Parsons Paris

The New York Times has described the new Paris campus as "both the oldest and newest overseas branch of an American university".[4] The presence of Parsons in Paris dates back to 1921, when Frank Alvah Parsons opened the Paris Ateliers of the then New York School of Fine and Applied Art.[4] The following year, the school made its home on the oldest planned square in Paris, the Place des Vosges. The school offered courses in architecture, interior decoration, stage design, and costume design, adding poster and graphic design a year later.

After closing before the onset of World War II in 1939, Parsons restarted its activities in Paris in 1948 offering a summer course combining travel and study. It reopened the School (at first with a summer abroad program in the late 1970s), which became known as Parsons Paris.

In 1980, Parsons expanded its Paris program, entering into an educational partnership with the American College in Paris (now American University in Paris), to offer Bachelor of Fine Arts and study-abroad options. Beginning in 1986, students matriculating in the Parsons Paris program were eligible to receive a degree from Parsons School of Design. In 2008, the contract between Parsons School of Design and Parsons Paris expired, and following a ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce in favour of Parsons, the Parsons name was dropped in 2010.[5] That institution, now called the Paris College of Art, is no longer affiliated with The New School.

President of The New School David E. Van Zandt announced that Parsons School of Design was opening a new academic center in Paris Fall 2013.[6] Its primary academic building is on Rue Saint-Roch in the 1st arrondissement of Paris.

In 2019, Parsons Paris announced plans for opening a site at the Komunuma visual arts complex in Romainville in 2020, adding to its main venue in central Paris. Students will divide their time between the two locations.[7]