Your Dream Art University

[crayonmonster]

I'm involved in a l-o-n-g term project of designing and building an art university. It's in it's infant stages, but going strong. This facility will be able to hold 15-20,000 students and will have programs ranging from painting/drawing, photography, fashion design, illustration, art education, animation, etc etc etc.

I'm asking for ideas here. What would you want if you could go to a university like this, where it's all about the art and everyone knows it. What facilities, classes, programs, special features would you want? Personally I am pushing for a spray painting class, among other things.

One of the coolest ideas that has come forward has been a four year project every student would participate in. Groups would be assigned as a freshman, and each group would include students from different majors. These students would spend four years designing and implementing this project, guided by a teacher who would oversee it. This includes funding, budgetting, contracting if necessary, etc etc. Some ideas that came up would be designing gardens for the school, video games or comics, musicals, books, etc.

Ok, so now I'd love any ideas your willing to share, let me know what your dreams would be for an art university. Sketches and concept art also welcome, if your so inclined (and I'm sure we all are).

Crayon Monster

[glikster]

Take a look at Animation Mentor. The idea of using professionals who are in the middle of the business (closer to the top of the business) is huge.

[crayonmonster]

Thats exactly it, the teachers have to have some prestige (sp?) and definately have to meet certain criteria in the form of published/work/and even gallery showings during their time teaching.

[IanE]

Little to no money spent marketing and decorating. Put it towards the education, the hardware, software, materials, and hire some great professionals...

Also, why 15-20 thousand? Seems like a severe overkill and having a 10:1 teacher/student ratio would be nearly impossible to fill with high-end instructors, not to mention the millions of dollars you'd have to get just to get this off the ground. Seems like too much and too hard to concentrate on individuals and students at this scale. Any idea which architecture firm is doing it and who the general contractor is? Who's the owner?

Good luck though.

Ian

[crayonmonster]

I agree, put the money towards the education, not the marketing. However, the idea of the large student population is to make this a large scale art university, not a college or institute. Since there will be up to ten different divisions (animation, drawing, fashion design etc) that brings it down to 2000 students per emphasis, which is doable.

Another objective of the school is to mix up the majors, I think we too often are single minded in the art field. I'm an illustrator therefore I can't...blah blah. This school would intragrate the students a bit, show them that all art is at least a bit interconnected.
Does this make sense?

To answer your other question, we don't have an architectural firm as of yet. We're still deciding on basic layout, the facilities needed, and overall look of the school. (ei. a city of towers? complete with skytrain? )

[Icelandic Norm]

Sounds very very ambitious.

I'm not going to doubt you because it just might happen but 20,000 students is a lot to shoot for. That would be about 15 current art schools now lumped into one area- and a massive area that would be too. And depending where you want to put this place, you still might not get that many people to that area. What if a student or prospective faculty member just doesn't want to move to that area of the world??

My only concern is for the group projects you've mentioned. I've been involved with school projects with multiple people and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. They're only as good as the weakest or laziest member of the group. Sometimes that lack of participation might be due to that individual's other more pressing work in other classes.

I'm not a huge fan of group projects.

[IanE]

I think integrating other courses with the major study is a great idea, if it's done right. Too much well-roundedness can leave a student, academically, in the same place he or she started, only being able to do basic to intermediate things with every form of art, I think specialization with complimentary classes would be a very good idea.

As for a skytrain... I say ditch that idea right now. Maintanece crews, the time spent on design and construction, not to mention the money and liability involved isn't worth it. Besides, a real artist would like to take a walk outside and look for some inspiration!

You guys have a cool idea, just right now it doesn't seem practical at all. I don't mean to sound like I'm talking down to you, but I have been directly involved in architectural drafting and planning for 4 years and currently work for on of the largest subcontractors in Texas... your idea just doesn't sound feasible right now.

Keep workin on it and letting us know! I'm really interested in this and would love to see another school go up, but I don't wanna see the owner go broke.

Ian

[Elwell]

This facility will be able to hold 15-20,000 students...
One of the coolest ideas that has come forward has been a four year project every student would participate in. Groups would be assigned as a freshman, and each group would include students from different majors. These students would spend four years designing and implementing this project, guided by a teacher who would oversee it. This includes funding, budgetting, contracting if necessary, etc etc.

Sounds like a logistical and beaurocratic nightmare. I suggest spending your time on something slightly more realistic, like a self-sufficient moon colony.

[crayonmonster]

Icelandic Norm: <<<I'm not going to doubt you because it just might happen but 20,000 students is a lot to shoot for. That would be about 15 current art schools now lumped into one area- and a massive area that would be too. And depending where you want to put this place, you still might not get that many people to that area. What if a student or prospective faculty member just doesn't want to move to that area of the world??>>>

pretty much the whole idea, the equivelent of 15 art schools in one area. We're trying to go up rather than spread out, as in tall buildings. As for wanting to move to that part of the world, I think any art school has that problem, they all have to be somewhere.

<<<My only concern is for the group projects you've mentioned. I've been involved with school projects with multiple people and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. They're only as good as the weakest or laziest member of the group. Sometimes that lack of participation might be due to that individual's other more pressing work in other classes>>>

so true, i myself hate group projects as well. But think about what you could end up with...especially when you graduate, something you could really show off to employers. Kind of the equivelent of co-op work. besides, when you grad and go out to the real world the sad truth is you have to work with teams and other people, right? These projects would have to be very well organzied and supervised. And, tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm thinking because they are spread out between four years it wouldn't be too heavy on the work load?

IanE: <<<I think integrating other courses with the major study is a great idea, if it's done right. Too much well-roundedness can leave a student, academically, in the same place he or she started, only being able to do basic to intermediate things with every form of art, I think specialization with complimentary classes would be a very good idea>>>

yup, completey hear ya. i think the specifics would be more along the lines of fashion design creating costumes for lifedrawing sessions as part of their classes, etc. A well rounded courseload, we were thinking two classes outside your major per year, would be good.

<<<<As for a skytrain... I say ditch that idea right now. Maintanece crews, the time spent on design and construction, not to mention the money and liability involved isn't worth it. Besides, a real artist would like to take a walk outside and look for some inspiration!>>>

ya, it was pretty much ditched early on, but visually it'd be cool.

<<You guys have a cool idea, just right now it doesn't seem practical at all. I don't mean to sound like I'm talking down to you, but I have been directly involved in architectural drafting and planning for 4 years and currently work for on of the largest subcontractors in Texas... your idea just doesn't sound feasible right now>>>

No no, this is why I'm posting. We haven't yet talking with an architect so we're pretty much just working on what we'd like to see, at the moment. Our basis is that giant universities make it ok, why not do the same with just art core? there's enough budding artists out there, and not enough schools. I know it sounds like we're shooting for the moon, but eventually we'll find a happy medium.

The facilities will be traditional with some non-traditional thrown in there. There will be one or two studios open to public dance/martial arts etc groups who can use them so the drawing/animation/etc students can observe and draw.

As for location, personally I'm inclined to go with Canada, since I know the goverment is throwing away money in the arts direction, and it's home sweet home. But I also want someplace near alot of art culture, aka NY, Boston etc. Any suggestions?

[Icelandic Norm]

No no, this is why I'm posting. We haven't yet talking with an architect so we're pretty much just working on what we'd like to see, at the moment. Our basis is that giant universities make it ok, why not do the same with just art core? there's enough budding artists out there, and not enough schools. I know it sounds like we're shooting for the moon, but eventually we'll find a happy medium.

Aren't we assuming that there are enough people out there that can compromise the 20,000 students? What about the instructors?

Let's assume you want to have a 10-1 teacher to student ratio, that'd be 2000 instructors. We'll also assume you want top quality business professionals teaching these courses. How do you think you will lure them away from their current professions where they are making top dollar to come teach at your facility?

Just because you can build it, I think there is so much more to an art educational facility than you realize. It really makes me realize why Art Center does so well now (its proximity to the entertainment field) and why the College for Creative Studies has the some of the best car designers around (its location in Detroit).

[Storyboard Dave]

Sounds like a logistical and beaurocratic nightmare. I suggest spending your time on something slightly more realistic, like a self-sufficient moon colony.

Yowch!

I think there is some credence to some of the questions people are raising here in regards to having one mega-campus of artists. Not that I want to rain on your parade but I think there are a few more logistical things to opening up an art school than just hanging a sign outside and offering up classes.