Dr. Nicole Hall
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW WHEN APPLYING TO AN ART AND DESIGN INSTITUTE
MARIA GEFFERS
Can you talk about your background and the moment you knew which direction you wanted to go?
DR. DR. NICOLE HALL
My first engagement with working in admissions was when I was an undergraduate student. I went to art school and had many jobs in those years. One of them was working in the admissions office. I had a wonderful experience with admissions and liked the warmth of that space. I ended up working there through my four years of undergrad. When I finished school and was thinking about the type of career I was interested in, I had enjoyed that work so much, and I’m a perpetual student, so I knew I wanted to continue my education and stay in the academic world. So, I took my first professional job in admissions.
Working in enrollment management allowed me to constantly learn. It’s ever changing. The students change and so do the ways in which we engage with them. It’s dynamic and touches on so many different spaces that allowed me to explore my love of data and visual communication. After I had worked in enrollment for about six years, my undergrad alma mater reached out to me and told me they needed an artist who could shake up their enrollment. Since I filled that mixed space, I decided working in college enrollment was what I loved and what I wanted to keep doing. I take my role seriously. Our students make our institutions. Being a part of building and creating the academic culture through students we accept is something I enjoy and plan to keep doing.
TOM GEFFERS
As the Director of Admissions, what is your advice to somebody thinking about going to art school and pursuing that as a career?
DR. NICOLE HALL
I think it's important to understand what it means to be an academic artist. Being an artist is something that is deep in your soul, and you can’t quiet your desire to make art. Going to art school is about pursuing that goal, which can be rewarding, but it requires deep dedication. Taking your work that is so personal and sharing it requires a lot of vulnerability. Your academic experience is personal, which is different than many other fields of study. Being an art student is also a huge commitment. The amount of time you spend in the studio impacts how your schedule looks. Time management is important when you’re pursuing an art education.
Going to art school is not an easy walk in the park. Our students must also learn the history and the vernacular they're rooting their work in. Art education is not for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of yourself. You must take the entire world and see where you fit in. Then you must balance all the traditional elements of college education. When students are thinking about going into art, they must understand what that education looks like.
TOM GEFFERS
We rarely speak to someone in your profession outside of the STEM world. What does someone do with an art degree?
DR. NICOLE HALL
Many of our students go on to be working artists. They might show in galleries, build production brands, or do commission work. We have students who go into non- profit work. There are many creative organizations that employ artists as administrators. As many schools shift away from arts education, nonprofit organizations have taken up that work and connect K through 12 students with art. We have students teaching children, students teaching at the college level, and students teaching in community arts organizations.
When I think about what our students are doing, I think about how everything we encounter in life has been touched by the hand of an artist. There was an artist involved with the technology sitting in front of you. There is still an artist involved in design. People in STEM are usually working with some type of designer. When you think of art careers in that aspect, there is an endless array of jobs for art students to pursue. Critical thinking, resiliency, and the ability to take a critique to move forward are wonderful life skills. After I received my Art degree, I went on to pursue a PhD in Geography and Urban Studies. Thanks to my arts background, I was one of the stronger students in the program because of my ability to manage time, work with others, and think outside the box. Those are skills that help people with different career opportunities.
MARIA GEFFERS
Parents shouldn’t be nervous if their child wants to pursue a career in art?
DR. NICOLE HALL
Not at all. When I declared I was interested in going to art school, my mom, who has a business background, was not comfortable with it. My art teachers really advocated for me and explained that I because I didn’t want to do business, it wasn’t an area in which I would thrive. Creative spaces allow for creative people to make it work. That was true for me. I wouldn’t worry if your child wants to pursue a career in art. Passion goes a long way.
TOM GEFFERS
Our daughter majored in theater, and when she told me she didn’t have a plan B, I told her she needed to be devoted to her craft. Now, she’s a successful play director in Philadelphia.
What is the difference between attending an art institute and a student going to a college and majoring in art?
DR. NICOLE HALL
From a curricular standpoint, all accredited institutions have a very similar course structure. The difference is much more about experience. Schools that are independent colleges of art and design are tight-knit communities. Everyone there is on a creative track and sharing that focus. All the institutional resources at those schools are focused on art. It’s a priority. Whereas a student who is going to a larger college or university is looking at a traditional broad college experience with an art enclave as part of it. The independent colleges of art and design tend to be smaller institutions compared to some of the large universities and colleges. It really depends on the type of experience a student's looking for and what type of art they want to pursue.
TOM GEFFERS
What is National Portfolio Day?
DR. NICOLE HALL
The National Portfolio Day Association has been around since the late 1970s. It was an organization created by a group of art schools, independent art schools as well as art programs within larger colleges and universities. It was designed to serve students looking to go to art school in ways a traditional college fair doesn't. At a traditional college fair, students collect materials and ask questions. At National Portfolio Day, artists can show their portfolio in addition to asking questions and collecting materials. They can bring their artwork and have schools look it over. That experience for students is important. The portfolio is a significant component to admission for any art school. Every art school is looking for something slightly different. Portfolio Day provides students an opportunity to talk to the schools they might be interested in and talk about how the context of their work aligns with the different schools they consider.
It's a great opportunity because so many students are making art in a vacuum. They’re creating and drawing at home, but they never share their work or get feedback. Portfolio Day is a space for them to do that. We have students who start coming when they’re sophomores and continue to come as juniors and seniors. That way when they present their portfolio as part of their application, they’ve had a lot of feedback and input that helped them curate their portfolio for the schools they apply to. These events are free for all the students who attend. They happen all over the country and internationally. We have some online as well. The goal is to make sure these are accessible for all students to have opportunities.
MARIA GEFFERS
Is it like a college fair in that a lot of schools are there? Or do students have to meet with admissions counselors individually?
DR. NICOLE HALL
It's like a college fair. There are 105 schools in the organization. At least 50 schools attend each event, sometimes there are more. It’s rare that every school will be represented in a day. When they go, we send about 15 reviewers so they can move through the students as quickly as possible. We're one of the larger independent art schools. It's a lot for the students when they attend. It's about a four-hour event and they might see five schools in that time. It’s a good experience for them because it’s hard. All the schools that are part of this day are accredited art schools that require portfolios for admission. They treat these events as a positive space for the students. No one is there to tell the students they do terrible work. Everyone is supportive and encouraging. They are honest and will tell someone if they aren’t the right fit, but they’ll also tell them what works and other schools they might be a good fit for. Art schools are a friendly group.
TOM GEFFERS
What components make an excellent portfolio?
DR. NICOLE HALL
It's very subjective. Every school is looking for something different. Some schools are much more traditional and they're looking for an observational drawing-based portfolio. Some schools are looking for a creative conceptual portfolio. Having an idea and understanding of the work you make, the work the school looks for, and how those align is going to influence what makes a strong portfolio. Drawing skills are fundamental, even for students that are going into 3D or computer-based works. You must be able to communicate your ideas in a visual way, and drawing is a fundamental core of that.
Evidence of drawing in the portfolio is something we all look for. We look for passion and production. We want to see the student is making art, that they are experimenting in different ways, that they’re doing work beyond school assignments, and that they are making art that connects to them personally. Being able to speak about their work goes a long way. When we're talking to students, we recognize that all students have different backgrounds. We have students who have been in schools with dynamic multiple medium classes from kindergarten through 12th grade. Then we have students who might be in a school where they don't have access to any art classes at all. That's certainly going to impact how we're reviewing that student. Their ability to talk about why they're making the work they're making and what they hope to do with that work in college is an important part of it. We love when students bring in sketchbooks and show us their process. We can see how they got to their final piece, and what experiments they made. I encourage students to include their process in their portfolio too.
MARIA GEFFERS
I was a gifted teacher, and the student would design their program. One year I had a student who was interested in going to art school. He would set up his easel in the classroom and create his portfolio. It was cool because the other students would watch, and it would be a learning experience for everybody.
What impact has the pandemic had on the admissions process?
DR. NICOLE HALL
It was important for our students to maintain access to our facilities. We moved to a hybrid structure where most of our lectures and academic classes happened remotely, but then the students could come in small groups to use the different facilities. Our students at the graduate level have their own independent spaces. We wanted to make sure they continued to have access to those. There were a lot of precautions on campus, a lot of distancing, and a lot of reorganization of spaces, but we were able to maintain access for students. Things like ceramics or glass blowing are very difficult to transition fully online.
We also saw a lot of creativity. For example, our performance department really thought about how to perform in a virtual space. I was fortunate to sit in on some of their critiques. They were doing these group projects where they were each doing pieces, then they would pass them off, share sound, and continue the performance in the virtual space in an interesting and compelling way. Artists adapt, and art is all about responding to what’s happening in the world. Our students, as citizen artists, took that task seriously. They reinvented themselves and figured out how to be an artist in a virtual space.
In terms of our enrollment processes, reviewing portfolios virtually was a challenge. It's nice to have a student in front of me and be able to see their work in person. When they're holding things up on a screen or uploading you lose a little bit of that in-person magic. We did our best to make it work and to stay engaged with the students as much as possible. We opted to do some community critique days where we allowed prospective students to come together and share work with each other. We understood the importance of them getting to meet each other. It was vital for us to continue to create those spaces. Community is important to all our students. We found ways to maintain community through the event structures.
MARIA GEFFERS
In your dissertation, you expressed a passion for the importance of educational institutions to be part of the community. Why is that your passion?
DR. NICOLE HALL
My academic research focuses a lot on university community partnerships and recognizing that universities, particularly in dense urban spaces, have a significant impact on their community. They are producing community members, and they are bringing new community members into those spaces. Thinking about the role of the university in creating engaged citizens and doing that throughout a student’s time at a university is important. It frames what their experience will be like as they move outside of the institution. It's easy for students and faculty to be in that ivory tower focusing on the important things you're doing as a student and as an academic, but recognizing you're doing all those things to impact a world allows the university to set the tone.
Maybe an institution is expanding and thinking about the ways to integrate community spaces into the environment of their campus. Campuses should be engaging the neighborhoods around them and considering themselves neighbors and engaged members of any community. A lot of the work I do examines different factors, such as population changes, to understand why some neighborhoods are prosperous and other neighborhoods struggle. When I layer the data together, I can see that large institutions can serve as an anchor in their community. They can engage their communities and provide services. Institutions that do this have safer neighborhoods and growth compared to institutions that wall themselves in and separate themselves from their urban spaces.
MARIA GEFFERS
You have brought your creativity and your passion for data together, and married them into what you do, which is your passion.
DR. NICOLE HALL
Working in enrollment, I became interested in understanding human relationships, what makes a university, and how we can best serve our students. Thinking about that point of connection is how I ended up in geography, because it's all spatial. Enrollment is very spatial. Where do students come from? Where are they going when they leave? Looking at human-centric data in a spatial way has contributed to my successes in enrollment management and is the reason I continue to find positive and fun things to do every day.
It's a privilege to be part of students' academic journeys. I have had the great privilege of working with a lot of first- generation students, refugee students, and students that maybe wouldn't have otherwise had the opportunity to pursue higher education. Making art accessible and showing the path to a career in art can be a beautiful journey is something I take seriously. I feel privileged to be part of that journey.
MARIA GEFFERS
It’s a great journey for you to be on. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and your passion.
