This is in response to Holly’s post, where she said art school is a “fucking joke” and we all “know it”. 

First, I wrote out a whole unsent message to you Holly, but instead I want to have this as an open conversation, because I think a lot of MCAD students have something to say about this. It’s cool if you think art school isn’t helping you and you don’t want to pay for it, but when you say something like that, you’re telling us, your supposed friends, that we are fucking idiots for paying for this and we’re never going to do anything with our degrees and we should just quit now. (And this is not the first time you’ve said things like this.) Which hurts. I wish you the best in whatever you want to do, please stop telling me I’m stupid for wanting this. 

I go to art school because I know that there is no other way someone is going to sit me down and tell me all about the (product design, editorial illustration, etc) industry, and I think it’s valuable for me to learn from someone else’s experiences.

I go to art school because I get to work with other people who are passionate about the things I am passionate about, and that inspires and motivates me to be better at what I do. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t believe I would have the same environment at a huge university, and I know I wouldn’t if I stayed at home and worked alone. 

I go to art school because I know that no where else is someone going to sit down and look at my work and tell me what I need to change to be better. You have to either have really great friends who know about art (which I would not, without art school) and are willing to take their time to teach you, or you have to pay for critique. So I’m paying for it.

I go to art school because I want to learn from talented people working in the fields I want to work in, and their expertise comes at a price. That is the price of tuition. 

Sometimes I do wonder why I am paying thousands of dollars for this education, but I am happy with my decision, and I can look back and see how much I’ve grown and how much I’ve learned each semester. I would love to see other MCAD (or other schools!) students’/alum’s reasons for going to art school. Debt is scary and leaving school and finding a job is scary and sometimes we just need to encourage each other, or at least not make each other feel like we’re wasting our lives doing something pointless and stupid. Because we aren’t.