WIZO Haifa Academy of Design and Education

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WIZO Haifa Academy of Design and Education is a school of art located in the German Colony in Haifa. The academy constitutes as an designers training institution which is combined with an profession in education .

The academy was founded in 1971 by the international WIZO organization as an institution intended to promote the professional education in the country. Through the first years due to lack of funding, the academy had to share the same building with the WIZO high school of art in Haifa. In 2004 the academy moved to a new and more modern looking building located in the German colony in Haifa. In the head of the academy nowadays is DR. David Alexander.

[edit] The departments in the academy

The academy has five departments in the design professions - Architecture, Management, Graphic design, Photography and Fashion design. The design studies are combined with getting a profession in education. The academy is destined to qualify the students to become teachers in the post-primary schools in the fields of design and education.

[edit] The academy building

The location where the academy's new building is located today, used to be a youth center. The structure was given to the academy by the mayor of Haifa, Amram Mitzna in order to transform it into the new building of the academy. After a competition between all the teachers of the architecture department, the architects Yoram Poper and A. Hirsch together with Luciano Sandrau got to design the structure.

The entrance floor serves as a gallery to alternating exhibitions of the students and artists.

The interrior of the structure was designed in a modern and dynamic style whereas the exterior of the building blends with the character of other old structures of the in the German Colony.