Where did you attend?

[baquitania]

This thread is for post graduates who can give prospective students an idea of the college "art related" experience. This way students in those areas can ask their questions to a WC member who has already attended the college they are thinking of going to... so please post in this format:

College Name & Location:
Years Graduated:
Major: (or minor)
Overall Feeling:
Advice:

I'll go first since I was crazy enough to start this one :D (shush Bob, don't show any fear, seniors can smell it a mile away... lol)

College Name: Parsons School of Design, NYC

Years Graduated: 1987 & 1995(ya old foggie)

Major: (or minor)

Communication Design (graphic design actually)/ Art Teacher's Certificate program (1 year compacted course for those with the previous art credits, and wishing to teach right way upon graduation)

Overall Feeling of the College itself:

Parsons is very very diverse, and being in NYC is one of the largest perhaps overwhelming art colleges. By diverse I do not only mean courses for those wanting Fine Arts, Fashion, Digital Art, & Art Education... but they also have semester programs in Argentina, Italy, Japan & France. Well they did when I was attending, and we had a good amount of exchange students.

Here is a link to the College's Site (http://www.parsons.edu/kale/html/map.html)

Competition is higher in such a large school, and the work load shows it. You cannot coast at one of these places, you would loose out more so then at a regular university. Classes are NOT overly crowded however, and the art professional faculty is top rate, gathering from many individuals in the industry. One of the main benefits ofcourse is attening in NY where the art community, museum & gallery surplus really shines.

Advice: While I am not trying to sell Parsons, it was a very serious school, and not a party place, although it IS NYC, and yes I hear that goes on lol ;) What I would suggest is ofcourse attending a tour (I was a guide there for a year in Admissions) and arranging a meeting with an Admissions counselor to look over your work and perhaps guide you to what would be expected. Okay that is nothing you wouldn't normally do if you wanted to go to any college.

Parsons I will say had such a great amount of talent that like WC you got first hand knowledge of just how many artists, not only think like and work like you, but they fed off each other and thus made everyday a day to bring your best game. This would not be the case if you were going to a small college where you might be one of 100 art majors. My major alone had over 300 in the freshmen year, and we did ALOT of work to be the best amongst ourselves. Art was regularly posted from earliar in the week along the walls, and the college has 2 large exhibits of student and teacher work throughout the year. I won't joke about the money, I hear my liver got top dollar... but anyone wanting to know more I would be willing to talk to privately.

Bobby

[LarrySeiler]

Hey Bobby...I think this will be a nice thread and will ease into some productive stuff for folks.

I went to the University of Wisconsin Green Bay back in the anti-art era of the early 70's....a stint in the navy during the end of Vietnam era, and finishing college in the late 70's graduating in 1979...

I received two majors in art, Visual arts; Communications and the Arts; and a degree/license/BA in education K-12 art.

I went to college simply because my family could not afford me opportunity to go on to a design school really. I really wish I could have gone to more of an art focused professional schooling.

Colleges are often prone to the influence of parties that fund the school or programs thru grants written by professors. The professors having won and secured monies for their departments find their positions likewise secure. Regardless of their own backgrounds and personal interests, they very well may be forced to teach a particular slant/direction of emphasis based upon the proposals they wrote.

For example, I had a painting professor that had attended his schooling in Paris, France and learned painting with instruction by setting his easel up in the Louvre. I really thought I was going to learn something! However...the prof only gave hearty approval to students who did innovative whim of the moment things such as squirting paint in cow manure and whipping it at the canvas.

I wanted to learn to paint...so I checked books out from the university library such as Frans Hals and Rembrandt...and laboriously copied the images. OF course, no book can do the real painting ANY justice...but I learned the basics of tonal values and drama of light that the Baroque period had.

The prof would walk around the room, come to my easel and look over my shoulder and never utter a positive encouraging word whatsoever! He'd grunt and walk away.

At the senior student art show....I was literally written into the judging critique as the "obvious" blight or mark against the spirit of the whole show. The black sheep if-you-will. Yet, my work is what the public showed most appreciation for that attended the show and I received many glares from students and the prof and his friends.

Now....things have changed immeasurably no doubt...but, I guess if you decide to attend a university you just have to be prepared for anything. For one...a university is all about a world ROUNDED perspective that places diversity and pluralism above the individual. If your emphasis philosophically is all about a one world ideal...that is the way to go. If you can't afford an art school, then attend colleges and universities...but understand that what is taught is often rooted in the need of professors and instructors to write grants, convince major contributors (such as the Carnegie Foundation) of the worthiness of their vision; that successfully writing such grants is how they keep their jobs....and that your interests will be secondary.

Part of you needs to open to new ideas...yet part of your artistic spirit also needs its sense of individuality. Pluralism and diversity is one thing for us to approve, applaud and enjoy, to appreciate and to support and guard; its another thing though where to prove such you have to give up your own identity. My advice is to not let that happen. To fight against it, be strong and dig in your heels as that is also one of the characteristics that so indelibly marks us as artists.

If you are strong enough to do that...then the university won't be detrimental to you as an art student.

Be prepared for the obvious of course, and that is all those other studies of all those other departments that make you the well rounded global citizen. Math, history, foreign language, science and so forth....!!

An art and design school, art institute really cuts thru what you won't need as an art professional to give you more of what you'll need to compete in the real art world commerically or as a fine artist, IMO....

Larry

[billyg]

Thanks as usual for a good piece Larry. My sentiments entirely in paras 5,10,11,12. Sadly you have to fight for what you want as theirs is not a passion for art but survival need for funding for their own little projects and if the provider says they shall throw cow dung at the wall then that is what they teach. Long live the Revolution.
Billyg. :D :evil: :angel:

[Deb McLaren]

My only advice to anyone thinking of attending art school is ~~~ check it out thoroughly before you commit your time and money.

I attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in the 70's and got a well rounded and what I now realize, a pretty thorough basis in commercial art. My education there has served me well through the years, and I now value it more than I ever did then.

In my older years, I decided to attend the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts, and moved from Pennsylvania to Connecticut to do it.

It's a very good school, but it was a nightmare for me. My reason for choosing that school was that they advertised "classical training". It doesn't exist there, they teach modern methods of drawing and painting. I committed a year of my life and many thousands of dollars to learn from SOME teachers who didn't know as much as I did, but other teachers who were real treasures. Overall, it lacked much for me, I would have been better off at Paier in my opinion. But, too late now, I've decided to quit spending my hard earned money on taking classes, and instead, teaching them, and applying what I know to doing my art, and that's working out splendidly.

So...again, check out the school thoroughly and make sure that whatever drew you to that school is actually what you'll get if you attend.

[arlene]

I went to Syracuse U and graduated in 19-- (sorry i'm not giving that away...let's just say i remember Nixon's downfall) with a BFA in textile design.

It's a great ART school...a separate college within the university. The good thing is you're immersed in art only day in and day out...(the courses are set up like any of the good art institutes) but because of the broad nature of the Syracuse community, you meet and live with folks who aren't just "artists".

Another good part is each semester you are required to take only one academic course...with the whole university, you can take it in anything...from business to psych to art history, to library sciences...etc.