Art school has been around as long as art! Archeologists have found evidence where paleolithic children were given work space and encouragement from adults to practice finger painting.
The original story here: http://www.archaeology.org/news/
Friday, September 30
by Jessica E. Saraceni
A gallery in France’s Cave of a Hundred Mammoths seems to have been set aside as a place for palaeolithic children to practice finger fluting, or creating decorations in soft clay with their fingers. “It shows collaboration between children and adults, and adults encouraging children to make these marks. This was a communal activity,” said Jessica Cooney of Cambridge University. See more of “the world’s first finger paintings” in this video at BBC News.
Video here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15119701