Hi friends!
Now that I have a vantage point of 20+ years out of art school I can look back and compile this working and unfinished list.
I had a great undergraduate experience in the Art Photography Department at Syracuse University that focused mostly on building a body of work, learning the techniques and skills of an analog art photography student, and a bit of the business side of being an artist - although there were a lot of questions left unanswered. Simultaneously as I was a student, I struggled with depression and anxiety during my college years.
Looking back on it now, I wish that my art school education had included a more wholistic approach to self care, mental health, and building the inner resources necessary to maintain resilience throughout all the ups and downs, slow seasons, and unknowns of building a career in the visual arts or in a creative field where there is no blueprint. I graduated from school not knowing what I was going to do next and the pressure and anxiety from that was a heavy burden to carry.
I wish that Art School had more directly and explicitly discussed building community with each other.
I wish there had been even more emphasis on creating your life as an artist in an imaginative and open ended way, whatever that may look like for you as an individual.
I wish there had been more emphasis on radical self love and self acceptance, building self-confidence, and creating inner resources to deal with issues that will come up in life and in the art studio again and again…artist block, rejection, how to build a life, how to explore, how to reassess, how to sustain through times when it feels like nothing is happening…etc.
I wish there had been more entrepreneurial training, thinking outside the box of the gallery system and figuring out life skills and resources for an individual to blaze her own trail and to dream up her own opportunities with imagination. I am fascinated to observe these topics being discussed right now amongst younger generations who are honest and transparent in the ups and downs of make a life as a creative.