Putting together a portfolio for art school admission
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Anonymous
| My junior is seriously looking at art schools and so for her a portfolio is an essential part of the process. She attended an online session with one of the schools she's interested in about creating a portfolio but while they did have some helpful advice, they strongly suggested getting help with the process from a teacher or mentor. The challenge is that the art teacher she had the best relationship with at her high school left the area mid-year and she's not clicked with the current teacher, so I think we're going to need some outside help to understand how to put things together. I've found a few options for advisors online but of course their prices are not listed and I'm just trying to get a sense of what I'm looking at in terms of costs and what's really involved in all of this. Has anyone been down this road? |
Anonymous
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Has she gone to National Portfolio Days?
https://nationalportfolioday.org/schedule You can get specific advice from colleges she's interested in about what they are looking for in a portfolio. You bring your work/images of your work and they give you feedback on it. Like, you should include more drawings, or this piece weakens your overall portfolio. Has she done IB/AP art? The portfolio she generates for that can be used as a solid art portfolio. Universities and school districts sometimes have portfolio development classes in the summer (or online) where you get feedback on your work and targeted suggestions of types of work you need to improve your portfolio as well as lessons on photographing the work properly etc. |
Anonymous
Agree with this. But also, depending on where you live? There are arts organizations that have classes that help with portfolio development. Art Works Now in Hyattsville has this: https://www.artworksnow.org/portfolio-development You may also find someone that will do private sessions (I’ve done this but for high school admissions). |
Anonymous
Unfortunately many kids can't take IB/AP art until senior year, so they probably won't have enough pieces for a portfolio in time for applications. That said, an IB/AP art teacher is still a good resource for kids putting together a portfolio. Look around at requirements for a couple of schools your child is interested in to see what the requirements are. Most DD looked at wanted 15-20 pieces and they each had preferences around what they wanted to see (sculpture in addition to 2D art for example, or pieces completed within the past year). That helped guide her as she was working on pieces. Your DC will definitely want to attend National Portfolio Days (there were some virtual ones last year) and many art schools also offered informal portfolio feedback sessions ahead of the deadlines. Not sure if it's too late to apply, but VCU Arts has a great summer program where students attend classes for 2-3 weeks and work on assembling a portfolio. DD tried to do it twice and it was cancelled/switched to virtual both summers due to covid. |
Anonymous
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There is an art studio called stone branch arts in Rockville that has a summer portfolio program:
https://www.stonebrancharts.com/portfolio-summer-program Disclaimer: My kid is still in middle school so we haven’t done their portfolio program yet, just taking weekly lessons and doing summer camps for now. |
Anonymous
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I agree with PP that I would focus on finding a summer class on portfolio development --that way she'll have the group energy and feedback that help create artworks -- and the mentoring. Also, are there other art teachers at her high school? She can get feedback from others even if she hasn't had them as teachers if she doesn't 'click' with her current teacher. Look to see who is teaching AP/IB studio art and ask them for advice.
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Anonymous
| OP here--Thank you to everyone for so many great resources! In terms of AP art classes, her high school has created a system where with very little exception only seniors can take the class, so she is signed up for it for next year. |
Anonymous
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Here's another place that does Portolio development that I've heard good things about:
https://www.shinehartstudio.com/ There are also programs at various colleges that run like sleep away camps that have this component. It might not be too late for this summer. I recently saw one when I was on the RISD site (although they're probably full) and on the VCUArts site. |
Anonymous
| Has she started looking at schools? My DD decided to go to a strong art program at a strong academic school vs a full Art School only. Does she have a preference? |
Anonymous
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DD is a rising junior at SCAD. Two years ago, she was also accepted by VCU, RISD, Ringling, Pratt, etc. She had a lot of digital drawings and animation but needed to submit some paintings as well. For paintings, she took classes at Artmellow and created quite a few beautiful pieces that also received Scholastic awards (useful for the awards section of the college application).
https://www.art-mellow.com/ Her AP Art class at school was of no help, she didn’t submit anything created at school. |
Anonymous
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We recently did this with DD. We had planned for her to do a summer intensive art program at Ringling (VCU and Pratt and other schools have similar programs) so she could produce some portfolio art and get feedback but this was summer 2021 and the person session was canceled so she withdrew.
Portfolio day is a good idea, also if your child knows any students currently in an art program they can ask to see their portfolio for ideas and also ask for feedback. Some schools like VCU will do a one-on-one portfolio review with an admissions counselor before submitting. My DD did this. JMU also did an in person portfolio review before the final submission was due. In the end, the feedback my DD got was that they liked seeing a variety of media, and they also like to see examples of basic figure drawing and observational drawing. She had several examples of both, plus painting, mixed media, needlework, and digital art. Her teacher was also no help so the input from a friend enrolled at VCU and the portfolio reviews were key. |
Anonymous
| Glen echo park has a portfolio class. |
Anonymous
OP here—She’s definitely more interested in an art school rather than an art major at a more traditional school, although I’ve convinced her to look seriously at VCU because of the in-state tuition. Her dream is SCAD but she also really liked MICA when we visited, and we are going to see Maine College of Art and Design in a few weeks. |
Anonymous
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Artprof.org
Former RISD professor run site has some good sections on applying to art school. I am not sure if she still does it, but she used to do portfolio review too. |
Anonymous
Keep in mind that SCAD gives merit aid. DD received close to $20K. |