Lately there has been a rising trend of artist-run schools and programs popping up throughout the country: Trade School, the School for Creative Activism, the Bruce High Quality Foundation University, and New York Arts Practicum, to name just a few in New York. While this is not an entirely new phenomenon, perhaps the current manifestation is a response to exponentially rising tuition prices as well as stagnant employment opportunities for people (such as myself) who have already spent a great deal on their education thus far. Discontent with the current art school model also seems to be an increasingly common attitude among students and faculty alike.
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All of these photos come from Shandong, where, according to the People’s Daily Online, nearly 10,000 people applied to get into the Shandong University of Art and Design this year.
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I teach drawing, and I often have people tell me that they can’t draw, that they couldn’t even draw a stick figure. And so I ask them how they know that. And they say, “Yeah, I tried it and it looked like crap.” The truth of the matter is that art is not so much the way things look, but a way of looking at things.
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The Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) is forcing students to buy an art history book for $180 — which wouldn’t be unheard of, but the catch is that the publishers of this book didn’t get any of the image rights for the artwork it includes. To reiterate, that’s an art history survey without any pictures. WTF.
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… and with the same non-existing deception, in addition to my rebellion against the intellectual arrogance that plagues some of my fellow students, I admit not to really care. Even though something inside of me twists and shouts “Liar!” Well, maybe if I tell myself I don’t care enough times I will start believing it …
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Just in time for tonight’s premiere of the trashy reality TV series (wait, that may be redundant) Work of Art, is a new web app to help you separate the wheat from the chaff, the Art School Cliché detector!
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