Breaking In

Making great art is only part of a successful career as a professional artist. Knowing how to share your craft effectively is just as important. It's why Em Adler, a recent graduate, took advantage of every opportunity the visual arts program here at RWU had to offer her, leading to the culminating moment of her college career: a solo exhibition at an up-and-coming art gallery, where she hosted faculty members, local artists, art museum curators, family and friends as she displayed and sold several pieces of her oceanic-inspired sculptures.

“Now on my résumé I can say I know how to curate and hang an art show – that’s a serious skill to promote to a potential employer,” Adler said. “And I learned a lot about how to use my network and promote myself.”

Adler credits everything she learned in the program and from faculty with preparing her for the moment, noting the one-on-one attention she received from all of her professors and how the small class sizes allowed her and her classmates to build their own collaborative artists’ community. The curriculum, she says, lets students explore multiple areas of interest that then comes into their creative work, preparing them for future careers while cultivating their skills in multiple types of mediums from drawing and painting to photography and digital media. That hands-on experience makes students feel like working adults in the art world, she says, and culminates in an inventive body of work.