From: Christopher Lovenguth (zantzant@hotmail.com)
Date: 09/10/02-11:04:54 AM Z
Wow you have come to an interesting group to ask that question! You are
going to get many different answers. Some people will tell you that art can
not be taught. Others will group all professors together as: heartless,
burnt out, “if you can’t do… teach”, student demeaning, have nothing good to
say, people because of a bad experience they had bringing flower pictures to
class. Still others will argue workshops are the way to go.
For me personally, I think to truly understand one’s self, you need to be in
an environment like a BFA program for a couple of years. Immerse yourself in
art and academia. Now my view on this will differ from others but I really
think you should find a college with a strong art department but not go to
specifically an “art school” for you BFA. Now I can see the reasons for
going to specifically an art school, but I’m starting to believe that an art
school environment is better suited for graduate study.
I know others will disagree with this and they will have valid points, but
here is my biggest reason for not going to an art school for your BFA: Most
non-art colleges force you to have a wide range of classes in other
disciplines that you just don’t get at art schools and if you do get these
classes, you are in class with other art students. I think it is extremely
beneficial to be in a biology class with biology majors or statistics with
people whose lives revolve around math. To grow as an artist, I really
think you need to be around as many different minds as possible. In an art
school environment, there are different minds all around you, but they are
tuned with the same pitchfork.
Now I believe the opposite with a graduate program. I think the focus of art
schools are beneficial to students seeking their MFA. If I was in your
position, I would look at state schools. There are some very strong programs
out there. Most non-art colleges do not expect you to submit a portfolio
until after you take your foundation classes. This way (like I did) you can
take some classes in drawing in order to get in to the art department. I
can’t draw either, but I know that most art schools and art departments will
require you to submit work that includes all art disciplines before you get
accepted. At least my experience at OSU having the ability to take
foundation first then apply to the department helped.
I would look at University of New Mexico, Arizona State University, UCLA,
Indiana University and many others. I have to plug Ohio State University
since that is where I went. Their art department is very strong and have
tremendous resources because of how large OSU is. The art department has
their own library that is as large as some other colleges general library.
The art library has a collection of thousands of Daguerreotypes from a
family that collected them and then donated them to OSU. You have the Wexner
Center for the Arts right on campus which is an amazing modern art museum.
The photography department has really come in to its own and I think is an
overlooked and underappreciated place to study photography. They teach just
about everything from Zone system and lighting, to color printing, large
format cameras and alt processes (which is the reason for me getting in to
alt processes).
On the other hand, if you want sort of a hybrid art school that acts more
like a college I would look at SUNY Purchase. -Chris
-Chris
>From: Steve Bell <veracity000@earthlink.net>
>Reply-To: veracity000@earthlink.net
>To: Alt Processes List <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca>
>Subject: (OT)Art/Non Art Schools?
>Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2002 08:11:39 -0400
>
>Hey everyone,
>
>this is pretty off topic, but i thought i could get some good information
>from some of you.
>
>Presently i am enrolled in my local community college. i dropped out of
>high school when i was 16 and moved out of my parents house and travelled,
>so i have to start in community college because i never took the SATs.
>officially i am currently undeclared as to what my major is, but to all of
>my instructors it is understood that photography is what i'm there for. I
>plan on transferring to another school in the Fall of 2003. I've been
>reading about a lot of schools, and so far the schools i am most interested
>in are the School of Art Institute in Chicago, the Art Institute of Boston,
>and Parsons in NYC. i don't know about the latter, as they focus a lot on
>drawing portfolio-wise, and i'm awfully bad at drawing (William Henry Fox
>Talbot and i share the same affliction).
>
>What i am writing to ask is can anyone give me any advice when it comes to
>these matters? can anyone give me any advice as to what schools are best?
>art school over university?
>
>any advice in general would be great.
>
>thanks in advance,
>
>Steve
>
>
>--- Steve Bell
>--- Veracity000@earthlink.net
>--- http://www.unbeknownst.org/~insurrective /
>http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/insurrection
>--- In fact, rock, rather than being an example of how freedom can be
>achieved within the capitalist structure, is
> an example of how capitalism can, almost without a conscious effort,
>deceive those whom it oppresses...So
> effective has the rock industry been in encouraging the spirit of
>optimistic youth take-over that rock's truly
> hard political edge, it's constant exploration of the varieties of
>youthful frustration, has been ignored
> and softened. --Michael Lydon
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