Is Art School Worth it in 2022?
I'm taking a step back from my usual content about branding and business to tackle the age-old debate: Is art school worth it? I think the 'higher education' landscape has changed a lot in recent years, especially with so much schooling being done online now. So I wanted to make a video about my art school experience and whether or not I regret it. If you're a Youth™ wondering 'should I go to art school?' I hope this honest video about my experience will help you!
→ TIME STAMPS:
00:00 — Is art school worth it?
03:45 — Is it realistic to make money as an artist or designer?
05:18 — Do I regret going to art school?
06:53 — The true value of post-secondary education
08:05 — Questions to ask yourself before going to art school
09:43 — What actually matters / What to do instead of going to a fancy art school
11:43 — Maybe you should go to art school?
Note: This was written casually as a script outline for the video. Please excuse any grammatical errors.
Hey imaginary friend! My name is Leigh and today I’m stepping back from my typical content about branding and business to go back in time a little bit, and talk to my younger self.
That younger version of me that was so overwhelmed and confused about what to do with my life after high school.
So for her, I wanna tackle the age-old question:
Is art school worth it?
Honestly nah college is a scam. Not worth it.
That’s it, that’s the video. Bye!
Not really, ok, it’s a bit more nuanced than that. So let’s dive into it.
Lemme first tell you a little bit about me.
I have wanted to be an artist since the moment I could hold a pencil. Literally whenever I had to do those “what do you want to be when you grow up” things as a kid, it was always artist. It was never astronaut or movie star or doctor, and it certainly was never Brand Designer & Strategist which is actually what I do now, but I’m losing the point. I’ve always had a creative spirit. It’s just part of who I am.
So it’s natural that I would want to pursue a career in creativity, right? But growing up, I experienced so much internal conflict trying to reconcile my passion for creativity with my desire for safety and security.
I wanted to be creative but I didn’t want to be poor.
I didn’t want to be a starving artist.
But unfortunately, my experience growing up, I didn’t have any role models for what it could actually look like to be financially successful as an artist — unless I worked for like Disney or something, I wasn’t exposed to any realistic examples of real people making a living from their art.
I think the way people talk about this might be changing for younger generations now, which is great, but my personal experience growing up, was constantly getting this message that trying to pursue art as a career was not a smart thing to do.
And I got pretty good grades in school, so I was very much pushed towards an academic path. And specifically I was constantly told that going to university was more valuable than college — which I’ve since learned is not necessarily true.
But I was sold this idea that getting a 4 year university degree was pretty much the only way to get a job and not end up homeless. And honestly, I’m still a bit pissed about all the “university” propaganda I was fed as an impressionable young teen. So if you’re like 17 right now, and you still believe that a 4 year degree is the ONLY option for you, I want to tell you that it’s not true.
You CAN make a living using your creativity and you DON’T need a degree to do it.
But I actually didn’t go to art school right after high school though. I tried to go the more “realistic” route first and I went to a university for a more “practical” and “useful” degree. Aaaaand I hated it, it made me want to jump in front of a train. Really.
So if you’re the type of person that feels an intense pull towards creativity, if you feel like it’s a core part of who you are, but you’re scared about the future and making money, then I want you to know that it is actually possible to make a living as a creative person. And you know what, it might not look the way that you think it should. You know, I wanted to be an artist for so long, but I’m actually not an artist now. I’m a graphic designer and a brand strategist, and I love it! But this was NOT even on my radar when I was a student. I actually thought the graphic design kids were super weird.
But anyway, back to the point after trying to be “realistic” and “practical” like everyone around me kept saying I should...when that totally sucked, I decided to embrace my passion and just go for the art and creativity thing.
But I still held onto that belief that I needed a 4 year degree in order to have a future.
So I applied to an art university! I went to OCADU which is the weirdest looking school I’ve ever seen, like what even is this? It literally has legs, like it looks like it’s gonna walk off one day.
Yeah, that’s where I went to school.
And I loved it. OCAD has a special place in my heart.
BUT. At the beginning of this video, I said that art school wasn’t worth it, right?
(College is a scam.)
And now I’m saying I loved it? That’s kinda confusing.
So ok, let me explain.
Despite how negative I might come across with my feelings about the post-secondary education system (college is a scam) I honestly can’t say that I actually regret going to art school. Because that’s where I fell in love…with an 80 year old Vandercook #4 proofing press I fucking love letterpress printmaking. I miss the OCAD print studio so much and unfortunately I don’t have $21,000 to buy one of these giant-ass machines so I’ll probably just never print with a letterpress ever again, which is so sad. But the point I’m trying to make is that I probably never would have even known how much I love traditional printmaking if I never went to art school. It just wasn’t something I was ever exposed to.
So maybe art school is worth it if you want access to industrial level machines and tools that you literally couldn’t get on your own.
But if you think you wanna be like a graphic designer or a painter or something, honestly, a bachelor of design or a bachelor of art is just not absolutely necessary.
Whenever I watch other videos like this or read online posts about “is college worth it” “is my degree useless” There’s a really common answer that a lot of people share. Which is that the true value of going to college or university is not actually in the classroom. It’s in the connections that you make, and the community that you join. It’s the experience of being on your own for the first time and all the new things you’ll try and what you’ll discover about yourself. The real college degree was the friends you made along the way. But you don’t actually need to go to school for any of that.
And I think this is especially true for art and design students.
For me, I can honestly say that I don’t remember ANYTHING from my classes in university. Not a single damn thing. Almost NONE of it was relevant to my actual career as a creative. Or it was so basic that I could’ve learned it myself without spending thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours at school.
For me, I found the most value in the studio, when I was actually making things and experimenting. And I found a lot of value in being inspired by other students’ work.
But aside from that, a lot of the required classes were honestly so boring and irrelevant like sorry but fuck art history courses that only spend 10 minutes on African or Asian art history but somehow have time to spend a whole semester on European art history. Like I’m sorry if you’re watching this and you’re a DaVinci stan but that was not what I wanted out of my educational experience. And I think that’s one of my biggest issues with post-secondary school or just the education system in general, it’s the lack of control you have over your own path.
You take all these classes that the institution has deemed necessary for earning a degree, but you never really stop and ask yourself why? Is it really necessary? Why do you even need a degree? What do you even wanna do after this?
And I think if you can’t answer those questions, it might not be worth it to go to art school, or any college, at least not yet. And the reason I say that is because it’s very expensive for what it is. The most valuable thing that I got out of my university experience was just the dedicated time to explore what I wanted to do with my life. But most people don’t even actually do that, they don’t explore. They don’t prioritize self-discovery and making connections, they prioritize getting good grades. When I was a student, most of my peers just picked a degree when they were 17 and then they just stuck with it. For 4 years. Because that’s what we’ve been conditioned to do our whole lives.
But I feel like that’s one of the main reasons that so many people end up feeling like their degree is useless, and they end up going into careers that have nothing to do with what they went to school for.
There are so many art school grads out there that just end up working retail or customer service jobs. And I just personally think that art school is very expensive with a very small return on your investment.
ESPECIALLY if you aren’t quite sure what you want to do with your life yet. If you don’t have rich parents who are willing to pay for you to make random experimental art for 4 years, instead of taking out loans to attend a cool prestigious art university, maybe start with a few classes at a local college. See if there’s an art studio that you can join, start some personal projects, and maybe try to learn some stuff online. I know it doesn’t sound as cool as going off to college, but it’s a lot more practical and it can be just as valuable, if not more so.
And I’ll acknowledge not everyone is that good at teaching themselves things, so this might not be a long term solution for you, but it is worth it to at least try things out on your own first before going straight to college or university right after high school.
Because at the end of the day, going to university or college for an art education is a huge gamble, with really bad odds.
You’re betting away thousands of dollars and more importantly, years of your life for a piece of paper, a receipt basically, that may or may not eventually result in a job or an opportunity.
But when it comes to the art and design world specifically, your degree means pretty much nothing if it’s not paired with experience and a good portfolio. Those are the things that employers actually care about. And you can get those things without going to art school.
So in conclusion, the main takeaway here is, if you are gonna go to art school;
Don’t take any academic classes, don’t learn anything. Just spend all your time in the studio making art and making friends.
Nah I’m obviously joking but idk dude I can’t tell you what to do. If you can afford it, maybe go for a year or two and see how you like it. Or maybe do what I did and just hop around between programs trying out different things to figure out what you like and then by the time you finally fall in love with a practice you’ve already spent 3 and a half years and thousands of dollars doing random stuff and your credits are so scattered it would take you another 3 years to even earn a degree so you just drop out and still get a full-time job in a design studio anyway and your coworkers that do have art and design degrees only make like 50 cents more than you and they hate their lives.
Yeah honestly idk if art school is worth it.
Sorry if this was kind of a downer. But I basically just want to offer you the idea that you can be open to exploring other possibilities.
There’s no “one right path” to your future goals. In fact, don’t even be so attached to your future goals. Like I mentioned earlier, the work that I do now was not even on my radar when I was a student. None of us knows what the future holds. There are so many different ways to live a creative and fulfilling life. Just go...make art.
Ok bye.
Looking for a branding expert to help you build the brand of your dreams? I invite you to check out LEIGH THE STUDIO where I offer brand design, web design, and brand strategy guidance to creative entrepreneurs that want to make money doing their own thing.
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