So This is What it’s Like to Attend a Graduate Art School
January 15, 2010 | Nathaniel
Attention all graduate art school students. I have here an interview that is vital to your education. Or at least an interview you could relate to on some sort of a mild level.
Ashley is an art student way out in Bloomfield Hills, MI. What’s she doing there? She attends the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Sound ritzy or prominent? It is. She declares, “I am a Masters of Fine Arts Candidate in Metalsmithing.”
Interesting major. While studying for her Bachelor’s degree in California she was practicing her metal work and producing one of a kind pieces of jewelry. She continues her studies and work over at Cranbrook. I asked her to share a little about her school with us.
“All of the departments here are open to contemporary ideologies of art including interdisciplinary explorations and material openness. The school in general is the only dedicated Graduate only Art Academy in North America. It has ten departments and a really fantastic history with both the Booth family and the Saarinen family.”
Turns out, the Saarinen and the Booth families are very important people in the up and comings of Cranbrook. The former birthing the architect and co-designer of the school and releasing upon the world the designer of the Tulip Chair. The Booths, Ashley goes on to explain, held onto roots in a newspaper in Detroit and used a large portion of the profits of the newspaper to found the Cranbrook Educational Community. I asked her if she felt that her work will flourish or grow there:
“I know that it already has and that it will continue to do so. In my department in particular, one of the explorative emphasis (is) on materiality and the effect of material on concept. Becoming aware of this is enough to let me know that I have a better awareness of what I’m doing in my studio practice.”
So it seems like Graduate school and school in general helps an artist further their work. I inquired about what she looked towards doing after graduation.
“There’s the hope and dream, and then there’s the practicality. Our field is flooded. We’re taught to believe that we’re each individual snowflakes. But the truth is: there’s a blizzard outside. Ideally, I’d love to be a functioning, eating studio artist abroad (where my field is more developed). But in all actuality I know that I’ll have to suck it in, work my butt off, and hold on by the skin of my teeth to get by. There are two parts of every artist. The part that wants to express their views and opinions of the world and the part that wants to eat.”
Couldn’t have said it better myself. Glad I didn’t try. Now, where’s my grad school app? I need to…
STUDY HARD!
