Pro­vid­ing Op­tions for Stu­dio Arts Ma­jors, Post-Grad­u­ate

Fig­ur­ing out what your plans are af­ter col­lege can be dif­fi­cult. The first steps can seem daunt­ing, and stu­dents con­sid­er­ing a com­mit­ment to more se­mes­ters of study may not al­ways feel that the process is worth it. Thank­fully, Bethel fac­ulty are al­ways more than will­ing to aid stu­dents in this tran­si­tion process.  

Chad Jay, MFA, as­so­ci­ate pro­fes­sor of art, has worked teach­ing stu­dents how to ex­press them­selves through a mul­ti­tude of medi­ums for 20 years. He grad­u­ated with an as­so­ci­ate de­gree in fine arts from Vin­cennes Uni­ver­sity and a bach­e­lor's de­gree in draw­ing and paint­ing from Kendall Col­lege of Art and De­sign. He then went on to grad­u­ate with a mas­ter's de­gree in draw­ing and paint­ing from the Uni­ver­sity of Cin­ci­nati.  

Jay said that, like many hu­man­i­ties ma­jors, look­ing into post-grad­u­ate work for stu­dio art re­quires a stu­dent to com­pile a strong port­fo­lio.  

“The port­fo­lio has to rep­re­sent a body of work that is cre­ated to­wards your bach­e­lor's the­sis,” Jay said.  

And, for stu­dio art stu­dents, grad­u­ate school is im­por­tant and some­times nec­es­sary, de­pend­ing on the de­sired ca­reer. Stu­dents with a bach­e­lor’s de­gree in art can teach and do have other op­tions they can pur­sue, but mas­ter’s de­grees in the arts can lead stu­dents to be­come mu­seum cu­ra­tors or col­lege pro­fes­sors.  

There are two de­grees that grad­u­ate stu­dents pur­su­ing art can con­sider: Mas­ter of Art, and Mas­ter of Fine Arts. A Mas­ter of Art de­gree will split acad­e­mia and stu­dio work, while a Mas­ter of Fine Arts de­gree will be much more stu­dio-based learn­ing. MFA stu­dents will be spend­ing 60 to 70 hours in the stu­dio cre­at­ing art.  

The biggest ad­vice Jay gives to stu­dents is to keep your op­tions open.  

“You never just want to go and ap­ply to one school,” Jay said. “You are hurt­ing your­self by do­ing that.”  

Jay said that there is a lot of money in­volved for grad­u­ate stu­dents, so they should reach out far to see what op­por­tu­ni­ties they can get. Be­ing a grad­u­ate teacher as­sis­tant, earn­ing schol­ar­ships, or get­ting a fel­low­ship with their school are ways stu­dents can get full rides, and Jay ad­vises stu­dents to not con­sider grad­u­ate school un­less they do re­ceive one.  

When look­ing into build­ing a port­fo­lio, Jay’s ad­vice is to cen­ter the body of work around one theme, or your the­sis. Once these works are com­piled, the stu­dent must be able to de­fend their col­lec­tion in front of pro­fes­sion­als at their school of in­ter­est.  

In his ex­pe­ri­ence of get­ting into grad­u­ate school in Cincin­nati, the grad­u­ate stu­dents con­sid­ered what stu­dents would be ac­cepted. And their de­ci­sions were not based on aca­d­e­mic skill.  

“They made their de­ci­sions not based on grades, not based on tran­scripts,” Jay said, “their de­ci­sions were to­tally based on artis­tic merit.”  

Cur­rently, Jay is work­ing to find Christ-cen­tered grad­u­ate art schools where Bethel stu­dents may feel more com­fort­able; how­ever, he also en­cour­ages stu­dents to ap­ply to both pri­vate and state schools. 

“You have the pri­vate school ex­pe­ri­ence, go to a state school,” Jay said. “Widen your range of ex­pe­ri­ences.”