Hi you guys
Gabe asked me to talk a little bit about my trip to NYC to look at grad schools. Needless to say, I had a great time, and it was really helpful to be able to visit. Because of my visit I have actually ruled out one of the schools that I was going to apply to.
I visited Columbia, School of Visual Arts, and Pratt Institute. By far and away Pratt was my favorite, which is funny because I thought it was going to be my least favorite. I loved Pratt because it is located in Brooklyn, and I LOVED the neighborhood (more than Manhattan even), and the school feels small and intimate even though it is fairly large with a fairly large graduate program. They have a little gated campus which is actually really nice in the middle of the city. The print shop was really cool (in the basement naturally) but it was large, spanning several rooms with all the usual stuff plus screen printing. I was actually really impressed with the campus. I could go on and on, but I guess I’ll stop on that note.
I really liked Columbia (obviously) and I think their program sounds amazing. They are definitely more critical theory centered versus Pratt and School of Visual Arts which are more studio based where making work takes precedence. Columbia is about working with the community, you have mentors (working artists), you are TAing or doing an assistantship, and finally, after all that, you are working in your studio. They emphasize the fact that they are not a “finishing school” where you go to just sit in your studio and make work. Both Pratt and SVA are not necessarily “finishing schools” but they do place a heavy emphasis on studio practice. Also, both of these schools do NOT do assistantships or force you to TA. That kind of bummed me out, but they are really concerned about practicing artists teaching the courses, which is also a good thing. There are a lot of factors to consider because every school is a little different.
SVA was my least favorite because the program seemed studio based to the extreme. It seemed very solitary. The campus consists of one building in the middle of Chelsea. I did not really like that. All the graduate studios are on the 8th and 9th floors and the workshops are located in the same building. They do have a really diverse group of grad students, but on the whole the program is very hands off and it seems like it just gives students unlimited free time to make work with some direction from professors but A LOT of uninterrupted studio time. SVA also does not do any sort of assistantships/teaching because they want professional working artists to be the teachers. Again, good and bad. They have Marilyn Minter teaching there which I thought was amazing because I love her, but I do not think this program is right for me. They emphasized over and over again how hands off the program is – you are essentially free to do whatever you want.
Well this is all very scary stream of consciousness writing, but if you have any questions you can come talk to me and I will try and use complete sentences. Hope this has been fractionally helpful. See you soon.
Maren
