herki

That Janine Antoni show is pretty interesting. Make sure you go to the main building too, there's a lot of stuff there too, including a piece on the top floor you have to get a staffer to let you in to see, but it's worth the trouble.

Yeah, I think the cost is roughly in the ballpark of what private art schools tend to cost, at least in my experience. So of course, if money is an issue, you're better advised going with a school that can do half- or full-ride scholarships or offer TA-ships to cut down on costs. I feel like Cranbrook does what they can to help make it affordable, but they don't have the biggest pool to draw from with 150 graduate students and no undergrad. It might just be shadows of the recession (they're doing all sorts of repairs all the time this year), but sometimes you notice sort of janky things that you think really should get taken care of (we're readying our print shop for the impending spring basement flood, for instance). It's just bizarre, because you're surrounded by this super-posh private boarding high school that is rolling in the dough.

Yeah, most people who live Off-Campus live up in Pontiac. There's one apartment building that's like 75% Cranbrok students. Semi-related: there was a recent New Yorker article called "Drop Dead, Detroit!" about L. Brooks Patterson, the cheif executive of Oakland County (where Bloomfield Hills is, one of the wealthiest counties in the country and just north of Detroit). Worth checking out if you can find it. But yeah, you have to drive to get ANYWHERE in the area. Even riding a bike is pretty much out of the question, since the roads are really busy (lots of 4-lane split highways), and there aren't many sidewalks.

I was a little surprised at how little Cranbrook is ending up costing me, seeing as it's a private school with no TA opportunities and all. I have a need-based grant that covers maybe 1/3 of the fixed costs, making it about equal to what SAIC would've cost me. There are scholarships for first-year students, but I don't know anyone who got one, (I haven't asked around ask that much, but I think they're not super-rare). Those scholarships only cover the first year, because then the second year is awarded separately. Even though there aren't any TA-ships, there are work-study positions. Before I started, administration kept telling me not to assume I'd get a work-study, but basically anyone who wants/needs one, can find one that suits them, be it in the office, computer lab, woodshop, museum, or library. (Also, if you're still waiting to hear from schools when the deposit deadline gets close, talk to administration. They're pretty understanding and might let you wait a little bit. That happened to me last year.)

Yeah, last year, I got an acceptance from art & technology nearly a month before I got a final decision from the other departments I applied to. It didn't hurt that ATS didn't interview me though.

Regarding interviews at SAIC, I'd say it's not out of the question up until a couple weeks before the school-wide interview day, which is in the spring if I'm not mistaken.

Last year they divided us up by department, the interviews were held in each department's area. When I did it with SAIC sculpture, there were maybe 30 of us? Enough for essentially 4 or so simultaneous interviews happening all day.

Yeah, if you do tech art, Cranbrook probably isn't the best place. I don't think really anyone is doing coding. There are a few seminars where they teach students rhino or Arduino, but it's pretty introductory-level stuff that we're expected to build off of on our own. That's one of the things I really want Cranbrook to improve on as a student, because I'd love more of those types of resources myself. They have a 3d printer, a laser cutter, a CNC, and a plasma cutter, but it's sort of like "there's the tools, have at it."

Unfortunately, I don't remember who interviewed me. It was a faculty member (part-time?) and a second year student. We basically discussed the project that I was working on at the time, though I sort of directed the discussion there, so I'm not sure if that was usually how the interviews went. They didn't really have any hard-hitting questions. I think there were around 20 or 30 people there to interview with sculpture that day. I got the impression that the faculty had pretty much already made their choices, and interviews were a way to make sure they made the right decisions and to weed out the crazy people. Most of the day we toured the department and just sort of stood around and mingled. That was actually my favorite part of the day, I got to meet some pretty awesome people, and we all went out to dinner at the end of the day. Some of the grad students were throwing a party at their apartment that we got invited to, though I didn't go.

What department were you thinking of applying to at Cranbrook? Some of the departments are pretty insular, but others are pretty open to students doing whatever they feel like doing. For instance in print media, there are a few of us that do very little to no printmaking. It was actually a big deal when everyone did print-related things for a crit. There's also an elective system, where you can take part in crits in another department, and get studio visits with their artists-in-residence, etc.

I interviewed with SAIC sculpture last year, though I wound up getting wait-listed there. Perhaps I could help answer questions about the application process too; sort of fill-in where marzipanned can't answer.

These forms already have a system for that, at the top of this page should be two links, one that says "Results Search" and another that says "Submit Results".

Slideroom is a breeze considering the other options. Last year one school I applied to had their own clunky proprietary application system, and for another school I had to burn my portfolio onto a CD and mail it in with all the completed forms. I also had to mail envelopes with addresses and postage to all my recommenders too for that school.

I'm not in the 2D department, but my studio is directly beneath them (they can probably hear the music I'm playing right now.) Loric is pretty close to how Cranbrook works. The Artists-in-Residence are mostly there to maintain an environment in which the students can help encourage and refine each other's work. Most of the learning and development that happens come from classmates. Each department works a little differently, but in my case: We have reading groups once a week, where we discuss a reading that gets picked out by a departmental assistant and the AIR. We have crits once a week too, where you might either show work or write a review of another person's work. We also have crit club every other week, where everyone who wants to participate breaks into groups of 4, and we go around to each others' studios and do studio critiques of whatever's being worked on. Just about every week (usually Thursday), there's at least one lecture by somebody that gets brought in either by the school or by an individual department. If your department brings somebody in, usually they sit in on your department's crits, do studio visits with you, and go out to dinner/drinks. Next week, for instance, on Tuesday we have the first lecture by our critical studies fellow (someone the school brings in for a semester to give lectures/studio visits/crits with everyone), and a lecture on Thursday by another visitor the school brought in. You might also have an elective as part of your week. (The size of the school means that you know just about everyone, and so you can sit in on critiques in other departments if you'd like, or if you really want to be gung-ho about it, you can elective with a department. If you elective, the requirements for what is expected of you varies department-by-department. Some you just have to show up for crits, some want active participation in critiques every week, some want you to write reviews for crits, some want you to be a part of reading groups too. In doing an elective and meeting that department's requirements, you get a critique session with their department, and a studio visit with their AIR, both of which can provide some valuable exterior viewpoints, especially if you choose an elective that isn't closely related to your practice.) Specifically regarding 2D, I'm not sure if they have reading groups, but I'm thinking they do. I know they do critiques once a week, where 2-3 students show work, each getting a pretty decent amount of time for feedback. Another student is assigned to write a review for each crit piece, and after critiquing the piece, the review of the piece is also analyzed and critiqued. So make sure your writing skills are pretty decent. Regarding the work they do, since the AIRs choose who to accept into their department, each department tends to reflect the aesthetic sensibilities and artistic philosophies of the corresponding AIR. So in the case of 2D, check out Elliott Earls. IIRC, he used to work in commercial graphic design and got really fed up with it, and so he started doing super-experimental stuff, pushing the boundaries of what graphic design is. He's a really smart dude; he can cut right through all the crap and break down what exactly your stuff is about, which makes him really intense to get when annual faculty reviews roll around. (Or if you're in 2D, at every critique.) But yes, at times Cranbrook does feel more like an artists' community than a school. The environment isn't the best for developing your teaching abilities. There aren't any undergrad classes to TA, and sometimes it almost seems frowned upon to plan to go into teaching after graduation. If you wanted to teach, there are better schools for that.

I'm 23 years old and the baby of my department in graduate school, but I've always felt a little bit more developed than others my age with regards to my practice. I was lucky enough to find what really worked for me in the beginning of my freshman year of undergrad, and so I had a couple extra years to refine it over people who didn't figure that stuff out until they were juniors/seniors. The average age at my grad school is 27/28 years old. There are fewer people significantly over that average age who pull it up, but I'd venture to guess that most people are about 25-27. (Of the 17 students, there's a mid-40, a couple mid-30s, some late-20s, and some mid-20s down to me.) I remember in undergrad, there was a classmate who was part of an accelerated pre-college program that eventually enabled her to graduate college at age 17. She might have been academically at the level of a college graduate, but rushing though college in 3 years at such a young age meant that her work was underdeveloped conceptually and emotionally, and showed it at times. I used to wonder what she was in a rush for. She's now 20 and engaged. If it seems that you could benefit from taking a year or so doing a post-bacc. or even just taking some time doing non-school-related art, then do so! You've got a key advantage over many people in their mid-30s, and that's time. You've got more time before you have to really worry about being a homeowner, starting a family, or whatever else people older than you might have to deal with. Take advantage of that.