MEMORANDUM

TO: Readers of this LJ
FROM: Kyrasantae
DATE: September 18, 2006
SUBJECT: Pretentiousness amongst college Fine Arts students

A breed of irritating pretentiousness and cockiness is propagating throughout the ranks of Fine Arts majors, exhibited by the following symptoms:

• Claims of superiority over artists in their field who do not have a college degree in that field;
  
• Flaunts one's skills, often before those without similar educational background;
  
• Takes 'live for or study what one loves' for granted; and
  
• Reluctant to acknowledge independent talent and development, instead recommends college education for further development.

The cause of this Fine Arts pretentiousness is unknown, but evidence suggests that the following factors may be involved:

• The belief that Fine Art is only fully appreciated by a minority 'cultured' segment of the general public;
  
• The belief that Fine Art can only be properly developed through post-secondary education;
  
• The requirement of immense time commitment to the development and practice of the person's chosen craft at the collegiate level of study; and
  
• The reality that (especially in the performing arts) younger artists are more likely to be successful, leading to the belief that time cannot be wasted studying something else if one's goal is to become an artist.

This is a disturbing trend, because self-taught artists, in search of advice concerning their own development, often approach Fine Arts majors for said advice. The characteristics of the attitude described above can cause significant discouragement to the amateur, and thus action needs to be taken to prevent 'Fine Arts pretentiousness' from further spreading its malice and demoralizing talented people everywhere.






Oops. Right assignment, wrong topic. I'm supposed to write about fluid mechanics :P

Edit: By fine arts I'm referring to both Fine Arts (BFA) and Music (BMus) programs ;)