Thanks @mathmom & @momrath
Right now she seems only mildly curious about architecture. She really has no idea yet what she wants to do in the future. I’m looking for ways to help her explore possibilities.
It’s good to see the list of summer pre college programs.
Although I wish there was a summer course that was more of “survey the possibilities” in visual art or something.
scholarme-that’s a really good question regarding “survey the possibilities”. We put all three of our daughters into our local Art League programs, where they took dozens of 2-4 hour classes in art including drawing (drawing for kids, the drawing from life in the adult courses, perspective, architecture intro, still life), painting (for kids, then oil painting), sculpture ( at first for kids, then scupture from life using class in the adult classes, both nude figure and head portraits, bronze sculpture), cartooning, jewelry. By the time they were 16 or earlier, all three knew if they wanted to go into art, exactly which kind or if they wanted to follow a different path. Most big cities have some kind of art league, which is run independently of any school or university system. If they see the kid is serious, they wiill allow them to take the adult classes. My now artist was allowed into the bronze sculpture and clay figure sculpture classes when she was ten years old. She was also so determined to learn that she traveled to NYC every Sunday starting at age 15 to take a sculpture class form a certain teacher at their art student league. The 3AM Sunday bus was a regular trip for her for two years.
To answer your other question, yes drawing is to artists what scales and studies are to musicians, to a large extent. If one wants to draw well from life, one should do that daily to learn.
Thanks @woodwinds !
I think our county has an “art association” - I will look there.
Except drawing is way, way more fun than scales. 
Note, that at National Portfolio Days, they like to see sketchbooks, but generally do not want to see too much anime or tattoo drawings.
@scholarme you sound like me a number of years ago. Optimistic for your kid, wanting them to pursue a profitable angle and needing advice. Fast forward to today and I’m the parent of an illustration about to go into his “1st senior year” or “2nd junior year” as I call it because he’s going to take 5 years to graduate.
My advice at this stage is to not get too wrapped around the axle over income potential. There is plenty of money to be made by highly skilled, well trained, networked, educated and passionate artists of almost any field. Let your kid develop as an artist without trying to control the direction while at the same time maximizing your kid’s exposure to the various aspects of the field.
Encourage her to sketch, sketch and sketch.
Encourage her to draw from observation as much as is possible.
Put her in art classes in the local area - look at university weekend and summer programs and portfolio development classes.
Let her work one on one with an art instructor.
Never force any of this. Art may not be her passion after all.
There is much more you can do but this is enough to get going. Her talent and drive will let you know when you need to do more. My epiphany came when an art teacher said we can’t teach your son anymore, you need to go to ____. This teacher gave us a couple places to go to develop our son’s talent.
As you should, occasionally plug some artistic areas that may complement her other goals - a photographer for national geographic gets to travel, for instance.
I’ve found the journey as a parent of a creative kid to be fun, exciting and thrilling as well as emotional, rocky and difficult on different levels. The critiques get harder and harsher as they move up to higher levels. They have great days and crappy days, ups and downs and one distraction after another. Add the challenge of being so creative in a world that’s obsessed with checking the right boxes in order to get ahead. My son just wants to color in those boxes
If you are interested in an art summer program, NYU is offering their High School Art Intensive program again this summer. It did not run for the last few years because the art building was undergoing renovations during the summer.
D attended the program 4 years ago and fell in love with NYU, NYC and the art opportunities offered there. She is currently a rising senior at NYU pursuing her BFA with a concentration in sculpture and will probably stay on at NYU for another year to receive her MA in Art Education. She sees herself as teaching and being a working artist.
The program is a 3 week residential program open to rising sophomores, juniors and seniors. It runs from July 26 to August 15. Students chose either a 2D or 3D concentration.
I really highly recommend the experience. Five students from the program went on to attend NYU along with D. for others it was a chance to explore an art program and experience the contemporary art scene in NYC. The students have supervised evening activities and all seemed to love the program.
@scholarme Meant to add your name to the above post 
I’m interested in the answer to this question also. I have a kid who is always drawing in her spare time. The only thing she ever buys with her spending money is art supplies. But she refuses to take any outside art classes because she’d rather draw what SHE wants to draw, not what someone tells her to draw. She also refuses to enter her pieces into any competitions. I can’t even get her to take “commissions” for fanfic art online, which a friend of hers does (who isn’t as good an artist as she is – not that I’m biased ).
I’ve told her that she can say on her college apps that she spent X hours a week working on her art – that she doesn’t have to show that she’s taken classes or won awards. But I think it sure would help if she did have a few awards!
As for her future, I don’t think she’ll ever have the drive and passion to be someone who makes a living creating art for art’s sake. I could see her being an illustrator or something, but her grades are such that I think she should go to a traditional 4-year university rather than an art or design school.
One thing that’s occurred to me is art conservation – she’s very good in chemistry and science, which you need to be. But where are the good programs in art conservation? Do you have to go to Williams? Are there careers in art conservation outside of the big international cities with huge collections? Is this the right forum to ask these questions?
i too have an artistic daughter! so i’ve read all of these posts. she’s considering architecture; @momrath has given some helpful advice to us earlier this year.
my dad has been an artist his whole life (has his MA in fine art). he mainly taught at private high schools. (NOT lucrative, no retirement). He actually discourages my daughter from majoring in art, but wants her to keep up her passion for it.
– that’s why she’s considering architecture; there’s lots of art involved. – but like OP said – How do you KNOW?! I will say, when she toured our state’s architecture school, she was mesmerized by all the desks, artwork, fancy colored markers, and coolness of it all. perhaps you could take a quick tour of a school?
she’s been involved in our community with art . . murals at the swimming pool, sets/props at church, she draws pix for all her friends as gifts; designs t-shirts for events, helps out my dad at the local farmers market with his pottery stand, etc.
my dad would definitely agree with @madaboutx with not pushing, just encouraging. He’s NOT a big fan of AP art. (but daughter will be taking it senior year as it really does force a kid to spend alot of time on pieces).
i have no answers! but know that we are reading this thread and thinking about things as well. good luck!
My observations over a few long years:
- “Always drawing in her spare time”–yep, you have an artist at heart.
- “Rather draw what SHE wants to draw”–Great! An artist with an inborn vision or trying to establish one. What happens now is that she needs to realize that a good teacher won’t CHANGE her vision to mimic their own but enhance and enlarge on the possibilities for her art by giving her new techniques and ways of looking at things. There is a lot to learn. Her art will always be her own–but with more depth if she opens herself up. All great artists learn from one another. If the teacher isn’t the best–reject their teaching but you still learn from it. ALL the great masters had studios of students–and art history shows that they still retained their own styles.
- “Be open to criticism”–Nobody gets better without honest criticism of their work. And in art (so close to the heart) it can hurt at first. Super tough at an art school. How badly do you want to get better?
- “Creating art for art’s sake”–there are quite a number of art fields that aren’t defined in that fashion. I don’t think computer animation, graphic arts, industrial design, architecture fit that definition (although some may disagree). A science, math-oriented person with an artistic bent is the perfect candidate. Art conservation is the farthest thing from my mind as an acceptable substitute. There is definitely a creativity and art meets the science/math mind in quite a few fields.
- “Refuses to enter competitions”–that’s a mindset that encompasses “art for art’s sake” etc. My D’s art was entered in competition by her AP art teacher. She would never have done it of her own volition. Entering competitions sometimes takes parents, teachers taking the lead. Art in most student’s minds is not a competition. But art needs to be seen and vetted to be appreciated.
@dustypig, For art conservation, aside from Williams which you mention, your daughter could look at Scripps and the University of Delaware. I would agree with @gouf78, however, that conservation, although requiring great technical skill, leans more toward science than creativity.
If your daughter is seriously thinking about taking studio art courses in college, I think it would be a good idea to take some art classes while she’s still in high school. How she feels about the class may depend on the teaching style and personality of the teacher, but I think it would be rare for an art teacher to dictate what students have to draw (or paint or sculpt).
What can be challenging for independently minded students is participating in classroom critiques, both of their own work and of others’, to be able to talk about the theory and concepts behind their work, to reflect and react to criticism, both positive and negative.
Kids unused to verbally explaining and defending their concepts, can get anxious in critiques, but it pretty much comes with the territory for art majors. The sooner they develop a thick skin the better.
Also, most art majors require classes across a range of media, and on the college level, instruction in technical skills can be fairly scant so it’s best to get a foundation beforehand.
Architecture can also be a fine combination of the meeting point between art (creativity) and science (structures). I wouldn’t rush into it though. An undergraduate professional architecture degree requires a highly focused commitment that few 17/18 year olds are prepared to make. A Master of Architecture following a solid liberal arts BA/BS may take longer, but it will achieve the same end.
Thanks for the responses, @momrath and @gouf78. D did take a drawing and painting class this year (as a sophomore) and next year she’ll start IB Visual Arts which is a two-year class. I meant that she doesn’t want to take any outside art classes. However, the last time we talked about that was a couple of years ago, and she was probably thinking that any art classes she took would be like they were when she was a kid – being given an assignment and told to complete it. I would imagine that classes for teens would be more about giving her feedback on the work she chose to do, right? I should talk to her about it again.
Is Scripps really known for art conservation? Her big sister is about to attend Scripps in the fall. I did see that art conservation was among their courses of study but I didn’t know it was known for that more so than other colleges. That’s very interesting. D would love to attend the same school as her sister!
I know that art conservation wouldn’t involve any real creativity. I’m just thinking about ideas here. She is very strong in math, and she’ll be taking a programming course this summer, so computer animation may be in her future. She doesn’t really have any ideas about what she wants to do; I’m the one pushing her to try this and that (the programming class was my idea) so she can figure out what she likes and is good at.
Again, thanks for the suggestions! I’m just trying out ideas, because for a long time I’ve thought of her as my math-and-science kid, so thinking of her as an artistic kid is something new. My older daughter is the one who thrives in her English class, writes short stories in her free time, choreographs routines in her dance class, etc. Younger daughter is less about creating new ideas and more about honing technical skill (in dance as well as in art). And English is her least favorite subject!
@dustypig, If your daughter is doing IB Visual Arts, then that’s more than enough. In that case, I don’t see that she would have to take another course outside of her high school.
Art conservation isn’t commonly found as an undergraduate major. (It isn’t at Williams, though there are classes offered in the art department.) The undergraduate programs at Scripps and Delaware are exceptional because they are rare.
I wouldn’t worry too much at this point about her eventual career path. That will sort itself out as she gains exposure through college courses, connections, internships etc. In choosing her college, she should be thinking about whether she wants to attend an art school or a “full-service” school where she can can study art and other disciplines as well.
The integration of technology and art is a growing field offered at many colleges in different interdisciplinary combinations. The BXA programs at Carnegie-Mellon are notable; there are others like this.
http://www.cmu.edu/interdisciplinary/
Thanks, @momrath. I’m really not trying to nail down her entire career path right now, just thinking about possible future options. She’s a kid who feels lost and uncertain at the idea of choosing from among a universe of possible majors and careers, so I just want to say to her “here are some possible paths for you that I think you might like and that you have the skills and abilities to shine in.”
If your D is interested in science and art, have her investigate UCSD where CISA3( The Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art) and CALIT2 ( California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology)are doing remarkable things. Though these institutions are professional and graduate focused, she can investigate what academic pathways can be taken to get where she wants to go. The educational department at the Getty can be of help as well.
(I studied art conservation as a grad student)
Op,
Yes, there are classes where kid can try many different arts to see what kid likes. Art center college of design in CA has a class like this for high schooler so I would check the arts colleges near you to see if they offer a class like this.
USC has a summer program in arch.
Look for photoshop elements, which costs a LOT cheaper than regular photoshop for her work now. Another option is that you can pay for a monthly fee for the whole adobe creative suite (Photoshop, illustrator, flash etc) online. Online monthly fee is around $10/mo. Photoshop elements you can get from amazon, maybe $80? Photoshop element does pretty much most or all things that regular photoshop does for the beginning to intermediate user.
ROP classes also have some art/ creative courses. Mine took the class related to video. She was hooked after that.