School of Fine Arts of Casablanca

• Name — School of Fine Arts of Casablanca • Native Name — المدرسة العليا للفنون الجميلة بالدار البيضاء l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Casablanca • Location — 20 boulevard Rachidi, Casablanca • Country — Morocco The School of Fine Arts of Casablanca (l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Casablanca) is a Fine arts school established in 1919 in Casablanca, Morocco. It was the origin of the modernist Casablanca School art movement led by faculty members Farid Belkahia, Mohamed Melehi, and Mohamed Chabâa in the 1960s.

The institution was founded in 1919 by a French Orientalist painter named Édouard Brindeau de Jarny, who started his career teaching drawing at Lycée Lyautey. Resident General Hubert Lyautey tasked Brindeau and Prosper Ricard with cataloguing Moroccan visual heritage to inform the guidelines for vocational schools and the reform of traditional industries. Brindeau convinced Resident General Lyautey and Georges Hardy (colonist), director of public education under the French Protectorate, to establish a school of fine arts in Casablanca's medina. In the beginning, mainly French students studied applied arts for the use in architecture, interior design, decoration, and architectural landscaping, in addition to drawing, painting, art history, and math. The school also hosted ateliers ouverts (open workshops) for European and Moroccan artists and craftsmen, as well as students and instructors from other institutions. Abdeslam Ben Larbi el Fassi, whom Italian art teacher Toni Maraini described as "the first Modern Moroccan artist," was one of the school's first students. The school was overseen by the municipality chief, four members of the municipal council, and the director of Lycée Lyautey. They chose the rules, appointed the director, and required that all instructors hold French nationality. A small number of sons of Moroccan notables were admitted, and they were not allowed to participate in any exhibitions without their consent. The school promoted itself by advertising that graduates could become "art instructors, advertising designers, interior decorators, typesetters, and builders of maquettes." In his book Art in the Service of Colonialism, Hamid Irbouh writes that Moroccan students were trained to become "technicians to assist French architects." It oriented Moroccan students toward becoming master craftsmen, studying ceramics, architectural drafting, and interior decoration, while orienting French students toward Fine arts and to apply to Écoles des Beaux-Arts in France.

Notable alumni of the School of Fine Arts of Casablanca include: • Abdelakabir Faradjallah of the band, Attarazat Addahabia • Abderrahmane Rahoule • Malika Agueznay • Meryem Aboulouafa • Ikram Kabbaj • Majida Khattari (diploma in 1988) • Mounir fatmi • Mohammed Arrhioui • Rebel Spirit • Fatiha Zemmouri