Anonymous asked: My daughter has been accepted to SVA for the 2012 Fall semester under their film/video program...has SVA met all your expectations and how happy have you been with the school, teachers, courses, etc.

I’m not in film, and our departments are pretty separate, so my film program experience is limited to one humanities class that I took (I really enjoyed it- was on the science of optics, and the social and political significance of light and space within cinema).

The people I know in film are all super busy- one is interning for NBC on the set on the set of ‘30 Rock,’ or they’re working on multiple projects for friends and themselves. Film is also a super-social thing, because you need to build teams to support your projects- so film majors tend to really outgoing I think (even if they didn’t start out that way). 

I’d send SVA’s “VASA” (Visual Arts Student Association) a message on Facebook; their out-going 2011-2012 president, Phil, is a film major, and he’ll know better than I do about teachers and the department policies. 

Anonymous asked: Hi, I'm a high school junior and I'm interested in applying to SVA. I was just wondering if you could talk a little about what it's like attending SVA and how the programs are and such. Thank you!

I’m in the ‘Fine Arts’ program at SVA- this department is alot more conceptually driven and alot more open-ended than most departments at the school; the trade off is that you have to seek out opportunities for yourself somewhat. There are people in Fine Arts who have skills to do commercial photography, or publish illustrations- but you’re going to have to decide to learn those skills yourself rather than wait for a teacher to demo it for you. The benefit and drawback of the Fine Arts department is its flexibility.

The sculpture facilities here are state-of-the-art though, we have 3D printers and a really well equipped digital lab to support everything. If you’re thinking sculpture, I’d bet SVA Fine Arts is probably pretty close to the top.

What separates ‘Fine Arts’ from the other departments though is its mindset- we’re interested in engaging with the history of art-making and the history of Western culture. Fine Arts makes things, but we make them because we want to explore and research an idea with cultural significance. We’re heavy into philosophy and history. 

If you have any more specific questions though shoot me an email- I’ll try to help you out. I do really love SVA- we have a great community of diverse artists in all the different departments, from film-makers to graphic designers to photographers; there’s alot of good mixing of ideas that happens, and the school is small so people know each other. People here are passionate about their work, and NY is an incredible cultural hub.