Art Colleges in Illinois

[crimsoneye]

I'm a community college student, I'm transfer within next year to a four year college. If anybody on this forum goes to a school in Illinois can you tell me whats good and bad about your college. Because I just want know more about the art program at some of these school. What were your experinces there as art student were like.

[MurderClaus]

Well, i attended the school of the art institute (not affiliated with AI schools) and would generally advise against it. They sure like to tell you that some ridiculous percentage of you will not graduate from the school and even fewer wil be professionals but they make it seem like its due to a demanding curriculum or some such thing. My problem was that i went to art school (besides to appease my mother andget a piece of paper), mainly seeking practice in technique. I took a figure drawing course in their early college program and got quite a bit out of it, not having encountered nude models before, and the instructor was rather passive but adequate. My second semester drawing class included models, but apparently the schools resources were spread somewhat thin because we were allowed only a few days with them. At times i found my class drawing balloons sprayed with silly string, collaging shapes cut from black and white paper and marching in file thru a snowy field in order to reproduce a simple line drawing. My favorite class was essay writing taught by a grad student (apparently, they have a rather good English dept.) What i learned from a (seemingly universally hated) teacher named Julia Marsh is that SAIC is more geared toward whats 'hot' in the 'art world' today: curatorial work (really?!). otherwise the only thing i can see the school being especially good for is basically being able to argue that literally anything can be art. If you really are motivated though, and select your classes carefully, and especially if you require elaborate facilities, there is a lot you can take out of the school, but my general advice to anyone who asks is not to attend unless you get a full ride or something close. In short: Not the place to brush up on fundamentals and Not worth the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

edit: Hope im not too late.

[crimsoneye]

No, not really to late because I already heard about AI school being terrible. I'm just looking for school that I can transfer to. I mostly want about university in Illinois since I already heard alot about the private art schools.

[That fat kid]

The University of Illinois is a pretty darned good place, at the moment. I'm currently a sophomore there, and there's a good batch of professors, the workload is adequate but to really shine you'll have to pour a bit more time into it than they ask. The fact that they have a broad curriculum with the gen eds means that you'll end up with a a well rounded education, assuming a person studies, and will generally be better for it. Plus, the UIUC is actually in the top 20 art schools, or some such statisitic. I admit that its hard to find motivated people, but it seems like that's the case all over the country in all the art schools, hence the reason we all gravitate to this website. The actual art classes are very gratifying, lots of time with the models, easy access to the facilities and the instructors are apporachable. However, the selection for majors is limited, I'm a 'painting' major since that's about as technical as it gets, but one on one with the professors or TAs means that you can still develop plenty of ability. They tend to be heavy on idea, but they don't abandon technique. It might not be the best, but its not too expensive and there's people here to help, if you can find them within the HUGE university, 40,000 strong.

~A

[Storyboard Dave]

One thing you might want to consider is who you might meet at the school you want to attend. What are the networking possibilities beyond that school? The networking at full time art colelges are that you do meet other like minded people that are full bore into your field. Nothing against university life but it's almost comparing apples to oranges at times.

[Tony N Chicago]

I attended the American Academy of Art for about a year and a half as a fine arts major. It was cool and I learned a lot. There are in-school competitions and such all the time. They offer a gambit of courses and majors for day and evening students. I was in the midst of switching to illustration when I decided to go because, although it's a nice school, it's damn $expensive$. If you've got deep pockets and want to get your skills up, I would recommend it. I absorbed a lot while I was there. Loved it, small classes where you get good individual attention, if you want it. Up to date computers and library and being in the heart of downtown there's easy access to everything.

[sleeperservice]

About the U of I- My own two cents since I attended the painting program and got my BA from it....

The professors told our class that fine arts was not the way to go for anyone who was interested in getting work right out of school. They also said that it was not even for those who wanted to get a teaching job right away. What more can they say without blatantly stating that the program is not for training you to do art on a professional level?- at least without losing their own jobs. They will never be able to tell you that there are better schools out there or ones that you can go to and get a job right out of, although that would obviously be the ethical thing to do. In my opinion, just look at the surrounding area. There is no professional art market in Champaign-Urbana that is competing on the level of East and West Coast. Therefore you will not get a teacher who has the skills that are needed to compete on that level. Why would they ever move to Illinois to TEACH? You will get taught by a full-time teacher whose major obligation is to the University, and the University's primary interest in undergraduates is to bring enrollment levels up so that they can compete with other Universities. Your teachers there will do what they can within the limits they are given but they are just part of the bigger system. Think about it.

In terms of my own personal experience there- I learned more about how to paint in my Parkland art classes than in 3 years of school at the U of I. In one semester of private atelier classes, I learned more about drawing than during my entire undergraduate experience. I remember one of my "painting teachers" telling me that if I wanted to learn how to paint from her I could volunteer to stretch her canvases for free and she might be able to show me a thing or two. You will be left on your own to figure out technique, but that she had no time to do that during class. I learned last year's theories in post-modern conceptual art, made sculpture that hung on the wall which we called "painting", discussed Foucault and Derrida indirectly and basicaly missed the boat while contemplating my own navel, so to speak. Why is the conceptual art market pushing work that makes you think you could just go home and read the book instead? When I attended this year's Whitney Biennial, I thought to myself that the reason that the art looked so bad was because those people who were making the stuff lacked the skills to execute their ideas properly. They spent all their time working out their rhetoric.

But to get back on track here with your question about the program. If you have the time to spend to become well-rounded, or you want to contribute to the field of art on its postmodern side, then perhaps the fine arts program is for you. They do not have a illustration program. The graphic design program is pretty good from what I hear. Figuring though that you have posted this question on Concept Art then maybe you want to do work in concept design. In which case you should start focusing on acquiring skills in representation as soon as possible.

[That fat kid]

From what I've read and from the students I know going to 'actual' art schools, they're as mystified by the whole conceptual thing as the U of I students, they're just paying an assload more. Representation isn't what they're after in the fine arts department, but you can take some of the design courses like "drawing and rendering" in which they specialize in making you learn how to draw illusionistically. But I find myself agreeing with Sleeper, you'll have to put WAY more into the technical aspects than they ask of you. In fact, you'll pretty much have to hound a teacher to get what you need. I don't understand the politics on the whole, but at least I'll end up with some sort of degree......

However, I know that some of the professors do have work on display on either coast and in Chicago, although the directly surrounding area of Illinois is pretty dry....and jobs for studio majors are scarce and difficult to get in the first place. And getting to a professional level is a person's own problem, no amount of teaching can make someone's art improve, its the willingness to put in the work and the drive to excel that makes professionals, not a teacher holding your hand.

Most of the kids in the painting program, or the designer for that matter, will NEVER make it as a painter or a professional artist in any sense, they're not willing to sacrifice the time or energy, but a few will, and its because they want to. But, they lower the admission price.

[sleeperservice]

Fatkid, I'm going to reply to several of your statements here for the sake of extending this discussion:

"From what I've read and from the students I know going to 'actual' art schools, they're as mystified by the whole conceptual thing as the U of I students, they're just paying an assload more."
<<There's no such thing as a deal when you are getting what you don't want or need...>>>

"I don't understand the politics on the whole, but at least I'll end up with some sort of degree......"
<<If you absolutely know you want to be an artist then start working on your portfolio, not your degree. No one cares if you have a degree. I graduated bronze tablet- does that matter to you? Are you going to look at my sketchbook or my diploma?>>>>

"And getting to a professional level is a person's own problem, no amount of teaching can make someone's art improve, its the willingness to put in the work and the drive to excel that makes professionals, not a teacher holding your hand."
<<Make sure you put that hard work and excellence toward a direction that will get you somewhere. Once again, a 3.85 gpa in school is no measure of anything but how willingly you can do what you are told. >>>>

"Most of the kids in the painting program, or the designer for that matter, will NEVER make it as a painter or a professional artist in any sense, they're not willing to sacrifice the time or energy, but a few will, and its because they want to. But, they lower the admission price."
<<If we would ask any kid who enters any painting program whether they are there to lower someone else's admission price, I think we'll expect to get the same answer. Ethically any program that has to depend on overbooking its class enrollments and pandering to the lowest common denominator should be asking itself why it deserves to exist. >>>

Fatkid, sorry I'm picking on what you are saying here. I think you brought up a number of good topics which I wanted to continue kicking around if only to bring the critique back to the institution and not to the individual. We all know we can work harder and do better. It's the systems that don't seem to want to change or just simply go away. And sooner or later a lot of us will start working for them, at which point we shut up, look the other way and pocket the paycheck.

For anyone wanting to learn representational skills right now, I recommend the smaller ateliers and reputable art schools where working professionals teach part time and direct their students to acquire the same abilities they must use on the job. Just look at the other threads in this section and read what others have to say. It's just too bad that for the beginning art student there is not a clear set of guidelines for developing a discipline. Thank goodness for forums like this one that are challenging the current status quo.

[crimsoneye]

Thanks guys for your answers. I just want to know about level of the art school in Illinois are. Since I plan on send application to three university in Illinois and two praviate school in California(San Franciso American University of art) and Ohio(Columbius college of art and design) I just decide should go cheap or expansive after community college. The final field that trying to get into is illustration or concept art.

[IcyM]

When I was doing my search for art schools, I talked to who I could at conventions about where they went. You mentioning American Academy of Art reminded my when Alex Ross was asked about his art background some year ago, he said that you only needed about 10% of the classes there and the rest were b.s. filler classes.

I know you just posted about applying to AAU in SF. You'll get in easy, they don't have portfolio requirements. But to save some money, you should seriously push your community credits into where you can. Yes, they will say no, but I was able to work in a lot more transfers from the people I compared my credit amount to and its a lot. However, don't waste your art electives on that. You'll find that the last/core classes are very well worth it. But the math, history, english, etc etc is such a waste at $1600 a class!