Mentoring
29 Dec Royal Conservatoire of Scotland: Production Art and Design – Set and costume design
I received a really insightful email recently from a parent of one of my students from last year, who is now studying on the Production Art and Design – Set and costume design course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.28 Jun Engaging and trusting in the creative process
How easy do you find it not to be sure about something you do?How easy do you find it not to be sure about something you do? We've had another REALLY inspiring mentoring session this afternoon with a student who's exploring portraiture in the widest sense. The journey that is being undertaken is huge and it's so good to see when a student is trusting in the creative process. This really energizes ME and that should be how YOU feel when you're really into your work!
21 Jun GSA Sculpture and environmental art
Glasgow School of Art Sculpture
Last week we had the very special occasion of celebrating the degree show of our very first mentee who was graduating from Glasgow School of Art. We actually can't believe that he's graduating - time has really flown by! Lachlan graduated from Sculpture and Environmental Art with a 1st class Hons and has been awarded one of the RSA New Contemporaries awards. I didn't expect much less to be quite honest, as he was so engaged with life and art.27 Feb Dyslexia and Art School
Dyslexia and Art School
Dyslexia is a common distinction of the creative individual, with many young people attending art school falling into similar statistics as follows. At Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design research by Dr Steffart found that three-quarters of the 360 art foundation students assessed have a form of dyslexia. Dr Steffart designed a series of six tests of verbal, written and spatial ability for the students. Their intellectual and visual spatial skills were at a superior level – but they had many problems with reading, writing and spelling. Independent18 Jan Start planning your folio NOW!
We nearly called this blog post 'time management and planning'. But then we realised that no-one would probably read it; me included if I am to be honest! However, I am compelled to write this because of 3 situations with our mentoring that have arisen in the past 4 weeks. Whether you are reading this as we've published this in January or if you're reading it in June whilst you're on your summer break, the message remains the same. START PLANNING YOUR FOLIO NOW! As soon as you know you want to apply to art college take that as the day you start planning.23 Sep International student success at ECA.
International art college application success
Earlier in May, we had a very different enquiry from an International student who was here in Edinburgh studying some short courses to help build a portfolio to apply to Edinburgh College of Art. From the outset I was impressed by her resourcefulness as not only did she find Portfolio Oomph online, she arrived at our door one Monday morning ready to enroll in our institution. As you may or may not know, we are not an institution, it's just me, Julie Read, working from our home office / studio in Midlothian!21 Aug A parent’s view on applying to art college
Portfolio Oomph focuses very much the on the art education of the applicant (usually a young adult) when applying to art college but it can also be a tricky time for the parents of these applicants. If you have a child who is keen on pursuing an art education and is doing well in their exams, the whole idea of an art portfolio can be quite confusing. This is especially so if you haven't had an art education yourself or you're not connected in some way to the art world. It can feel like banging your head against a brick wall trying to find out information from a reliable, independent source.26 Sep Mentoring success story – GSA
Our first mentee has a great future mapped out for him as he's had great news over the weekend that he has been successful in his application to Glasgow School of Art to study Sculpture and Environmental Art course. In just 9 months he's gone from having no portfolio to being offered an unconditional place at one of the country's most prestigious art colleges that has produced many of the nominated artists for arguably the world’s most recognised and prestigious award for contemporary art, the Turner Prize.
In June 2012 Lachlan contacted Portfolio Oomph to help him on the right track to going on to study at art college - the only problem being he hadn't studied art past the age of 15 therefore he didn't meet the minimum entry requirements for most further education colleges that feed the university and art college courses.