An inside look: The Academy Open House Experience

Our first Open House for 2012 MFA applicants is this Saturday, November 19th from 12-2pm.  See Amanda Scuglia's (Class of 2013) blog post Clicking Heels for her application experience last spring!

 

Originally posted - Friday, March 25, 2011

Accepted and Approved: New York Academy of Art

Once I was accepted to both the New York Academy of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, I started planning my visits to the schools. First up was NYAA. I contacted the Admissions office to find out when I could tour the school. They told me about an upcoming open house for prospective students that I could attend. It was only 2 weeks away! I had to buy a very last minute, VERY expensive ticket to New York. You see, there aren't that many flights coming out of ol' Wichita, Kansas. Luckily, I had a friend who let me crash at her place. I also kept weekly correspondence with the admissions director who's been very prompt (and kind) with answering my questions/concerns. The open house presentation was extremely informative and very honest. I got to walk around and see the entire school including all the studios and the students' work! The work was incredible. I felt like it was the kind of work I wanted to make. The first year studios are not huge, but since the first year will be a "boot camp", it should suffice. My tour guide was super friendly and answered all of my hundreds of questions. We began discussing how I found out about the school in the first place.



I lived in New York for 4 years and had never heard of it before this year. Or perhaps I wasn't looking for it, since I only started to research schools when I knew for sure when I wanted to enroll. I already had my top ranked schools picked out, based on reputation. But when I visited one of them, it wasn't what I had expected. So I began researching other avenues, like the CAA Directory, a guide to all visual arts grad programs, which I found out about through my undergrad academic advisor/art professor. Then I started going through my bookmarked favorites, some contemporary artists' work that I had saved over the years. When their work stood out to me, I looked up their bios on their websites. I noticed a trend: a lot of them had attended the New York Academy of Art. Alyssa Monks, Caitlin Hurd, Christian Johnson, just to name a few. Here's where I became a stalker :) I found out that a professor from my college graduated from NYAA. I contacted her via phone and asked about her experience with the school. She had all positive things to say and told me that she actually chose NYAA over Yale. She gave me the name of an alumna who's currently enrolled at the school. I contacted her via facebook and interviewed her as well. At this point, I was dumbfounded about how I couldn't have known about this marvelous little place. I read about the history, which gave them even more brownie points. Andy Warhol was a co-founder. Um, hellllo. This must be the art school society's best kept secret.

I guess I'll find out... because I'll be attending this fall! No need to visit any more schools. I found mine. :D