To art school or not to art school: the value debate
Posted on | 1/23/11 | No Comments
In the spirit of disclosure I must admit that I did go to art school although my path to it was rather random. I first encountered art in elementary school, when I lived in the United States. My teacher Melanie Megyassi, thought I was brilliant at a time when my other teachers seriously thought that I might be mentally retarded. Thanks to her, I participated in dozens of children's competitions and won quite a few of them. In seventh grade I moved to Puerto Rico and the arts are not a normal part of the average student’s education there. I did not have another art class until I was in eleventh grade and in time, I forgot much of my love for art. I went to college to study English language, in hopes of becoming a poet, and it was there that I rediscovered my love of art. I participated in an installation creation workshop given by Pepon Osorio, an interesting artist, but who seemed like kind of a jerk. The experience did give me back the feeling of infinite potential that I had lost.
There's an ongoing debate that I myself have experienced, and that is the argument about the value of art school. Those who did study art consider those who don't to be primitive (also called "folk") artists and these artists are shown in special galleries dedicated to showing off their tendency to buck educational trends. On the other hand, these so-called primitive artists think that those who go to art school are foolish. More than once, I have had the unfortunate experience of participating in a conversation with artist friends, who did not go to art school and then proceeded to talk about how foolish those who do go to art school are. While I can certainly appreciate their taking offense at essentially being considered second-class citizens of the art world, there are also times that I can understand completely why their art is called primitive and considered uneducated.
An arts education is valuable. Not so much because of what you might learn in class as what you will learn from all of your peers. The opportunity to explore different types of art, not just painting or drawing or sculpture, but things like stained-glass working or bead making, or installation making, film, graphic art, videography and so much more. These different types of art and different histories and perspectives on arts are important. They can make you think and become a better artist. I have heard people say, in a mocking tone, comments such as “I don't look at other peoples work, because it might contaminate my perspective.” That seems to me to be the biggest bullshit I have ever heard, and it is an excuse to remain ignorant.
While I do believe that art schools should be less xenophobic in direction and accept the value of other types of art without labeling them as primitive, I still feel that they are valuable. Art school is where you go to free yourself from stagnation and potential stagnation. As an artist it is far too tempting to figure out what I do well and stick with it. But if I did that I would never grow to be a better artist. So even though I can't pay to return to art school right now, I continue trying to learn in the manner I learned at art school, by looking at others' work, going to classes, talking to people, analyzing and paying attention. I do believe that you can become an artist without going to art school and that your art will not necessarily be any more primitive than an art school graduates. But I also believe the experience of art school is extremely valuable. Besides learning about a variety of artistic mediums, you learn the value of criticism as a means to grow as an artist and you learn art speak, to talk bullshit to get what you want, skills which are very difficult and painful to learn on your own.
Category:
art,
art class,
art education,
art portfolio,
art school,
college,
pepon osorio,
value of art school
