Art College Discussion

[cheerios18]

Hey AD, I wanted to hear from those of you in art school about your schools and what were some deciding factors in choosing your school. So far I've really only been interested in SAIC which is great and all but I wanted to hear about some others; their locations and their programs.

Also, does anybody know the link to an old thread in here on art schools?

[schmeddyhead]

It was back six pages. Here you go.

SAIC doesn't even have my major, which leads me to conclude we're probably going to be looking at different things in a school, so I doubt my input would be particularly valuable for you.

All of my general advice is already in the above thread, anyway.

Along with: if you're planning to major in the fine arts, make sure the school intends to give you some business knowledge instead of throwing you out into the real world where you can make pretty paintings but just about nothing else. My school, for example, does about nothing to ensure the career viability of the fine arts majors. It's just a lot of conceptual circle-jerking where people don't grow all that much artistically while they throw around paint and talk about their feelings. My advice is to avoid this unless you have 100 grand in expendable cash.

[IronSpike]

cheerios18

Hey AD, I wanted to hear from those of you in art school about your schools and what were some deciding factors in choosing your school. So far I've really only been interested in SAIC which is great and all but I wanted to hear about some others; their locations and their programs.

Also, does anybody know the link to an old thread in here on art schools?

I had a remarkably poor experience at SAIC. I'm a cartoonist, and the faculty was openly hostile to comic books as an art form.Two other students in my year dropped out before the completion of the program: A classically trained oil painter from Europe who did figurative and representational work, and a graffiti artist. I would advise anyone who does not have a deep commitment to conceptual work to avoid the School of the Art Institute of Chicago at all costs. There is extreme bias in the kind of work they favor and promote, and extreme prejudice in the kind of work they discourage. Make no mistake: They have an agenda. If you don't fit into their mold, you will be miserable.

Just putting that out there.

In any case, before you decide on an art school, you need to decide on the kind of art you want to do. Different schools are known for different programs. If you want to paint or draw, the list of schools you should investigate is entirely different from the ones you should look into if you want to animate, or sculpt, or make jewelry. We could be a bigger help if you were more specific.