Q: May I ask as to where Walt Disney learned art. I have heard that he studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Do you know when he went there and what classes he took?
Richard, Council Bluffs, Iowa
A: When Walt was 14 years old, he enrolled in children’s art classes three nights a week at the Kansas City Art Institute. The next year, when he was 15, the Disney family moved to Chicago, and besides enrolling in high school, Walt attended night classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. There he studied pen technique, anatomy, and cartooning, but he learned the most from professional newspaper cartoonists teaching there, such as Carey Orr of the Chicago Tribune and Leroy Gossett of the Chicago Herald.
Dave Smith