The Academy is born on the Rue Saint-Didier

Richard Roy establishes the Paris American Academy as a fine arts and language school, with administrative offices in a seventh-floor walk-up apartment on the Rue Saint-Didier. The first students arrive from the United States, drawn by the promise of studying in the world’s creative capital.

The atelier network takes shape

Roy travels the streets of the Latin Quarter, establishing teaching points at the Schola Cantorum — a former Benedictine monastery transformed into a music conservatory by Vincent d’Indy — as well as ateliers on the rue des Ursulines, rue Saint-Jacques, rue Louis Thuillier, and impasse Royer-Collard.

“Each atelier was used for a different discipline — students worked with master practitioners as apprentices, not as passive learners.”

International reputation grows

PAA establishes itself as a destination for serious students of fashion, fine arts, and design. The school’s reputation for small classes, professional faculty, and direct access to the Parisian cultural scene attracts students from across North America, Europe, and beyond.

The Val-de-Grâce pavilion

Shortly before PAA’s 25th anniversary, the Academy acquires the beautiful 17th-century pavilion of the Val-de-Grâce, creating a permanent home for classrooms and offices in one of the most historically significant corners of the Latin Quarter.

The Val-de-Grâce complex, originally a royal abbey and military hospital, provided PAA with a campus of extraordinary architectural and historical richness.

Creative Writing joins the curriculum

The Creative Writing program is formally established, honouring Paris’s extraordinary literary heritage and its long relationship with anglophone writers — from Hemingway and Fitzgerald to James Baldwin and Gertrude Stein.

50th anniversary

PAA celebrates five decades of international creative education. Alumni from more than 50 countries gather to mark the occasion, reflecting on careers in fashion, interior design, fine arts, and literature shaped by their time in Paris.

Tragedy at the Val-de-Grâce

On June 21, 2023, a fire destroys the Val-de-Grâce pavilion that had housed PAA’s classrooms and offices for more than thirty years. A defining moment of loss — and the beginning of a response that would demonstrate the resilience of the institution and everyone who has ever been part of it.

PAA returns — stronger than ever

Under the operational leadership of Gabriella Galastri de Polo and the presidency of Peter Carman, PAA returns to the atelier format that defined its founding spirit — teaching from studios near the Val-de-Grâce, with the main office now at 19, Rue Claude Bernard, Paris 75005.

A return to origins: the apprenticeship model, the Latin Quarter, and the conviction that Paris itself is the best classroom a student of the creative arts could have.

Sixty years — and counting

2025 marks the 60th anniversary of Paris American Academy. A year to celebrate six decades of creative education, international community, and the enduring belief that the best education happens when the city becomes the classroom.