Rutgers MFA

[carterjohnson]

Hi to anyone who has been accepted to Rutgers.

 

Any thoughts? Have you decided? Considering elsewhere too?

 

I've given myself one more week to make a decision between Rutgers and Hunter.

[kingdom92]

hi i did get into rutgers...im still waiting on the decision from hunters. i just moved to the states so i am very new to how things work here.But i really hope i get into hunters ...if not...rutgers here i come!....do you know about the faculties there? my work is interdiciplinary and i saw most of the students there were painting student..i am just worried that this wouldn't be good for my growth as an artist?

[KSuverkrubbe]

I just wanted to stop in and say that I wish I had gotten into Rutgers. Lol. I think there is a large variety there and that is what I felt when I looked at all the work,but I was focused mostly on painting.

[carterjohnson]

hi i did get into rutgers...im still waiting on the decision from hunters. i just moved to the states so i am very new to how things work here.But i really hope i get into hunters ...if not...rutgers here i come!....do you know about the faculties there? my work is interdiciplinary and i saw most of the students there were painting student..i am just worried that this wouldn't be good for my growth as an artist?

 

 

I just wanted to stop in and say that I wish I had gotten into Rutgers. Lol. I think there is a large variety there and that is what I felt when I looked at all the work,but I was focused mostly on painting.

 

Hey, thanks to you both for responding. I appreciate it.

 

I've just come back from visiting the Rutgers program and have given myself until tomorrow (03/27) to make a decision. I know Hunter already, so it was nice to see Hunter there and meet all the people.

 

Unfortunately, it did not make the decision any easier. ugh...

 

It is big on painting, but I it seems to me that they are making a big push toward media. They just hired someone from Cal Arts last year who works mainly with digital media, and another person recently who does mainly performance & media. Unlike most of the other schools, you don't apply to one particular media, it's all intermingled.

[kingdom92]

hiring someone from cal arts...the hunter people did this or the rutgers?

[carterjohnson]

hiring someone from cal arts...the hunter people did this or the rutgers?

A year ago Rutgers hired Natalie Bookchin who is from Cal Arts. They recently hired Aki Sasamoto as well who is very interesting... neither are painters, however.

[KSuverkrubbe]

Hey, thanks to you both for responding. I appreciate it.

 

I've just come back from visiting the Rutgers program and have given myself until tomorrow (03/27) to make a decision. I know Hunter already, so it was nice to see Hunter there and meet all the people.

 

Unfortunately, it did not make the decision any easier. ugh...

 

It is big on painting, but I it seems to me that they are making a big push toward media. They just hired someone from Cal Arts last year who works mainly with digital media, and another person recently who does mainly performance & media. Unlike most of the other schools, you don't apply to one particular media, it's all intermingled.

Honestly, I found it hard when I was looking for schools specifically for painting- I don't know if anyone else had this problem.

 

A lot of the programs seemed more pushed to maybe not digital, but more like installation, conceptual sort of work, which I have interest in ,but not for my own art work. .  I wanted to try and find someplace that had a bit of more of a footing in a traditional aesthetic (but that wasn't tied down to only that- that also had a wide range of new things going on). I wanted funkiness but also a lot of sophistication. I felt like a lot of programs had more of the 'sophisticated' sort of style (muted palettes, scarce sort of information, very abstract ,etc). I know I was just judging a lot based on look,but I wanted to avoid a place that had an 'overall ' aesthetic or that looked too bogged down in looking..I guess..mn how do I say this? ' current'? I wanted variety!

 

But...I also sort of avoided any places with things like 'sociopolitcal ' in the description. I honestly don't care what someone paints..Whether it's a paper bag or the issues of victims from a monsoon. If it's good it's good. I basically tried to just avoid any program that felt like it was pushing some sort of agenda or wanted its students to think a certain way.

 

I just know that I like making a painting a painting. I like other types of painting, I do, but I am not that interested in it personally. My pieces aren't narrative but they are rooted in more recognizable imagery and vivid patterning .......

 

Anyway, I think Rutgers was one of those programs that appeared to have a wide variety of painting. I hope they keep that up and don't push one method of making art over another.....

[KSuverkrubbe]

Of course you guys aren't in painting, I don't assume.........So  maybe that's not relevant,but did you guys have problems too?

 

It seems like performance art and technology are becoming a 'thing' ..or have they already been a thing?

 

It makes sense though in our world full of the internet -where everyone is watching everything- that performance art would take a big step forward. Everywhere you go moving media...... It makes sense to me anyway why people would be so drawn to exploring it.

 

As for technology , it is increasingly becoming a part of our lives, so of course artists want to tackle that....I think that maybe I have to admit it's a new frontier....I mean artists always want to experiment with what has never been done before and technology presents a great opprotunity.

 

I think we should definitely embrace that,but I do worry that some artists will be pushed aside that should not be. ..I'm sure that happens though when any new medium starts to be the prevalent one of the day...

[miyamoto81]

Hi all, I recently went through the grad program at Rutgers. It's been a couple years, but here are my thoughts on what you all are discussing: 

 

Firstly, I would say that Rutgers does have an emphasis on painting, yes. However, so does the market currently. Like most New York schools, they are inextricably linked to what sells. Most of the people in my class were painters - though I'm not sure how much of that was due to the application pool. 

 

Yet, the faculty there were great - which was what made the program. Marc Handelman, Ardele Lister, Barbara Madsen, Miranda Lichtenstein, Gary Schneider, Hanneline Rogeberg - all encouraged working multi-disciplinarily, or at least how you wanted to work. Aki and Natalie came after me, but knowing Aki and her work, she's a wonderful addition to the faculty there. And Natalie brings more of an old-school approach (in a really good way) to media.

 

It's a challenging program, as grad school should be. And as with most things, you'll get out of it what you put in. 

 

One thing I will say is to go with whoever gives you more money. No grad program, even if it's Yale or Columbia, is worth going into tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt. Rutgers is a state school, and I was able to get instate tuition before I knew of my financial package from them. If I hadn't known I would get instate tuition, I'm not sure I would have gone. 

 

On a side note, both Marc Handelman and Barbara Madsen have shows up in New York currently if you want to check out their work. Barbara has work at one of the NYC Public Libraries (she's actually giving an artist's talk with B. Wurtz this afternoon), and Marc has a show at his gallery at Sikema Jenkins & Co in Chelsea. It's a great opportunity to check out a potential instructor's work before you take classes with them. 

[carterjohnson]

Hi all, I recently went through the grad program at Rutgers. It's been a couple years, but here are my thoughts on what you all are discussing: 

 

Firstly, I would say that Rutgers does have an emphasis on painting, yes. However, so does the market currently. Like most New York schools, they are inextricably linked to what sells. Most of the people in my class were painters - though I'm not sure how much of that was due to the application pool. 

 

Yet, the faculty there were great - which was what made the program. Marc Handelman, Ardele Lister, Barbara Madsen, Miranda Lichtenstein, Gary Schneider, Hanneline Rogeberg - all encouraged working multi-disciplinarily, or at least how you wanted to work. Aki and Natalie came after me, but knowing Aki and her work, she's a wonderful addition to the faculty there. And Natalie brings more of an old-school approach (in a really good way) to media.

 

It's a challenging program, as grad school should be. And as with most things, you'll get out of it what you put in. 

 

One thing I will say is to go with whoever gives you more money. No grad program, even if it's Yale or Columbia, is worth going into tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt. Rutgers is a state school, and I was able to get instate tuition before I knew of my financial package from them. If I hadn't known I would get instate tuition, I'm not sure I would have gone. 

 

On a side note, both Marc Handelman and Barbara Madsen have shows up in New York currently if you want to check out their work. Barbara has work at one of the NYC Public Libraries (she's actually giving an artist's talk with B. Wurtz this afternoon), and Marc has a show at his gallery at Sikema Jenkins & Co in Chelsea. It's a great opportunity to check out a potential instructor's work before you take classes with them. 

Thanks so much Miyamoto81. That's good info. I was in Philadelphia all day, but if I hadn't been, I'd have checked out the talk with Madsen at the nypl. I might've been able to introduce myself. I must say that I am very interested in both Aki and Natalie's work. They were significant draws for me when I was looking for schools to apply to.

 

Anyway, it's good to know this kind of thing, and I REALLY appreciate it. I still haven't made a choice between Hunter or Rutgers, but I gave myself until this weekend to make a decision.

 

tick tock...

Carter-

[KSuverkrubbe]

good luck Carter!!!

 

I'm sorry if I was starting to take the forum off topic.

[carterjohnson]

good luck Carter!!!

 

I'm sorry if I was starting to take the forum off topic.

no apology necessary.

 

I would say that things are really just the opposite, however. There seem to be more and more schools these days focusing on painting. I go to galleries too, and I see mostly painting. It's rare to see video, and rarer still for performance.

 

The general public understands sculpture and painting, so there's a bigger market for it... but from what I understand, in school anyway, painters and other "non" digital media types are experimenting with video and other types of digital material. That just seems to be my take on all this.

 

I would say that you shouldn't be afraid of it. In fact, if you are, perhaps that would be a sign of which direction you SHOULD go, at least as an experiment. I think it useful to explore what at first seems the most difficult to do. For me personally, that doesn't always have to do with any particular media, but with other concerns.