It’s a Wednesday morning in the Depot on Broad Street. In a classroom at the top of the stairs, students are cutting, sewing and painting sheets of white fabric. A block away in Franklin Terrace, Sally Vitsky is offering critiques to her drawing class as they sketch the still life scene in front of them. Upstairs, another class is painting the scenes from the dioramas they constructed the day before. And down the street in the Pollak Building, fashion professor Rudy Lopez is walking his class through the process of taking a garment to market while Emily Smith is helping her interior design students build small wooden cubes.
It sounds like a typical day at VCUarts. But it’s July, and these students aren’t college classmates—yet.
They’re at VCUarts for the Pre-College Summer Intensive, a three-week residential program for high school students to explore their interests in the fine arts, design and performing arts while developing a portfolio or preparing for auditions. Courses are taught by faculty, with VCUarts students assisting, and reflect college-level instruction and assignments.
“Students are given a lot of independence to develop their work and expand their skills beyond their high school courses,” says Ursula Woolman, director of the summer intensive. “This allows them to produce work that enhances their portfolios and gives them an edge when they apply for admission into undergraduate art and design programs.”
Bridget Manown, a teaching assistant for the 2D and 3D Portfolio course, wants to push students out of their comfort zones. That experience, Manown says, is what helped when they were a high school student considering their college options.
“I was on the fence about art school,” they say, “until I came here and spent three weeks making art.”
Rosemary Hobson, a senior from Charlottesville, Va., is hoping the summer intensive will not only give her a sense of the art school experience, but help her decide between studying interior design and architecture. Plus, as she moves from residence hall to classroom to dining hall and more, she’s starting to picture what day-to-day life might be like in college.
While many high school students see the summer intensive as a chance to explore disciplines and decide if art school is right for them, it’s also an opportunity to hone fundamental skills and prepare for college-level courses and expectations.
Ryan Syrell’s 2D Portfolio class, for instance, builds on what he teaches first-year undergraduates in the Art Foundation drawing studio. Syrell pushes his high school students to explore value and scale, and spends three days working with a live model. Developing these skills early, he says, gives students an advantage when they get to art school.
“A lot of projects appear in another form in Art Foundation,” he says. “I’ve seen people come in [as first-years] who were working incredibly small, who were afraid of getting into really high contrast.”
“There’s a lot of letting things look weird and trusting that they’ll come together.”
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