<p>My daughter wants to go to art school but I feel like she will be limiting herself. She is a Jr. in HS with a 3.65 unweighted GPA with all honors and 2 AP classes. She just got her first SAT's back and got a 2030. We just looked at a few schools over vacation, BU, Mass ARt, RISD, Brandies and Emmanual. She is looking to stay in the N.E. We are looking in NYC in April. I really want to encourage her to go to a college so she has more options especially since she is a really talented writer. She liked BU but really wants illustration. I just feel like it is too limiting. Any suggestions to convince her?</p>
<p>My family is filled with artists, with the following career paths: Mom–Univ BFA, Univ MFA; brother–univ BFA, art school MFA; cousin–univ BFA, univ MFA; friend’s kid–art school BFA, univ MFA; good friend-- art school BFA. All of them, ALL OF THEM, recommend a college rather than an art school.</p>
<p>Now, I have a friend whose children (twins) are both looking at art school for undergrad and they say there are some very good liberal arts/BFA art school programs out there with some good business/management curricula now at art schools that sound promising. My brother said that that would be a very good idea indeed; maybe there is some good evolution happening at some good art schools.</p>
<p>Hmmm. I went to Mass Art and got a BFA and then got a MAT at a university. My D just received her BFA from a university. We were happy that she went to a university for several reasons. At the time that she applied to schools, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to major in art or something else so the university educaton gave her options. In retrospect, I’m glad that she stayed there because she got a good liberal arts education in the honors program as well as an exceptional experience in the Fine Arts program. We also thought that she would not have been very happy at a small college such as an art school, mainly because she is a very social person who enjoys a diverse group of friends and my experience in art school was that everyone was “different” in the same way, if you know what I mean.
I loved Mass Art and it is the right school for many kids but I think a university art eucation is a good option, IF the art program is stellar. It is not a good idea to compromise on the quality of the art instruction just because you want a university. Havings said that, BU has an excellent and well respected art school. Another one to look at is Syracuse.
By the way, I started out wanting illustration and ended up HATING it. I ended up in art education and have never reretted it.</p>
<p>My daughter graduated from Brandeis as a double major in studio art and art history and has an MFA in painting from Tyler School of Art. She had an excellent experience both as an art student at Brandeis, both undergrad and post-bac. She did not want to go to art school for undergrad as she wanted the intellectual experience and environment that a university would provide. She has no regrets that she took that path.</p>
<p>The son of a friend majored in illustration and graduated about five or six years ago. Currently, he’s an apprentice tattoo artist.</p>
<p>S majored in design (BA, UCLA) and has been gainfully employed as a freelancer during and since his undergraduate days - thanks to networking. You and your D may want to look at the networking opportunities at prospective schools to identify those that will introduce her to potential employers, e.g., alums.</p>
<p>BU’s College of Fine Arts has a great School of Visual Arts (I used to work in the administration at CFA); however, the curriculum includes painting, sculpture, graphic design, and art education, and not illustration. Feel free to PM me about SVA.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I majored in art (Visual and Environmental Studies) at Harvard, and went on in architecture. I’ve always loved children’s book illustrations and will always wonder about the road not taken. And in fact I took a couple of years off from architecture trying it out, but it was too hard to break in at that point in my life. Sometimes I think it would have been easier not to have had the grades and SAT scores that made me feel I had to go to college instead of art school. And I also had the mistaken idea that I’d have to go be a modern painter at art school, something I had no interest in. I still paint and sell art work as a small side business. I can’t live on what I make, but I do pay for my materials out of my earnings. :)</p>
<p>A few Northeast colleges with good studio art: Williams, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Haverford, Vassar, Conn College, Skidmore, Smith. These are smaller colleges with good to excellent academics as well, although most would offer drawing instead of illustration or design.</p>
<p>If I could give you one piece of advice it would be this: don’t overanalyze the future of your artist/daughter at this point. If she feels that she wants to be an artist, the best thing she can do, AT THIS POINT, is to choose a program that is going to give her a good foundation in studio arts. That foundation could someday lead her to many different places, perhaps illustration or, perhaps, some other field of art. She may even end up making a living in another field and working as an artist, as well. </p>
<p>My husband was very concerned about my D majoring in art. I knew, as an artist, myself, that we would be pushing her toward an unhappy life if we were to discourage her pusuit and evaluate her dreams based solely on it’s potential as income. She has always been an artist. And now she is an educated artist with skills. She is currently working in her field and is also showing her work (even had a show in New York already). Is she financially secure? Not yet, but she just graduated last month so I’m not too concerned. She’ll figure it out. There are no guarantees in ANY field. You might as well be happy while you are poor!</p>
<p>Many colleges and universities have art majors, but also have other subjects to sample for breadth (which may give an artist inspiration for subjects to create art about).</p>
<p>Some colleges are not just art schools, but have art as one of the small number of subjects that they emphasize. Examples include Sarah Lawrence and Cooper Union.</p>
<p>Ringling College of Art and Design used to be Ringling School of Art and Design. They changed their requirements several years ago to become accredited within the university system so that credits would be transferable to a more traditional college if needed. Check the ability to transfer credits</p>
<p>DD’s best friend went to an art school. She had always loved drawing/painting, doing art. She dropped out because it became the be all/end all and she fell out of love with it. I think going to a more traditional college might be a good idea.</p>
<p>RRTmom, whether art school is for your child or a full scale college would be a better choice is for you and your child to decide. For my kid, she wanted a BFA and a bfa was all that would do. We looked at programs at universities and at stand alone schools and she really loved the stand alone schools better. A couple of other universities with good BFA programs that you could look at are Rochester Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University. While they are not in the NE, they are not that far and have great art programs, with illustration (my dd’s major) and your dd could have other opportunities. Good luck.</p>
<p>Having gone through something similar a few years ago in music (conservatory vs. college), I think the best thing a parent can do is really expose the kid thoroughly to both (by which I mean making them really look hard at the curricula) and let the kid choose. As they said in conservatory admissions, only come if you really, really, really can’t imagine yourself anywhere else.</p>
<p>Most BFA programs, but not all, are 24/7 exposure to the artistic discipline. Some, e.g., BU and RISD, do require liberal arts exposure. S chose the BA route because he wanted the opportunity to take courses outside his discipline even though he did spend a lot of time working in the arts. It’s a very personal choice.</p>
<p>My D is at Minneapolis College of Art and Design and has found that creative writing and illustration go hand in hand. Many projects they do are interdisciplinary. Her creative writing skills will serve her well wherever she goes.</p>
<p>Try looking up Bennington College in Vermont. Students there can do all the art they want and are also encouraged to find connections between art and other subjects as part of their individual self-designed plan. For instance, one student on a panel told us that her advisor urged her to take biology, because her art had a sort of systematic, organic quality. A sculptor might take dance, and an illustrator might take folklore and mythology. But you can also take as many art classes as you like in any given semester. There are many students doing illustration, or animation, or just about anything else you can think of. Also, I believe that for a small fee, individual students can have their own studio space. Finally, every year in January and the first part of February, there is a field work term in which students work off campus, anywhere in the world actually, so there is plenty of opportunity to get out in the world and figure out a path after school involving whatever interests the student.</p>
<p>i have the same situtation with my daughter. looking at atelier programs where they actually teach you how to draw/ paint etc. i’m skeptical of most university based art programs. still have 3-4 yrs to decide, but at this point i’m thinking broad based liberal arts education at university first. then atelier for 1-2 yrs for real art training- maybe florence academy of art</p>
<p>There are some very good universities and colleges that take a very disciplined approach to the basics of studio art. One of them is Boston University. </p>
<p>I suggest that anyone who wants to spend their life as an artist should pursue a BFA as opposed to a BA.</p>
<p>Since she is a junior, there is always the possibility that she will change her mind, about 50 times, with regards to what she wants to major in. With that in mind it does make sense to choose a school that has a great fine art program along with a whole list of other offerings. There is no reason to pick a school that has nothing but visual art.</p>
<p>It sounds like you are doing a good job in regards to researching different schools and you know what you are looking for when checking out the schools. Finding one that offers a major in what she wants along with those other things that you know she is good at is a good plan.</p>
<p>Studying visual art is very demanding. Students don’t realize this when they are planning out their college path. She will probably be glad to have other options to choose from at a well rounded school. There is also a lot of diversity in types of people in a school that has a whole selection of different majors. That might be a selling point as well. She can study what she wants but will still have the options available of something else.</p>
<p>Since you’re visiting NYC in April, you likely already know of the Illustration major at SUNY’s Fashion Institute of Technology. </p>
<p>You asked how to “convince” her to widen her vision a bit. Read how they sell Liberal Arts coursework to their own art majors: [Fashion</a> Institute of Technology - The Liberal Arts](<a href=“http://fitnyc.edu/2406.asp]Fashion”>http://fitnyc.edu/2406.asp)</p>
<p>They’re using a different language. Perhaps it appeals.</p>