Emma Nolan
Arts Editor
@emman_courant
As NCHS seniors submit their applications and juniors start to think about colleges, some students have chosen to take a different approach to college: art school.
By taking on a different education from a liberal arts school or national university, students applying to art school plan on strictly learning about and preparing for the arts. Senior Jessica Dantas has been interested in art school since her freshmen year, and is planning on attending next fall.
Jessica knew that she wanted to go to art school early, she had time to plan and put together what she needed for school. “You have the conversation about going to art school three years prior to your sophomore year, it’s better to know by then so you can start working on drawings and concepts of art,” Jessica said. “If you do this, by your senior year you have progression and it show how far you’ve come.”
Since Jessica had this conversation early, she has been able to create a portfolio of her best works. The portfolio creation takes a lot of time, but is a very crucial part to the application. The average portfolio requires few pieces of your best work, which is hard for some artists. “The hardest part is choosing the pieces to put in, I have seven sketch books of work, and you only get to pick about 12,” Jessica said. “The whole portfolio creation is very independent and very time consuming, especially in high school where classes are more concentrated on sciences and math.”
Even though it’s early for juniors to fully plan out their college decisions, junior Matt Depalo already has his planned out.
From the end of his sophomore year, Matt officially decided he wanted to go to art school. Matt has been able to take advantage of his time and work on his art. “I’ve been doing photo or a type of photography every year since starting high school,” Matt said. “I’ve been doing classes at FIT and Parsons in the city since my freshman year, and they have really helped me as an artist.”
At these outside of school programs, Matt has been able to improve his skill greatly. “At these different programs, I was able to really expand my art and take some different courses,” Matt said. “I’ve done fashion drawing classes, business classes, and sewing classes; all of which were essential to what I want to do.”
Matt has hopes to attend art school in 2017 to continue his journey as an artist. “When I go to art school, I want to take business classes and take other classes,” Matt said. “Right now there’s a big thing about how young designers don’t have job skills, and that’s a big part of art education; so I definitely want to show I possess that skill.”
Like many other high school artists, Matt is also working to put together a strong portfolio to send to his desired art schools. “I’m definitely trying to show that my portfolio is planned out and continual, and how I can incorporate raw materials and eliminating waste when producing art,” Matt said.
Even though many students have just finished submitting their applications, senior Sara Brindisi recently
has already been accepted into Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). “I discovered SCAD a couple years ago, and heard it was a little bit more up to date and modern,” Sara said. “When I went to go visit it and basically fell in love.”
Just like Matt, Sara aimed to include her best pieces in her portfolio. “For my portfolio, I went to a class at Silvermine where I was told what schools wanted to see,” Sara said. “I basically just picked all the ones I liked the most and I chose the ones that show what I want to do, because if they see my choices then I’ll have a good chance of getting into the program.”
On top of working on a portfolio, Jessica realizes the importance of working on art through programs and internships. “I took a pre college course at The School of Visual Arts (SVA) during the summer for three weeks for college credit, and that helped me a ton,” Jessica said. “It helped me with screenplay and college like moviemaking.”
Along with other student artists, junior Eve Fleming hopes to attend art school. Starting with drawings and hoping to expand to graphic design, Eve has been able to create and expand more media. “I’ve always had a creative side, and I used to take classes at the Silvermine Arts Center in New Canaan, but I really didn’t think much of it going into high school” Eve said. “It wasn’t until my sophomore year that I really started pursuing art and putting my art on social media.
Eve was also able to take art courses this summer in New York City. “In the city I did a program at The Museum of Modern Art to learn the history and conception of art, rather than actually doing physical art,” Eve said. “At FIT you’re really doing sit down work and creating projects, but learning about art itself, and it helps you understand what you’re getting yourself into.”
As the application process for seniors comes to a close, Jessica begins to focus on what she wants to get out of her college experience. “Graphic design and moviemaking are my main focus; I think they’re both very strong and relatively close,” Jessica said. “I do want to be a director and in film, and if I go to Parsons, I would study the business side of it.”
