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BY B RU RYAN TLED R OL OF C LEG A V E H T OOD W N O I T DUCA E S T R INE A E CO F A F LUE O GE CTO DIRE G W AC ARD U LIN NSE ADE MY n I s d n a lH l A Artists raise your hands You have probably heard the story about a kindergarten class being asked to raise their hands if they are artists All hands fly up amid peals of delight Then a class of ninth graders is asked the same question Maybe one or two hands cautiously appear What happens between kindergarten and high school to still those creative hands The answer is that students are often led to believe that fine arts are fine for fun and enrichment but not for college majors or careers and that delving deeply into fine arts will result in an unreliable and unprofitable future Cautionary tales of starving artists struggling against impossible odds to eke out a living have inclined students to more practical endeavors like science engineering or business which are different from the arts as if knowledge were deposited like grain into sealed silos WOODWARD ACADEMY

DeBakey pioneering cardiovascular surgeon and medical device inventor Dr DeBakey credited his mother a It is time to seamstress That s how I started She saw that I was break open interested so she taught me how to sew and how to cut those silos with windows of opportunity Let s start by considering what fine arts entail Each singer dancer sculptor etc patterns and how to use a sewing machine how to crochet and knit and how to tat is imbued with imagination curiosity and creativity and through these windows light pours into every corner of the mind The great scientist Albert Einstein had this to say Imagination is more important than knowledge For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand while imagination embraces the entire world and all there ever will be to know and understand Einstein is in the good company of Leonardo da Vinci who had he been practical and followed his father s profession would have become a clerk Imagine the loss not only to art Consider as well the phenomenal career of Dr Michael WOODWARD ACADEMY ALL HANDS IN THE VALUE OF A FINE ARTS EDUCATION BRYAN RUTLEDGE

make lace Years later when Dr DeBakey learned that the as he developed the iPhone or Serena Williams as she reinvents fabric Dacron could be used to reinforce human organs he used tennis and entrepreneurship The artistic mindset fuels his wife s sewing machine to prepare the material Dr Debakey innovation which in turn enables all human progress discovered creative ways to mend Compelling stories continue into the 21st Century Who can doubt the creativity of Steve Jobs Progressing any fine artist can attest to the maturity discipline and composure cultivated by years of aesthetic study and performance some will count teamwork travel and competition among the charms and let s not forget the fun Whether sublimely contemplating a Rothko painting or kicking up one s heels at a hoedown fine arts are downright fun arts The advent of the digital age has opened limitless cutting edge venues and careers in creativity Savvy students understand that they are more likely to change jobs and careers than in the past and thus approach college with plans to diversify and combine their fields of study Fine arts can be the stars in the crown of an education that is responsive to the protean prospects of the future WOODWARD ACADEMY ALL HANDS IN THE VALUE OF A FINE ARTS EDUCATION BRYAN RUTLEDGE

from the more than 40 colleges and universities in Boston which collectively number over 200 000 students and they take advantage of curricular exchange with Berklee College of Music Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Boston Architectural College among others Internships are huge at Emerson Graduates get jobs and the Emerson alumni organization is integral to enabling internships and offering employment Visiting Emerson is like viewing the future of higher education and more They brand Higher education embraces themselves as a liberal arts school focusing on communications and the arts There are programs in communications disorders political communications sports communications and journalism Their newsroom is set up like that of The Colleges and universities that value Boston Globe The Massachusetts relevance recognize the bond between Statehouse on the other side of Boston the arts and disciplines such as business Common is a great experiential learning STEM and the humanities It is no destination for Emerson students coincidence that we observe so many Emerson presents six to eight main Colleges of Arts and Sciences tethered stage theater productions each year and complementary Consider what s through Emerson Stage and has several happening at the following schools that comedy troupes and a cappella groups braid the creative and the practical In every area of the performing arts students are integral to the planning Emerson College Emerson is across producing and performing Emerson the street from Boston Common and has students exude a palpable energy and a remarkably specialized curriculum in eagerness for the professional arena and communications media business of begin first semester studying in their creative enterprises film comedic arts major field no dithering They benefit WOODWARD ACADEMY Georgia Institute of Technology School of Architecture Georgia Tech s leaders describe architecture as the intersection of art culture and technology The College of Design is home to the BS in Architecture Industrial Design and Music Technology The department chair generally describes the difference between industrial design and architecture as being the difference between designing small things like phones versus designing large things like buildings Early on they embraced the emphasis on design thinking Through an incubator workshop students hatch ideas for new courses and student recommendations might very well be implemented Students jump in with both feet first year with architecture course work filling about 40 60 percent of their ALL HANDS IN THE VALUE OF A FINE ARTS EDUCATION BRYAN RUTLEDGE

curriculum Students do physical accessible first name open door are catching this wave including designing Make something of this They seek creative problem solvers Maryland Institute College of Art and burlap as well as digital designing and spatial thinkers and curious minds Savannah College of Art and Design a lot of cross pollination between the willing to fail As you would expect two Virtual reality is incorporated into students with at least some background design A selective practicum program in design or art tend to land in for undergraduates matches them with architecture but the first year advisor firms across the U S for a week and the reported that she often observes prior practicum might evolve into an musical involvement as well Study internship Naturally a BS in Architecture abroad is easy to arrange and available can lead to graduate school but the literally all over the world During my program leaders are keen to point out visit there one of the undergrads Fine arts boost the application for admissioN that alums often successfully enter beamed that she was about to study in Anyone who still needs convincing when engineering law urban planning fine Greece and Italy and there are also it comes to fine arts should consider the arts business real estate and study options in Africa and Asia When on application for admission The vast construction management Employment GA Tech s campus visit Architecture majority of colleges and universities rates are strong and the majority of West to view student design models and practice holistic admission meaning that students in Georgia Tech s diverse architecture in action both the student s curricular and cocurricular lives are considered Put architecture program are women A benefit of architecture is the smaller size Emerson and Georgia Tech School of yourself in the place of a Director of compared to other on campus Architecture are only two examples of the Admissions Would you rather admit a departments the implication is that marvelous intersection between creativity terrific chemistry scholar or a terrific while demanding the program is friendly in higher education and meaningful chemistry scholar who will also play and supportive and professors are prosperous professions Plenty of schools violin in the university orchestra or play WOODWARD ACADEMY ALL HANDS IN THE VALUE OF A FINE ARTS EDUCATION BRYAN RUTLEDGE

Iago in Othello or be drum major in the marching band If our violinist is a competitive music conservatory candidate she could earn not only professional training but also a music scholarship to sweeten the deal What s more engagement in fine arts facilitates a college essay that fairly pops with enthusiasm individuality and authenticity just what the admission scholarship dean likes And who can measure the benefit of fine arts for the student who struggles in some subjects yet thrives and finds a happy home in the art studio or rehearsal room It is not extravagant to assert that fine arts have launched careers eased defeatism and even saved lives All hands in art So we see that creativity and practicality are not silos but rivers that converge Indeed we prefer the designer of the lovely bridge we traverse to be good at geometry Creativity is everywhere even when we do not call it such It is the novel we escape to the song that reminds us of our first date the child s watercolor on the refrigerator the hymn we choose for a loved one s memorial service the bright graffiti on the walls of city buildings the crystal stair in Langston Hughes s poem Mother to Son So join our wise kindergarteners and raise your happy hand for they remind us that art is the child of life about the author Bryan Rutledge has served as director of college counseling at Woodward Academy since July 2015 Previously he was director of college counseling at St John s School in Houston TX for 19 years and director of college guidance at Wyoming Seminary College Preparatory School Kingston PA for six years He has taught AP English Southern Literature Civil War history and philosophy all on the high school level He holds an M A in philosophy from the University of Virginia and a B A in sociology psychology and philosophy from Millsaps College He oversees a staff of five college counselors and an administrative coordinator WOODWARD ACADEMY ALL HANDS IN THE VALUE OF A FINE ARTS EDUCATION BRYAN RUTLEDGE