Dealing with disapproval

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
1

<p>What do I say to the people who don't want D to go to an art school? Who say that it would be a waste of her brain, that she belongs in an LAC, that it will give her only technical skills and not conceptual skills? blah, blah blah, blah.</p>

<p>I'm starting to get a lot of heat about this and so far, it's NOT from any family members.</p>

<p>Why does this remind me of being pregnant and getting so much unwanted advice and having to hear everyone's horror story? </p>

<p>I've toyed with the idea of saying, "well, we wanted her to get a philosophy degree, but then there are so many cabbies already". Just sounds too mean, and I'd rather hit the nail on the head than shoot a whole new nail.....</p>

2

<p>This is one of my personal favorites. I was an art major, as were a number of other posters on this board. There is this perception that “artists” are these unclean, undisciplined lot that spend thier days sleeping and their nights painting large canvases in some abandoned space, and after all how does a painter / “artist” make a living.</p>

<p>The term “artist” includes, designers, art drectors set designers, visual display artists, commercial artists, architectural designers, animators, industrial designers, textile designers, package design, advertising design, filmakers, photographers…and so on and so on. </p>

<p>Once you enlighten these “critics” re: the scope of skills and professions that encompass the title artist ( and the training in these disciplines that you get at “art school”) ask the this. Putting aside the things that nature created and exist in their pure state, ask them to name the things that they encounter daily, that WERE NOT somehow touched by an artist…</p>

<p>As a side note, there is a best seller titled " A Whole New Mind, Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future" that they might be interested in reading…I think “Right Brainers” include artists</p>

3

<p>take out the collection can and tell them
" well I coulda send her to COLUMBIA if you can help us out, we’ll take donation for increment of 10k, 5k might be OK if that’s all you can do."</p>

<p>^^ it was fun book but don’t eat everything he says. He mentioned about HS my kid went but obviously not know what he was talking about. I wrote to the guy and he admitted rightaway he never visited just heard about it secondhand.</p>

4

<p>Paint them blue. :D</p>

5

<p>Oh Lord! I had that attitude from many many people regarding my daughter and her selection of art school and specifically RISD. So many people told me it was not worth our money and what could she do with “that”? Some were even on this board. I’m astounded that people had the nerve to tell my husband and I how much money we should spend our our daughter’s education. But they did and it sounds like they are still doing it. I just stated that we lived a certain lifestyle so we had the pleasure do this for our children. Its funny that they said nothing when my son went to the state university of his choice. I guess its about making a choice that is outside the norm. Or maybe…it has to do more with their choices than ours???</p>

6

<p>Maybe because it hurts less if you shed 20K instead of 200K plus when your kid is back on your couch after stint at college and all the folks would say " I told you so" either in your face or behind your back?
You do what you believe it is good for your kid as long as you can pull it off. Rest is well, the rest. Prove them wrong if that’s really important to you. If not, go sit with your kid on the couch and relax.</p>

7

<p>3 stories:</p>

<p>My brother went to RISD years back and he and his close buddies are all living extremely well, with wonderful careers. That’s what they wanted and they got placed into their first jobs through RISD. They were design majors, so ymwv.</p>

<p>I met a professor at Otis in L.A. and he observed that attending art colleges will actually place you in jobs, while getting an UG art degree from a diverse U that doesn’t specialize in art will have less of those contacts within the art/design community, so can only do so much. This did ring true because…</p>

<p>My college roommate was an art major at a big 3rd-tier (or 4th!) state U. She eventually became a headhunter for an agency that placed artists into hot ad agencies. She was sent to recruit at Art Center in Pasadena, but not at the state U’s. (Legend has it she interviewed Brad Pitt there.)</p>

<p>An art student going to art school is like a musician going to a conservatory. It is a fork in the road. But we are born artists! We come alive when making art among others who get us. Not everyone can understand this and it is just one of many times the universe will call on us to gently remind the critic that we are thrilled with our student’s path and, for us, this is a wonderful choice–with no further explanation needed.</p>

8

<p>We were fortunate: no one questioned our supporting our daughter’s desire for an art school, despite both of us holding degrees from ‘regular’ colleges.</p>

<p>When we visited one school, a dean offered up a comment to make when people wonder…“Why art school?”</p>

<p>The fact of the matter is that nearly everything you touch/see/use in life has been touched in some way by an artist. Our homes, our clothes, the products we buy, the magazines we read, the entertainment we seek: each and every one is delightful and exciting to us BECAUSE an artist touched it.</p>

<p>How can you not support that?</p>

9

<p>@madbean, just wondering what ymwv means…</p>

<p>Also, for the curious, I saw the MICA bus leaving the Howard County fairgrounds yesterday. They must have just dropped off kids who were visiting the lovely MD Sheep and Wool Festival. Not your usual art school outing.</p>

10

<p>The only people we ran into that said “Why art school?” was D’s high school principle. Told her and 3 of her friends that they better think twice about that, and “how did they think their parents could afford it?”. He had one girl, who is very talented and waitlisted at Pratt in tears. Art teachers at that school think it has something to do with his sister who is an artist. Wish I knew what THAT story was!</p>

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<p>Madbean—Brad Pitt went to MU. He was being chased by some of my friends there. ;)</p>

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<p>The only people we ran into that said “Why art school?” was D’s high school principle. Told her and 3 of her friends that they better think twice about that, and “how did they think their parents could afford it?”. He had one girl, who is very talented and waitlisted at Pratt in tears. Art teachers at that school think it has something to do with his sister who is an artist. Wish I knew what THAT story was!</p>

<p>Let me tell you. The teachers / Principals I had when I were in H.S were the biggest bunch of unsupportive idiots I have ever encountered!</p>

<p>I was literally told that “putting off college and trying to make ski films” would results in me “working in service my entire life” and that “you cant go against the grain…you have to follow OUR PLAN”. </p>

<p>Basically was being told that my semi-original idea was pure ****! (Excuse my language) and that I was destined to become a giant failure.</p>

<p>My assistant principal was the worst. How he ever received a job working with “children” is beyond me.</p>

<p>A month ago, I was him, when I was working @ my local farmers market. He opens up with “Mr. Bacon, no suprise to see you working service” with a giant **** eating grin on his face.</p>

<p>My response " You know what, LARRY (I am sure he hated me not using his last name), any other week that might have gotten to me, but there isn’t a thing you can say to get me today. I was just accepted at one of the top art schools in the country, I have set foot on more continents than you could name all while working for myself, and I managed the brand images of two 20 mil plus a year companies, and I didn’t use a damn thing XXXXXX High School taught me"</p>

<p>That shut him up in about 2 seconds.</p>

<p>Sorry, I really am not an egotistical person. Far from it. I have just worked hard and been in the right place at the right time.</p>

<p>But for those people who get down on themselves when someone questions why art school…remind your kids, those people probably never TRIED for what they wanted. They just took the path that had the highest defined “success rate”.</p>

<p>How many lawyers / teachers / accountants / ect ect were artists, and didn’t get the support or opportunities some of your kids / I am getting? To me, its resentment that people wont “conform”</p>

<p>Plus…artists do still have a reputation for hanging out, getting high and drunk, and forgetting to bathe on a regular basis haha. We still fight that perception all the time</p>

<p>When I have kids, if they ever heard something like that, old dad would just tell them “You know what, F**K em!”</p>

<p>:)</p>

13

<p>Sorry if that sounded like a rant. Just that I came from a high school where if your family had money, or you were successful on the sports fields, you were catered to from the day you set foot into the school to the day you left. A place where my friends (who are still my friends, and are still loveable yet dumb as the day is long) got A’s in AP classes when they never even handed in homework, when the highly intelligent lower income students languished in the base level classes. (Maybe since there were “material fees” for AP classes that started at $500 bucks!)</p>

<p>There were two art classes at my school…each a 1/4 long…you took those two, thats it, no more to take. If you wanted to be an “artist”…im shocked they didn’t just send you down to the janitors office to start “Career Training” (no insults to janitors, Cozzie the old janitor at my school was full of wisdom and humor, far more so than the administration! Hope your still out there Cosworth!) since they considered it a dead end career.</p>

<p>And I live in “enlightened” New England :)</p>

<p>Basic point…the sooner kids learn to stop listening to all the negativity that surrounds them, and start listening to what their own mind tells them, the sooner they will succeed in art and live</p>

14

<p>Great story awbacon! I’ve had someone at D’s school say to me, “I would hate it if she went to art school”. </p>

<p>What the *%#@!! I was astounded at the nerve of someone, not even one of D’s teachers, to say that! I guess that person is just a hater… and can be ignored. </p>

<p>Just like the idiots at your school. I think some people go into teaching so they can “mold young minds” and other twaddle and what they are really after is the control they will have over other, younger people. You may run into a few more like that when you’re at art school, but considering your high school experience, you should be able to spot them early and deflect their bull****!!</p>

15

<p>In D’s school, they have 3 art teachers, 2 which have especially helped D accomplish what she has, in the land of "if it ain’t sports, it ain’t nuthin’. The principal nixed the AP Portfolio class, & the field trip to NPD, and has placed the Port teacher on the “involuntary lay-off” list which means he’s gotta find himself another job in the district. Now the P wants to get rid of the Port class all together and replace it with Art Theory. He believes art should be done in rows of desks with no talking. With that teacher gone, I fear the end of what little art program they did have. We are in the land of the “unenlightened South”.</p>

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<p>I completely agree. I am interested in pursuing a film studies major, but I hate telling people that this is what I want to do. I get that glazed over look that says “yeah you’ll either be homeless in ten years or be a bank teller.” I’m sorry that science isn’t my thing, and I don’t want to be a doctor. Somebody has to be interested in the arts, so why can’t it be us?</p>

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<p>Yeah, and most of those bank tellers have been replaced by ATM’s! You could also add that working in film means you’re less likely to be held up by bank robbers.</p>

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<p>O, I totally know how this feels. We’ve gotten it for years now. Friends, relatives, teachers, everyone seems to have an opinion about how going to a LAC is a better choice, because it’s a “more rounded education”, because art school isn’t a good use of time or money. I’ve even gotten negative feedback from people who are artists or related to artists. My son’s gf (now his EX gf) has a parent who is evidently fairly well known, has galleries in several cities – and didn’t go to art school. So she used to tell us ever time it came up that it “just wasn’t necessary” for success. Sure, kid, it’s not – but why should my daughter not go to school, too? </p>

<p>I’ve also gotten it on CC, especially when I was posting about the FA situation earlier this year. </p>

<p>Usually, when it comes up, I say something about how <em>I</em> am the student in the family with a useless major – comparative religious studies.</p>

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<p>^TrinSF I bet that shut them up!</p>

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<p>I get a lot of …why would your son who is so good at math/science/writing do art? I don’t respond very defensively since I myself am conflicted because I love numbers and I don’t really understand what motivates my son or really understand what he is doing most of the time. </p>

<p>But what I remember is that the academically inclined students at my high school went off to do useful degrees and well paying careers…I am one of the lucky few of from this group that is pretty happy in my work …but our Val committed suicide at Harvard, our Sal is bored stiff as an electrical engineer, most of the women dropped their careers to stay home–partly because they wanted to put more time into motherhood but partly because work wasn’t very rewarding–the happiest of my high school classfollwed their hearts-- teachers in low paying but rewarding jobs who always knew they wanted to be teachers, a gay classmate tortured and bullied for years but never once doubted he wanted to go to broadway is now a successful tv and broadway actor, and a pudgy, quiet girl who loved to sing has become a major opera diva…and get this…they did this despite growing up in the North Florida cultural void (keep the faith redbug!) where everyone told them they were nuts to waste their smarts on teaching, acting, singing…BTW…the actor and the diva still credit their families’ support as the reason they were able to do what they love… so I don’t really respond to others’ negative comments, I am more often needing internal reassurance that we are doing the right thing in supporting his art studies, battling my personal doubts and mom-instincts that deep down would like him to be in a field that I understand well and has a pretty clear career and income path (like economics!)…</p>