In 1925 János Thorma considered leaving the colony for the first time because of his weakened health. At the same time he needed some teachers to continue the artistical and pedagogical work which had always defined the spirituality of Nagybánya. In consequence, in 1926 two other teachers, András Mikola and János Krizsán, were rectifying in the school. Nevertheless, the experiment was not successful because Mikola resigned very soon and Krizsán wasn't welcome by the Romanian students. Beginning with September Sándor Ziffer and Valér Ferenczy accepted to teach beside János Krizsán. Nevertheless, they soon resigned, because Thorma wasn't able to let go the positions he well deserved. He wanted to preserve his suzerainty in leading the colony.
The complicated and rather unpleasant situation was solved when János Thorma resigned from his position as a leader of the NPA (Nagybánya Painters' Association). Afterwards, together with István Réti, he decided to close down the school. In 1927, they made their decision public: "The young ones should begin a new chapter, if they would like to, a new school with a new name".
After this András Mikola was named as director of the NPA. He was assigned with the leadership of the school and two colleagues of him, János Krizsán and Samu Börtsök were supposed to help him. Mikola started off with a great zeal. In the September of 1927 the institution was reorganized as the Academy of Fine Arts in Nagybánya. As Ziffer resigned and Börtsök was ill, it was only Mikola, who had to cope with all the responsibilities.
András Mikola spent a few years in Paris before coming to Nagybánya. At the beginning his works reflected the influence of what he has seen in the French capital, mainly the influence of Cézanne: Self portrait. Nevertheless, he alienated from the avant-garde tendencies after a while. In fact his works show the same colorist tendencies that defined the colony as well: The Banks of the Zazar, View of Nagybánya. When rectifying, he considered the light and shadow effects to be the most important. He believed that a teacher should not teach his students to draw, but to see instead.
János Krizsán followed the classical traditions of Nagybánya as well. Nevertheless, his paintings were more suggestive because he didn't have to get acquainted with the surroundings which were his main sources of inspiration. Nagybánya had been his home, the scene of his every-day life from his birth on. He didn't convey the sparkling sunshine on his pictures. He showed the view in faded, grayish tones: Landscape (Autumn in the Park). When depicting landscapes in winter, he often chose summarizing, decorative methods instead of naturalistic ones: Village in Winter. He taught his disciples to be thorough and to render their experiments of colour and smooth tones in the most naturalistic way possible.
The documents of the colony show the presence of many gifted disciples: József Ben, Tasso Marchini, Jenő Szervátiusz, Lídia Agricola, Lilla Csizér, Ferenc Gáll, Márton Katz, Géza Kováts, Olivér Pittner: Winter Landscape and many others.