01-14-2016, 07:20 PM
Art does not necessarily mean you will meet like minded people, or even similar minded people.
Sure you meet creative people, with a variety of art skills and talents, but even if you are in a private art school and talking with people in the same major as you, it is entirely possible that you can't relate to any of them. Though it is also possible that you will get along quite well too, but here are a number of ways you can end up alienated at art school:
If you are a transfer student-People group up with buddies and such within the 1st year, coming into an art program as a sophomore bypasses this meet and greet. Plus transfer students have entirely different orientations than incoming freshmen from highschool, they are often segregated in a way from the start. There might be some, one or two peeps, that don't care either way, but many are more like ,"And...who are you? Ah, you transferred in, that makes sense." then they proceed to have an awkwardly forced conversation with you while waiting for their besties for lunch. More than likely you won't be invited along.
Socio-economic status-People often want to ignore this, that we as a species are above it, well, we are not. In fact this heavily plays into a number of areas of socializing, especially at an expensive school (like any art college). This factors in less at a community college art program because everyone there has a mutual understanding of the limitations of money (or lack of). You will meet students young and old from many different walks of life at a community college, all unified at least in one way: "You're broke? Me too, let's hang and do art sometime? Great! Sorry to ask but do you have gas money? I get paid next week..." In any university, no matter public or private, you will run into a LOT of students there because their parents paid for it. They often times never seen the FAFSA form and have next to no concept of just how scarce money is. This in itself leads to communication issues if you happen to not be a student with either affluent or at least money savvy parents. Now more than ever students are taking out loans but even in college, how financially well off your parents are absolutely impacts much of your experience in college. Again this matters less in community college.
Even art style-In an BA or BFA program, you've got a mixture of talents and progress (even within the same major), and some people have a firm idea of who they are as an artist, many actually don't. I would wager most don't. It is actually somewhat difficult to really get good feedback from these more indecisive students. People there are more focused on their own work, and you might only get 15 minutes at best of critique from the art teacher, the rest comes from your peers/classmates. Often times they won't have very helpful feedback to provide you during class critique, they are just trying to come up with something to get their participation points. It is romantic to think of this class full of determined, young artists all getting down and gritty into the air and passion of art to help one another become better creators. Unfortunately though, artschool is more like the movie, Art School Confidential, except without the murder and angst and more of the vagueness that makes you want to get your money's worth by slapping the piss out of everyone in there.
The internet honestly replaces the two main selling points of art school, you can more readily find your community in forums for free and if you all really determined you can meet and greet on skype, and in terms of professional skills you can be taught by the professionals themselves on patreon, udemy, coursera, various pages to name a few. For art that needs a studio, like weaving/metal work/large scale etc, you are better off finding a career in something on the side and finding a community that does this in their own time, not so much a university, or go to a community college with a decent art program (the 80/20 option at a fraction of the cost).
The university student community at the BA level is not worth it. Not even for the lowest price you can get it, unless you get a lot of scholarships and they essentially pay you to go to their school. That is the only time it is worth it, and frankly the only reason I went to university in the first place.
Sure you meet creative people, with a variety of art skills and talents, but even if you are in a private art school and talking with people in the same major as you, it is entirely possible that you can't relate to any of them. Though it is also possible that you will get along quite well too, but here are a number of ways you can end up alienated at art school:
If you are a transfer student-People group up with buddies and such within the 1st year, coming into an art program as a sophomore bypasses this meet and greet. Plus transfer students have entirely different orientations than incoming freshmen from highschool, they are often segregated in a way from the start. There might be some, one or two peeps, that don't care either way, but many are more like ,"And...who are you? Ah, you transferred in, that makes sense." then they proceed to have an awkwardly forced conversation with you while waiting for their besties for lunch. More than likely you won't be invited along.
Socio-economic status-People often want to ignore this, that we as a species are above it, well, we are not. In fact this heavily plays into a number of areas of socializing, especially at an expensive school (like any art college). This factors in less at a community college art program because everyone there has a mutual understanding of the limitations of money (or lack of). You will meet students young and old from many different walks of life at a community college, all unified at least in one way: "You're broke? Me too, let's hang and do art sometime? Great! Sorry to ask but do you have gas money? I get paid next week..." In any university, no matter public or private, you will run into a LOT of students there because their parents paid for it. They often times never seen the FAFSA form and have next to no concept of just how scarce money is. This in itself leads to communication issues if you happen to not be a student with either affluent or at least money savvy parents. Now more than ever students are taking out loans but even in college, how financially well off your parents are absolutely impacts much of your experience in college. Again this matters less in community college.
Even art style-In an BA or BFA program, you've got a mixture of talents and progress (even within the same major), and some people have a firm idea of who they are as an artist, many actually don't. I would wager most don't. It is actually somewhat difficult to really get good feedback from these more indecisive students. People there are more focused on their own work, and you might only get 15 minutes at best of critique from the art teacher, the rest comes from your peers/classmates. Often times they won't have very helpful feedback to provide you during class critique, they are just trying to come up with something to get their participation points. It is romantic to think of this class full of determined, young artists all getting down and gritty into the air and passion of art to help one another become better creators. Unfortunately though, artschool is more like the movie, Art School Confidential, except without the murder and angst and more of the vagueness that makes you want to get your money's worth by slapping the piss out of everyone in there.
The internet honestly replaces the two main selling points of art school, you can more readily find your community in forums for free and if you all really determined you can meet and greet on skype, and in terms of professional skills you can be taught by the professionals themselves on patreon, udemy, coursera, various pages to name a few. For art that needs a studio, like weaving/metal work/large scale etc, you are better off finding a career in something on the side and finding a community that does this in their own time, not so much a university, or go to a community college with a decent art program (the 80/20 option at a fraction of the cost).
The university student community at the BA level is not worth it. Not even for the lowest price you can get it, unless you get a lot of scholarships and they essentially pay you to go to their school. That is the only time it is worth it, and frankly the only reason I went to university in the first place.