Non-Profit versus For-Profit Art Schools
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Daniel Grant writes of the ongoing debate between the traditional non-profit art education (Savannah College of Art & Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Art Institute of Chicago, etc.) versus the increasing enrollment at for-profit art schools (New York’s School of Visual Arts, Academy of Art University in San Francisco, etc.).
Writes Grant, “The difference between the non- and for-profit art colleges may not be the quality of the education but the nature of the student. Those taking classes at for-profits schools tend to be older than 18 to 22; the average age of an Art Institute student, for example, is 25. The students are more racially and ethnically diverse and less affluent than those at nonprofits. “A very large percentage of our students are first-generation college students,” says Steven Goldman, president of the Art Institute of Portland, Ore., “which may be more significant than race or national origin.” In addition, many of his students are deficient in basic reading and math skills, which led him to establish “an ambitious tutoring project to get them to appropriate college-level skills.”
For the full story, read here.
Ryan Sachetta
Ryan Sachetta is Artpace's Grant Writer. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2009 with a degree in Journalism. Ryan enjoys YouTubing videos of a more svelte Shawn Kemp, eating Honeycrisp apples, and puns.