If you’re a talented high school art student, how do you go about applying for admission and scholarships at an art school or college art department?
Adrian College’s Department of Art and Design has built the “Bridge”-- a series of six weekly portfolio development classes for high school students. Lenawee County art teachers are encouraged to nominate their best students. Students may also self-identify. Each student is awarded a half-scholarship to Bridge, so the student pays a fee of just $35 for the course (materials included).
The curriculum varies each term so that a student can continue to take sessions while encountering different focuses, instructors, and media. The fourth Bridge session begins Thursday, January 24, and features two sessions each in photo-process printmaking, stone carving, and digital art. Each series ends with a portfolio review by AC art professors. For seniors, this can double as the review for a departmental scholarship, should the student enroll at Adrian. Participants may also be considered for Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp scholarships.
In addition, Bridge students are invited to all art department programming and gallery events, can use the matting/framing lab with the assistance of AC student workers, and can have their artwork imaged by the department’s student Digital Team.
The first Bridge session was offered fall 2010, with a number of art professors and instructors teaching one session each. Fall and spring sessions were offered in 2011-2012. Greg Jones taught figure drawing in the fall; spring semester, art department teaching assistants, alums, and majors mentored a few students each, in their own media.
For more information please contact Sue Thompson, who directs the program, at 517-474-1103 or sthompson@adrian.edu (Adrian College Department of Art & Design, 110 S. Madison Ave., Adrian, MI 49221).
