Quality of the Visual and Environmental Studies programme?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

VES seems like the perfect course of study: a panoptic art education with a heavy emphasis on theory and history…

My concern is that it seems like VES is ultimately a very marginal part of Harvard academia. I can’t find anything about it on forums, and no one ever really thinks of Harvard and art students. It also it seems a bit odd to lump ‘visual studies’ and ‘environmental studies’… Makes me feel like art in itself maybe isn’t as valued within the community, which I suppose is fair enough.

So do any of you know anything about the programme? Is it well funded, is it respected (in and outside the uni), are the facilities any good? Is VES ‘on par’ with other Harvard degree programmes?

Thanks :slight_smile:

2

My daughter graduated with a Harvard VES degree --and IMHO it’s totally worthless. VES offers a liberal arts education with a dabbling of arts, but the “dabbling” doesn’t prepare students for entering the ultra competitive world of actually making a living from the arts. Harvard’s program explores art for art’s sake – it’s pure academic masterbation. If you are interested in making a living wage from Art or Film there are infinitely better conservatory choices other than Harvard that I would recommend you explore. Google: “Conservatory Art or Film programs.”

3

In contrast, a childhood friend of my kids was a VES concentrator at Harvard. He also took a lot of math and computer science courses. He won a college-wide prize for best senior thesis (shared among 4-5 graduates), was hired by Bain, and now works for a high-end Silicon Valley venture capital firm. He thought VES was great. He did not expect to make “a living wage from Art or Film.”

It’s worth noting both that @gibby is right that there are lots of conservatory programs that will do a much more consistent, systematic job than Harvard at preparing someone to be a professional artist, and that a meaningful number of Harvard alumni nonetheless go on to have real careers in the arts. I think for the most part they use their extracurricular life to set up their artistic careers, rather than relying on what they are taught.

4

Harvard has increased focus on applied arts in recent years. This is true for music, film and drama as well. I am not sure when Gibby’s daughter attended but things may be different now.

On the music forum here on CC, conservatory BM versus university BA is often discussed, and the same issues arise for a BA in visual studies versus BFA. A Harvard BA is essentially a degree in the academic study of art, but as I said, Drew Faust has made a point of increasing applied/studio art studies. This effort began some years back when most grads were going into finance and there was a feeling that students concentrating in the arts maintained a richer, more diverse student mix. I don’t think VES is marginalized at all and is quite well thought of. Their website emphasizes both studio and theory.

But if your child wants to be immersed in art-making, with the majority of classes in art, with the BFA focus on studio work, there are other, better places to go, yes. Art schools like RISD, Savannah, Mass. Art…many others. Or artsy liberal arts colleges like Bennington, Skidmore, Vassar, Sarah Lawrence, Hampshire.

Harvard has gen ed requirements, and so an arts concentrator might take 1/3 or even 1/2 of total classes in the major. A BFA program would probably have more like 2/3-3/4 classes in art. And the proportion of studio classes might be different. Check things like gen eds, number of studio classes, and perhaps also whether there are courses geared to career.

Then again, I don’t think major has to match career either. This is changing, obviously, as more people want a return on their investment and so on. But honestly an arts concentrator can work in many fields after graduation (hence the Bain). It is very worthwhile spending those precious 4 years in a rich environment studying something you love, and figuring out the career thing later.

Of course, a lot of art can happen outside the classroom, and independently. Also, if a “day job” is a concern, then interning, volunteering or working while in college greatly enhances career choices and opportunities.

5

Just want to say that the Harvard School of Arts and Sciences has a concentration in the History of Art and Architecture, and VES is the more applied program for art.

6

The history of Art and Architecture was added since my time, but I did graduate in VES many years ago. I never regretted it. I had entered Harvard thinking I might become an academic and by the end of freshman year I knew I’d rather shoot myself than end up in academia. For me VES with its design and art courses and access to everything that the GSD offered was perfect. I took all the architectural history offered and wrote my thesis on low cost housing in London and Berlin - surprisingly academic - though it included photographs and diagrams and floor plans as well as analysis. It was a good preparation for architecture grad school and I did end up with about a semester’s credit for my undergrad coursework. Most of my VES friends did design related things. One ended up managing a fabric business, a number are doing things with digital media. Another wrote a well-known memoir and was involved in film. Several became architects.

If you know you want to be an artist and nothing else, go to art school, but if you want a liberal arts education as well, Harvard is not a bad place to be.

7

My son just graduated with a VES degree. He has a great arts-based fellowship for next year, and has been accepted to a science-based graduate program. He has deferred and will begin graduate school in the Fall of 2018. He had a great experience in the VES department.