Everybody has something to say about art school, whether they were an attendee or not. It’s viewed as a joke from outside perspectives, and it’s even kind of viewed as a joke from inside perspectives.
Here’s the thing, every school produces a different experience. It can even become a different experience for people attending the same school. People handle the stress and pressure differently, and I have witnessed cliques formed as well as lone wolves consistently going it alone. There’s no way to determine what school is the best to attend because it depends on what professors are on the current roll call, and your possible classmates that will be suffering through school with you. Art students are thought as “stuck up hipsters”, and while some may be, there’s a chance you’ll come across some keepers that you’ll include in your daily doings. You can’t really ever know what to expect.
For a short list, this Buzzfeed article really does hit points that do apply to everyone studying art.
Art school is a weird place to be, and I’ve found through all of my schooling, beginning in kindergarten, my four years of art school were where my best friendships developed. I’ve met like minded people, there rarely was any competition, there for sure was support, and they are still people I talk to today. We suffered through late nights struggles to finish projects, we’ve taken daily trips to the art store to pick up supplies, we’ve shared supplies because as Buzzfeed stated – paint is EXPENSIVE, we’ve hunted for corners in the school to take naps, we’ve shared food, we’ve skipped class to go drink and cry, and have had quite a bit of outings after school hours.
Not to keep referring to Buzzfeed, but they got it right on #7 when your other friends and family make statements about how easy they view art school to be. I cringe and attempt to hold myself back from lashing out when people go down that road. No one understands how tough art school is unless you’re there, which is why it’s not hard to make connections with the people surrounding you in your classes because everyone’s in the same boat. Everyone has pulled all nighters struggling to finish projects – who needs sleep? Food becomes a time waster because when projects need to get done, who has time to cook? Mental breakdowns? Common. Our bank accounts? Sad.
I can’t tell you how much work went into getting projects done. We had about five+ classes assigning projects all due at the same time, really testing our skills of priority. All projects start with sketches (usually 10+ thumbnails of different compositions), refined sketches (usually 3+ of different compositions), colored sketches (usually 3+ different color ways), gathered references, and then you can finally start the final version once you narrowed down a well planned out composition with a perfect under drawing, because professors always ask to see your process so you really can’t half-ass it. Imagine doing this for five+ classes – of course there are mental breakdowns along the way.
I attended a school that was mixed business and art. The art students for sure got the short end of the stick because our classes were just as long as lecture classes yet we get half the amount of credits. Because of this we were forced to take more classes to fill up the minimum credit requirement which added a greater workload for us to take on. This goes to show that even the school doesn’t take the art department seriously. How can you expect everyone you know to take you seriously if your school can’t even do so?
I don’t want to preach whether art school is worth it or not, but you should ask yourself what your goals are and what you want to get out of an art education. It’s not guaranteed you’ll really obtain a good education, develop a good group of friends, or even find a good job after graduation. Honestly, most of us are still struggling to find something that made our time and effort at art school worth it. I found an article that actually tries convincing you to not go to art school. When it comes to getting an education in the arts, you are taught skills and techniques while learning about composition and color theory. You get critiques and on hand help. But at the same time, these are skills and techniques you can learn without having to attend college. As the article breaks down, there are endless resources to learn and advance your skills. It’s the time you put into it, not the amount of money you spend to get that paper to prove you graduated. Yea, the college I attended looks good on my resume, but so far that education hasn’t done anything to help my professional career. I can go on about the pros and cons of art school but I’ll save that for another time.
At the end of the day, the one thing I really did walk away with are the great friends I still have today. After being graduated for over a year, we still keep in touch (just saw them yesterday!), and we turn it into an event when we can gather a group of us in one area since we’re all spread out within two states + Canada. We get together for exhibits, drinks and dinner, karaoke of course, and help each other with ideas and critiques for current projects we’re working on. We talk of old times and how our search for a professional job is going while we root eachother on. Even though we’re technically in competition with each other for these professional jobs, we’re still looking out for eachother and I couldn’t ask for better, understanding friends. We struggled in school together, and I’m happy to have people that will support each other during these struggling post-graduation times. Luckily, we don’t have to text eachother at 3AM talking about the progress of our projects that are due at 9AM.
I can seriously talk about art school for days just so you know for future reference. Questions? Comments? Throw them my way.
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