Online Art School? This Ought to be Interesting.

Well, it appears that the COVID-19 epidemic is going to be shutting down colleges nationwide until the spread is controlled. For schools who haven’t pushed forward spring break and are going to continue classes, they’ll be moved to an online alternative. That’s all fine and dandy for a math class or a lecture, but what’s to become of art school over the next few months? How is an art school supposed to function online? Because for the life of me, I can’t even fathom it. I guess we’re going to go even deeper into the conceptual wasteland that we’re currently in and just completely forget about craft and process.

But even if classes do go full on conceptual, the idea of that makes me glad I’ve already graduated, students won’t be able to make much unless it’s a drawing class. Forget about sculpture and ceramics unless students are going to be expected to stack pencils or make 1” pinch pots with the clay corner they snagged on their way out of the studio. Even painting, most college painting classes are oil focused and not many people have the ventilation required to paint in oils in their homes. So digital artists rejoice, because you’re the only ones who are going to be learning anything creatively for the time being… students of sculpture, ceramics, and painting are going to be relegated to drawing pictures and chats about history or concept.

In all seriousness though, I’d really like to hear from students how this unfolds. Is it going to be even remotely productive? Are professors going to just give up? Like I said, I cannot wrap my head around a way that professors of things like sculpture can effectively shift their curriculum to an online outlet. So students, let’s chat about this. You can DM me on Instagram @forresthinesart or email me at forresthines@plebeiandeli.art and let’s discuss the process of how this is going. You’re going to have a lot of free time in the coming month aren’t you? If I get enough participation and interesting results I’ll publish them as a collection.