Last week when on break in my intermediate figure drawing class, I had a chance to speak with my teacher Keith. He attended the Art Center College of Design, an amazing school that many artists I admire have come out of.
I mentioned such to him and his reaction was interesting. He told me how competitive the school is, where it has you submit a portfolio for review to try and get in. He said that meant all the students around you already knew how to draw and were incredibly talented. He worked extremely hard to keep up, and so the environment really pushed him to learn. He said a lot of students couldn’t take the stress and would drop out.
I’ve heard so many amazing things about the school and as I mentioned above, the artists that I’ve seen who’ve graduated are just so talented. He really gave me a different take on it though. Money aside (it’s at least twice as expensive as theAcademy of Art), I don’t think I would have been able to get in. It’s an interesting system. It picks out individuals who already have great skills and then refines their craft to a great degree. I don’t like that it leaves others behind, regardless of whether or not I think I’d be one of the people left behind.
Now I don’t know what they look for in the submitted portfolios, but the impression I was left with was that you had to be pretty good to get in. The academy accepts everyone, so long as they can pay (a serious issue unto itself), but at least people aren’t turned away for not having the skillset they’re coming to school to learn.
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