|
|
|
Art Degrees – Accreditation Agencies, Admission Requirements & Curriculum Info
Finding art degree programs can be easy if you know where to look. College directories such as Princetonreview.com are an excellent start or you can use Bing, Yahoo! or Google to search through hundreds of results. Once you have located several art programs, you must separate the weaker ones from the stronger ones. Weaker schools may lack accreditation; they may require little to apply; and the curriculum may stray too far away from the standard.
Let’s start with accreditation. The National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) and The Council for Interior Design are the top two accrediting agencies for art degree programs. Both agencies are recognized by the U.S. Department of Education (www.ed.gov). They are also nationally recognized. This means the program is accredited in every corner of the U.S. Regional accrediting agencies are only valid in the regions they serve. Just a few regional accrediting agencies include:
-Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools
-New England Association of Schools and Colleges
-North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
-Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities
-Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
-Western Association of Schools and Colleges
Art Careers – The Best Art Schools and Program Curriculum’s
Thanks to the explosive growth of the Internet and dozens of new technology-driven disciplines, the title “starving artist” has become outdated. Sure, you can still paint, sculpt, or create works the old fashioned way, but most artists-even fine artists-have been forced to embrace technology in order to promote themselves and secure lucrative commissions and contracts.
The artist of today might still try to sell his paintings or works in the local coffee house or independent gallery, but by day he may work in advertising, publishing, new media, commercial and industrial art & design, video game design, animation, film and video, digital art, and more. Not only this, but new millennium artists earn higher salaries than any other generation or artists. The average artist working in the film & video artist earns $88,730, while publishing industry artists earn an average of $43,000+. Top earners overall make $90,000 per year or more.
To get started on a career as an artist, you should enroll in an art program at an accredited art school. If you would like to start out in an entry-level position while working on your degree, you should consider enrolling in a certificate or associate degree program. An associate degree in art will give you the skills you need to hold roles such as apprentice or gallery assistant. Most art schools or art & design schools, technical schools, colleges, and universities offer an associate degree or higher in the fine art, computer art, commercial and industrial art, graphic design, animation, and video game design. Some art schools may offer part of the degree program online, while others may give you the option to complete the entire degree online.
Art and Design School Prerequisites
Those times are gone when people used to speak that it was very difficult to make a career in arts. There are more art and design schools in the US today than you might imagine! They make it easy for you to go through different university and college undergraduate art and design programs. These academic programs lead to degrees, diplomas and certificates in areas like the fine arts of drawing, painting, sculpture and film as well as different kinds of industrial, graphic, web, fashion, interior and architectural designing.
Although there is no problem in locating an Art and Design School, you need to spend considerable amount of time in going through college catalogs and searching websites. Choosing an Art and Design school or program can be a difficult and time-consuming job. Initially, you may have to consider: whether you wish to pursue a degree, diploma or certificate, study on a full-time or part-time basis, what major areas of specializations interest you, how important special features such as industry internship, international exchange and so forth are to your decision and the importance of cost, location and other factors. Once you have made up your mind on this, you will further have to explore the choices of Art and Design Schools.
Art and Design Programs include Fine Arts and Design Programs and Fine Arts and Design Majors. If you are considering going to school for Fine Arts and Design, your post-secondary planning process should begin as early as high school. Fine arts and Design schools and programs are very competitive and rigorous. Therefore, plan your high school programs accordingly. Compulsory subjects that you will have to take on are English, Speech and Communications, Creative arts, Creative Writing and Mathematics to ensure that you are well prepared for the schools that you choose. Physics and Computer skills are also beneficial for certain programs in this field.
