One River School of Art & Design

Specialties

Founded in September of 2012 «one river» west of New York City, One River School of Art + Design has embarked on a mission to change art education in America. In a short window of time our innovative program in Englewood, NJ has taught thousands of students and established «a new direction in art education.»

One River School has developed a proprietary method for teaching a wide variety of art and digital programs to students of all ages in a state of the art facility. Our process allows students to have more fun, make inspiring artwork, to develop new friendships and grow their art making skills along the way.

We also present exhibitions from emerging artists who are making work that we believe to be current, relevant and potentially important. Our exhibition series supports working artists and our mission to create more awareness for contemporary art.

History

Established in 2012.

«We believe that people in suburbs across America want access to the same amazing creative experiences that exist in our cities».

To fulfill this mission, Matt developed a new method for teaching art that created the most compelling and fun recreational /​art education experiences. Ross continues, «We created a cool, interactive experience that is focused on current concepts. It celebrates the most important artists and themes of the last 50 years and we purpose-​built a proprietary curriculum that has enabled us to deliver an experience that is changing people’s lives.»

«One River» is not only the name of our school but a metaphor for the cultural gap that exists in suburbs across America and it is Matt’s ambition to address the challenge by growing One River into a national network of schools.

Meet the Business Owner

Matt R.

Business Owner

Music and Art seem to run together for a lot of people and this is clearly the case for One River Founder Matt Ross. After 20 years as an executive in the radio industry, Matt became an investor and the Founding CEO for the School of Rock. At that time in 2005, School of Rock was a fledgling startup with a handful of schools and five years later when Ross left, the School of Rock was the largest network of music schools in the world.

After leaving School of Rock, Ross compared the state of art education to the state of music education prior to the expansion of School of Rock. It appeared that the two were virtually the same: there were very few innovative art schools near his home in New Jersey and throughout suburbs across America. Thus began the start of a personal mission that Matt has been on since the fall of 2011. Matt says: «It seems to me that the most relevant and important thing I can do is to help people grow creatively.»