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I lived with a Fine Arts student (painter) for a couple years and got to know and/or found myself near many of the students and faculty in her program. In general, I found these people to be fun-loving, self-deprecating, and intelligent. Few were flakey.

Not crap.

this is a stupid thread, kinda like the one about white people.

You guys missed the point...we went to art school to join a band.

scott wrote: Maybe Columbia's just atypical for an ART SCHOOL.

Yes, I don't think Columbia is typical of most art schools. I think that is largely to do with more diverse "working class" students and faculty and affordable tuition. Most other art schools, such as the Art Institute here in Chicago, employ more academic types and have higher tuition thus drawing a different community of people. Also, there is are a wide variety of programs offered at CCC, including communications-type majors that many other "art schools" don't generally offer. Hence, they push practical, real-world values and ideology.

Nevertheless, I completely agree with Scott that there were many wonderfully creative people at Columbia. Interestingly, it was my impression that the people who were the most talented and creative were also the people who you would least likely expect it to come from. It was the stereotypical flakey arty types with wacky hair who rarely did anything very original. But, even they served a purpose and I found them to be interesting.

Gramsci wrote:I’ve had quite a bit to do with Fine Arts students as well, a large group of my friends at university were FAS.

And yes, a lot of them are immeasurably pretentious to the point of ridiculousness. Most of them were horribly conservative in their own way. Musically, yep Sonic Youth, Sedodoh, Bob Dylan etc. More often than not they came from rich families but tried to dress as in the most crap clothes they could find, old suits etc.

The ones that were actually doing the most interesting work were always the most “normal” looking ones and the most unpretentious.

The more some “expresses themselves” outwardly the more crap their work was/

I didn't read the whole thread and realized I basically repeated everything you had said. Oops! Interesting that we had the same impressions, though.

same wrote:i've always viewed going to art school as a little hedonistic. i mean, for a lot of people going to art school would be really fun, but the world just doesn't need any more mediocre art. designers, architects, photographers? yes, the world has practical uses for these people. but painters? sculpters? i'm sorry but unless you're extremely talented and disciplined please go and study something useful. although most of these people end up waiting tables anyway so i guess in the long run they're providing some service to society.

At the same time there are many, many people I know, including myself, who are not working in the field in which they obtained their degree. Honestly, I wish I hadn't been so "practical" by going for the business degree. Considering I really didn't put my degree to much use anyway, I would have preferred that I used that tuition money on learning to be a better musician or explore some art classes. In the end, that would have been more practical.

NOTE: Sorry for all the individual posts. I should have just read the thread all the way through and then responded. Oh, well.

I must confess that I have personal reasons why I would use a thread such as this to express negativity towards the world of art students. This is silly, as art students made my life a lot more interesting when I was leaving school and coming into the big wide world. Again, as elsewhere, I would like to renounce my rash and not-very-well thought out posts.

Sorry, I couldn't answer this until today, as I was busy teaching postgraduate art students all of yesterday.

For the most part I find art students to be considered and intelligent people, from a wide variety of backgrounds. Many of the people who seem to end up studying art don't really fit in anywhere else, having been funneled by their general education into the visual arts--I think there is quite a high percentage who are dyslexic. When I did my degree we had at least three students who had been merchant sailors or fisherman and one who was on day-release from prison, where he was serving a sentence for armed robbery. I know of very few that are 'rich'. The majority are motivated by a dedication to their subject that is uncommon among the most university students, despite the fact that many of will never earn much money in their chosen career (the average income of artists in Britain is £8,000 per annum). It 's this enthusiasm for art that I find admirable.

Some of the most original thinkers I've met have been art students. I am continually amazed as how they manage to pull rabbits from hats with their work, through a combination of diligence and imagination.

Studying Fine Art is as broad an education, in things practical and academic, as one could hope for. Even if they don't go on to a career in art most art students generally end up doing something interesting*. Of course, some of them go on to be great artists.

Not Crap.

*one of my old tutors said he saw one of his ex-students on TV the other day running a falconry centre

Sometimes I look around at the practical, depressing, uninteresting people that I attend school with, and I wish I went to an art school.

I was being an idiot despising art students. They are awesome. Same amount of slackers in it for the slack and egocentric's as any group you can come up with, but the ones who are good are great and they are still every friend I am fortunate enough to have, still.

Two of my painter friends have a show opening tomorrow. Salut art students! I wish I would have paid attention to and talked to more of you at school!