Attending art school in California places you in not only one of the most beautiful and diverse states in the union, but also offers a wide variety of educational options. Whether your interest is in traditional art such as painting or sculpture, or you’re interested in making film your career, attending an art school in California is likely to be a rewarding experience and a great benefit to your ultimate career plans.
California has a long tradition of higher education and boasts a number of large, publicly funded universities to choose from, all of which have well regarded art departments. California also is noted for a number of private art schools—one of the most famous of which, the Academy of Art Institute was founded in San Francisco in 1929 and has since expanded into other states. The best fit for you will depend on your preferences and needs—some students thrive in a larger more diverse university setting, while others find the more cloistered and intense atmosphere of a specialized art school more conducive to their educational experience.
Some of the most prestigious film schools are found in California’s publicly funded universities. University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) boasts one of the top programs for film in the world at its School of Theater, Film and Television. The University of Southern California (USC) is world famous for its School of Cinematic Arts.
Of the smaller, more specialized schools, Art Center College of Design in Pasadena is one of the best known and well regarded. Founded in 1930 it offers a number of bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in fine arts, illustration, design, advertising and photography. The Art Center College of Design also offers bachelor’s and master’s programs in film—and is geographically located close to five major film studios. Undergraduate programs offered in film at this art school in California include directing, editing and cinematography; a graduate level degree is available in broadcast cinema. The California Institute of the Arts (CALARTS) is internationally known for being a leading center of both undergraduate and graduate program in not only the performing and visual arts but also in the critical study of these arts.
Traditional Colleges Also Offer Online Learning
Attending an art school in California may be the dream of many, but outside their reach because relocation to the state or the particular city within the state that houses the college or university of their dreams may not be possible for them due to family obligations. Many a mature student, wishing to return to college to advance their educational goals or strike out on a new career has been frustrated by these sometimes insurmountable obstacles.
Thankfully the explosion of distance learning and online educational opportunities has made the dream of attending an art school in California more accessible than ever before. Many of the public universities and the specialty colleges noted above offer comprehensive online programs some of the traditional schools recommend that their online offerings be undertaken in conjunction with on campus coursework and studio time. These hybrid programs can offer the best of both worlds to those lucky enough to be able to take advantage of them—sometimes via summertime residency courses that offer intensive but shorter terms that make them better fit into the lives of mature and working students.
A number of online only art schools are also available; among these are The Art Institute Online, The International Academy of Design and Technology, American Intercontinental University and several others. A purely online art education does require a special type of student—one who works well outside the structure of a traditional classroom, and who does not require the face to face interaction with instructors and fellow students, who can commit to completion of projects without the routine of daily class attendance will fare best. An online student will need to be adaptive to the means by which they submit projects and receive feedback from instructors. Scanning technologies and email, as well as internet conferencing and chat programs will all figure into the tools the successful online art student.
The most daunting aspect of attending an art school in California, may well be in the choice available to the prospective student. With so many options available, the successful student will find that they will need to begin their homework well in advance of any enrollment. A careful study of the needs and desires of the student is the first step, then identifying the requirements for qualifications for the career they wish to pursue should come next. Afterward thorough research into the available programs is necessary to find the best fit. Internet research is often the most efficient means to gather this data, and often times the student can receive, via postal mail or email attachment, course catalogs, program descriptions and financial aid information from their choice of art school in California.