graduate school part 2

So, part of the reality of pursuing a career is your potential to earn an income with the training that you receive from your education. Part of this consideration is the cost of the education in the first place. I was given this advice when I was applying to graduate school and thought it to be a little extreme but have found that it is true: if you are good enough to be there then you should be paid to be there. Compensation such as tuition waivers, comped housing scholarships and the likes. An MFA is thought to be a silver bullet to jobless Bohemian lifestyle, but for most it is the beginning and the cause of that lifestyle choice. When you get out of school the likely hood of walking into a tenured college professorship is slim to nil. Seriously. Maybe 1% get that reality. Most people work freelance, teach at multiple institutions, making about as much as heir friends who are bar tenders.

Artists don't like to talk about money but its all around you and the cost of your future starts with the price tag of your education.

When you get into graduate school, there is one skill that will help you more than anything, networking.

I will pick up on this later. Good luck if you decide this is the way to go.

graduate school part 1

So in today's art world going to graduate school almost seems necessary. Some how the credentials of MFA on the. Resume mean so much along with the school they are put in front of. When you are attending your undergraduate institution all the professors talk about "when I was in graduate school", as if it changes everything about whom you would be without it. In some respects this is true. Here are some words of wisdom for those who might be reading this and heading off to graduate school for an MFA in visual arts. Your graduate institution means a lot!! Columbia and Yale might be expensive but their networks are super strong and push their graduates out into the field of both higher education and the gallery world with great sucess. So the institution you attend matters. If you do not attend one of these more prestigious institutions then you had best have your graduate educating being paid for by someone else, the school through scholarships and tuition waivers, private scholarships or government grants for education. If you have to pay to go to grad school, you a) probably shouldn't be there or b) are attending an institution which is in such dire straits for money that they can't afford to comp you for graduate education, which is just not right. Other graduate programs give their graduate students financial assistance and paths to a career in the field so why shouldn't your at school. If you do not have programs where you can build teaching experience or studio assistant experience then find a better school. More than likely these will be the jobs you will have to do when you get out because you are poor. So I will say this again, no opportunities to do these things, go somewhere else.

That is it for part one of this topic. I shall continue this soon with a picking up on this topic.

Enjoy the read people.

the return

So I had stepped away from this for a while because of work related concerns as many people have now a days but I have just decided to come back and awaken this blog with some new avenues for it as well as a first review.

I work freelance in a couple of museums around New York City. Those institutions shall remain nameless here but what I am going to start talking about is the reality of being an artist in nyc. For as great as this city is, you have to love the roller coaster here in order to possibly see your dream come true. For me that dream was to teach here and show here. A serious goal but I am not out to conquer the art world. So far, this dream is far off track. I came out to ny for graduate school and was kicked out of my MFA program three quarters of the way through. Yes people actually get kicked out of art school. So I finished up my masters in arts in art history and started art handling because it was 2007 and the job market was just starting to tank.

Now I find myself struggling to see how to manifest any life line towards my dream. I break my back and other parts of my body installing other people's art and neglecting my own. So where does this leave me? Seeing that I need to just put it all out there and just see what happens.

So I hope you enjoy what is about to happen here. An unfiltered look at the art world and someone struggling in it.

the return