenship.
Erasmus+ experiences across Europe and the world
RUFA actively participates in the Erasmus+ Programme (2021–2027), promoting international mobility and intercultural learning opportunities for students, lecturers and staff.
Through Erasmus agreements and bilateral agreements, you can enrich your academic experience through study periods, exchanges and collaborative projects.
RUFA Milestones
Looking back towards the future.
1998
RUFA is founded by Alfio Mongelli to bring art and innovation together.
RUFA is founded in Rome by sculptor Alfio Mongelli, as the Libera Accademia di Belle Arti.
Its mission: to combine the tradition of Italian academic education with contemporary experimentation in the visual arts and design.
The first programmes launched are Painting, Set Design, and Sculpture and Installation.
2000
Recognition is granted by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research, and RUFA becomes a reference point for creativity in Rome.
During these years, RUFA receives official recognition from the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research (MUR).
RUFA consolidates its identity as a modern, dynamic cultural hub, becoming a reference point for the artistic and professional development of young creatives in Rome.
2004
The Cinema programme is launched: a turning point in RUFA education
Following an appeal by President Ciampi on theimportance of cinema in education, RUFA launches a new three-year Cinema programme, expanding its educational horizons into the audiovisual world.
The Academy thus introduces one of its most iconic areas, training generations of directors, editors, cinematographers and moving-image professionals.
2011
RUFA GOES INTERNATIONAL: ERASMUS PROGRAMMES BEGIN
Students begin travelling across Europe through Erasmus mobility programmes. The Academy becomes increasingly cosmopolitan and inclusive.
Internationalisation becomes a defining feature of RUFA’s identity, transforming it into an open, connected cultural hub.
2013
RUFA expands its programmes and introduces new languages and technologies within the Academy
During these years, RUFA launches new programmes, including Visual & Innovation Design, Computer Animation and Visual Effects e Multimedia Arts and Design.
2015
THE RUFA CONTEST IS LAUNCHED, WITH STEFAN SAGMEISTER AS ITS FIRST GUEST
RUFA launches the RUFA Contest, a major artistic and cultural event bringing together students and international figures. The first guest is Stefan Sagmeister.
The Contest becomes a distinctive hallmark of the Academy: a laboratory of ideas and a space for dialogue and artistic research.
2016
The Pastificio Cerere campus opens, becoming the beating heart of RUFA’s academic and cultural life.
2016 marks a decisive moment with the opening of the campus at Pastificio Cerere, one of Rome’s most iconic art venues. The renovated spaces, designed as classrooms and workshops, also become a cultural meeting place, hosting exhibitions, workshops, performances and activities open to the city in an atmosphere of constant experimentation.
2017
RUFA opens RUFA Space, a new hub dedicated to cultural production.
RUFA Space is established in 2017 as an exhibition and project space designed to showcase student creativity and host cultural activities open to the city.
With its opening, the Academy enriches its educational ecosystem with a dynamic, flexible venue dedicated to exhibitions, installations, talks and interdisciplinary events. RUFA Space thus becomes a reference point for contemporary experimentation in the heart of San Lorenzo.
2018–2020
RUFA refreshes its visual identity and expands its programmes, strengthening its interdisciplinary approach.
During these years, RUFA refreshes its visual identity with a dynamic, modular and contemporary brand inspired by the concepts of synaesthesia and transformation.
The educational offer continues to grow, strengthening its interdisciplinary vocation through projects and collaborations that bring together visual arts, design and emerging technologies.
2021-2024
RUFA becomes increasingly international.
During these years, RUFA broadens its international reach, expanding its English-taught programmes and fostering an increasingly multicultural community.
The Academy strengthens its dialogue with students and partners from around the world, consolidating its global outlook.
2022
RUFA opens a new campus in the Ostiense district.
In 2022, RUFA opens a new campus at Via Libetta 7, a 6,000-square-metre space immersed in the vibrant energy of the Ostiense district.
The campus is conceived as a place where art, education and research coexist in a unique environment: fully equipped workshops, classrooms, exhibition spaces and events open to the local community transform the campus into a reference point for Rome’s creative community.
2024
RUFA arrives in Milan, consolidating its vision across art, technology and visual culture.
In 2024, RUFA opens its new Milan campus, at Piazzale Lugano 19, expanding its national presence and launching new programmes dedicated to Design, Communication and Innovation.
With this step, the Academy consolidates an educational model that creates dialogue between art, technology and contemporary visual culture, reaffirming its international outlook and its commitment to training the creative professionals of the future.
The history of the RUFA brand
Since its foundation in Rome in 1998, RUFA has built a visual identity that reflects its mission, values and educational vision.
The Academy’s growth and increasingly recognisable identity have been accompanied by an evolution of its brand, which over time has interpreted the relationship between creativity, design and contemporary culture.
The origins: a symbol of creation and design thinking
RUFA’s first logo combined two highly symbolic elements: the egg and the compass. Its geometric construction, inspired by an ovoid inscribed within the axis of a baluster, represented the ideas of design and method.
The egg evoked creation; the compass, precision and professionalism. The colour choice – white and red – reinforced a clear vision: an identity capable of expressing the essence of an institution that develops artistic research across different disciplines.
The rebrand: a more modern and recognisable identity
As RUFA established itself as one of Italy’s leading academies, the brand was renewed in collaboration with Vertigo Visual Design.
The new logo introduced a red circle containing the four white letters of RUFA, designed to evoke modularity, integration and dynamism. The uppercase logotype presented the acronym and the institution’s name in an immediate, legible way.
From 2016: the dynamic brand
In 2016, RUFA entered the era of the dynamic brand, thanks to a project by Cappelli Identity Design. The new visual identity draws inspiration from the concept of synaesthesia, transforming the logo into a living, evolving element capable of blending colours, shapes, sounds and perceptions.
This fluid identity reflects the energy of the RUFA community and its ongoing dialogue with contemporary creativity, making the brand an active, evolving element.