How to Get Into Art School Workshop
Saturday, September 15, 2007, 10am - 3pm
Where: VLA, 1 East 53rd Street, Auditorium, NY, NY 10022
Making the choice to major in the visual arts can be a tough decision; getting in is even harder. Not only do applicants have to go through rigorous academic admissions requirements and the added pressure of submitting a portfolio and written statements of their creative work, but also compete against hundreds of talented and qualified applicants.
An applicant's application packet represents them to an art school or college as a potential student and artist. For most university art programs and private art schools, the portfolio and statement are the determining factors in the highly competitive admission process. Although the application process should not be a paralyzing experience, it must be handled in a serious, detailed, and thoughtful manner. This four-hour workshop will help the applicant in creating the best application packet possible while easing the anxieties created by this stressful process.
This workshop is aimed at undergraduate students and recent graduates interested in applying to MFA art programs, and artist programs and residencies such as the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, LMCC Workspace, and the Yale Summer School of Art. Additionally, this program will also benefit high-school students wishing to apply to art schools.
The Following Topics Will Be Covered:
· Application Requirements
· Portfolio requirements: Aesthetics and mechanics
· Tailoring your portfolio: Deciding which and how many projects to include
· Writing personal and artist statements: Copy and content editing
· Writing a résumé and curriculum vitae
· Letters of recommendation
· Interviewing skills
· Deciding between a conceptual vs. formalist art program
· Tailoring your application to particular and individual programs
· Strict application deadlines vs. rolling admissions
· Financial aid
· Special questions concerning international students (TOEFL)
If you would like to attend this workshop, a $45 fee applies ($55 at the door) for admission to workshop with book. The book is also available for $30.00. Please go to http://www.vlany.org/#sb07
This workshop will be taught by Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento
Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento is an artist, writer, and lecturer. He has previously taught in the studio and art history departments at Harvard University, the University of Southern California, California Institute of the Arts, Occidental College, and the University of California at Irvine, and has lectured and presented papers in the United States and abroad, most recently at Columbia Law School, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The School of Visual Arts, The Department of Visual Studies at SUNY-Buffalo, Cornell Law School, and the Centre Sociologie de l’Innovation, Ecole des Mines de Paris.
Sarmiento received his BA in Art from the University of Texas-El Paso in 1995, and was awarded a Philip Morris Fellowship to attend the California Institute of the Arts, where he received his MFA in Art in 1997. He was a Van Lier Fellow at the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program in Studio Art the following year. In 2000 Sarmiento was awarded a studio residency at the World Trade Center by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. He received his Juris Doctor from Cornell Law School in 2006.
His work has been shown in national and international exhibitions, including Mexico, Germany, Spain, Dallas, New York City, and Los Angeles, and has published essays and projects in Five Continents and One City Exhibition (catalogue essay, Mexico), Capital Art: On the Culture of Punishment (catalogue essay, US), Cabinet Magazine (US), and Law Text Culture (Australia). In April of 2007 he was awarded a Swing Space grant by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
