Art school
An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on practice and related theory in the visual arts and design. This includes fine art – especially illustration, painting, contemporary art, sculpture, and graphic design. They may be independent or operate within a larger institution, such as a university. Some may be associated with an art museum.
Art schools may be organized to offer elementary, secondary, post-secondary, undergraduate, or graduate programs, and can also offer a broad-based range of programs. In the West there have been six major periods of art school curricula, and each one has had its own hand in developing modern institutions worldwide throughout all levels of education. Art schools also teach a variety of non-academic skills to many students.
History
Nicholas Houghton identifies six definitive historical art-school curricula in the Western tradition of art and art education: "apprentice, academic, formalist, expressive, conceptual, and professional".Each of these curricula has aided not only the way that modern art-schools teach, but also how students learn about art.
Art schools have been perceived as legitimate universities since the 1980s. Before this, any art programs were used purely as extracurricular activities,
and there were no methods of grading works. After the 1980s, art programs began to be integrated into schools and universities as legitimate courses that could be evaluated. While some argue that this weakened creativity among modern art-students, others see this as a way to treat fine arts as equal to other subjects.
Apprentice curriculum
Apprentice paths teach art as a mixture of aesthetic and function. In the past, students worked in the studio of an artist in exchange for room and board. Many of the Old Masters received training in this manner, copying or painting in the style of their teacher in order to learn the trade. Once the apprenticeship ended, the student would have to prove what they learned by creating a "masterpiece". Today this is sometimes done in photography or printmaking studios.Academic curriculum
Academic curricula began during the sixteenth-century Italian Renaissance, in which some of the earliest art academies were established. Up through the nineteenth century, these academies multiplied through both Europe and North America, and art began to become about both talent and intellect.Formalist curriculum
The formalist curriculum began in the mid-twentieth century, and focused on the basic components of artwork, such as "color, shape, texture, line - and a concern with the particular properties of a material or medium". This curriculum is most noted for including the height in popularity of Bauhaus. It was based on logic, mathematics, and 'Neoplatonism', which was widespread at the time.Expressive curriculum
Although the expressive curriculum originated at the same time as the formalist one, it focuses on completely different aspects of art. Rather than being concerned with the literal components of a piece of art, expressive curricula encouraged students to express their emotions and practice spontaneity. This is due to the heightened popularity of romanticism throughout the Renaissance.Conceptual curriculum
The conceptual curriculum began in the late-twentieth century, and focused not only on creating artwork, but also on presenting and describing the thought process behind the work. This is when the idea of critiquing others' works for educational purposes became popularized in North America. This serves as a model for modern-day art school programs.Professional curriculum
Professional curricula began appearing in art schools at the very end of the twentieth century. They teach students artistry from a perspective of business, and typically focus on modern pop-culture within the works themselves. These programs are designed to teach students how to promote both themselves and their artwork.Contemporary art schools
A wide variety of art mediums and styles are integrated into modern art school programs. Different mediums that are taught include painting, printmaking, drawing and illustration, theatre, and sculpture. Newer programs can include graphic design, filmmaking, graffiti art, and certain kinds of digital media.Some art schools include disciplines such as video game design, photography, fashion design, textile design, conceptual art, web design, architectural design and engineering, journalism and social media. Some schools continue craft traditions such as pottery, embroidery, printmaking, metalwork and building crafts.Many cover theoretical subjects such as cultural anthropology, cultural theory and cultural history including histories of art traditions in local and global cultures, design theory, business and industry studies such as marketing communication, customer profiling and production related technical subjects.
In recent years a number of art schools have begun to offer some or all of their curricula online, which by nature, transcends national boundaries. Among these are The Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online and Academy of Art University. As with on-ground schools, many of the majors involve computer-based work, such as compositions created in Photoshop, Illustrator, or 3D-Studio Max. Submission and review of these materials proceeds virtually identically for on-ground and online classes. When online courses require production of traditional drawings or other such materials, they usually are photographed or scanned for submission and review by instructors.
According to the International Journal of Art and Design Education, "mainstream educational contexts could foster drawing behaviour and the related emotional benefits to a greater extent". A study by Bryan Goodwin that focused on the "Mozart effect", which refers to the idea that listening to classical music is beneficial for mental and intellectual development, discovered that art education is useful to students of any age. It was discovered that learning both music and art within one's education were helpful in processing symptoms for those with PTSD, anxiety, and depression.
North America
United States
In the U.S., art and design schools that offer Bachelor of Fine Arts or Master of Fine Arts degrees break down into basic types with some overlap and variations.The most highly rated schools belong to a consortium formed in 1991 and called the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. These schools differ from for-profit career schools in that they require a strong component of liberal arts courses in addition to art and design courses, providing a well-rounded college degree.
There also are partnerships between art schools and universities such as School of the Art Institute of Chicago with Roosevelt University, the New England School of Art and Design at Suffolk University, Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, the Rhode Island School of Design with Brown University, Maryland Institute College of Art and Johns Hopkins University, ArtCenter College of Design, the Corcoran College of Art and Design with The George Washington University, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in conjunction with Tufts University, Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Parsons School of Design at The New School, or Herron School of Art at Indiana University.
There are at least two state-supported independent art schools in the U.S., Fashion Institute of Technology, which is part of the state university school system in New York, and Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Cooper Union in New York City is among the most selective of art schools, admitting 4%, with every student on half scholarship. The Yale School of Art at Yale University offers only graduate classes in its two-year MFA programs. The Yale Daily News reported on Thursday, February 1, 2007, that the School had 1215 applications for its class of 2009 and would offer admission to fifty-five students.
File:Steinberg_Hall.jpg|thumb|Steinberg Hall at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
Next up the scale in size for an art school would be a large art or design department, school, or college at a university. If it is a college, such as the College of Design at Iowa State University typically, it would contain programs that teach studio art, graphic design, photography, architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, or interior architecture, as well as art, design, and architectural history areas. Sometimes these are simply the schools of art, architecture, and design such as those at the College of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign or the Yale School of Art. With over 3,000 students, VCU School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University is one of the largest art schools in the nation and is also has achieved the highest ranking ever for a public university. Variation exists among art schools that are larger institutions, however, the essential element is that programs at universities tend to include more liberal arts courses and slightly less studio work, when compared to dedicated, but independent, schools of art.
The most common type of art school is affiliated with a university or college that offers a BA BFA, MA, or MFA. Many of the degree-offering institutions do not offer intense training in classical realism and academic painting and drawing. The Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts is considered a collegiate version of this educational model. This gap is filled by Atelier art schools or in separate locations, such as the New York Academy of Art, the National Academy of Design, the New York Studio School, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, established 1805, the Art Students League of New York, established in 1875.