Puzzling it Out: Writing for Performing and Visual Arts Applications
Who am I as a person? Who am I as an artist? How have I grown and developed as an artist?
Your college application gives you a chance to ponder these questions and piece together your story in your own voice. You show your academic side through your transcript, GPA, and test scores, but you can reflect more deeply about who you are as a person and an artist through your artistic resume and activity list and, most importantly, your writing.
For prospective arts students—whether a studio artist, musician, filmmaker, dancer, actor, photographer, animator or game designer—the general and artistic application writing most likely includes these elements:
Common Application personal essay
artistic statement
supplemental essays
introductory videos
surprise portfolio or audition essays
We know … this can be overwhelming. No stress! Look at it as an essay jigsaw of your life. Every new discovery or epiphany you have about yourself and your work makes up another piece of the puzzle. Each of these pieces can be told in one of the writing components of the application and portfolio.
To lay the groundwork, we take time for a holistic brainstorming session. At this meeting, you first consider yourself as a person, a student, a community member, and a friend or family member, and think about experiences you’ve had in your life and how they have affected you. You also focus on yourself as an artist: how you’ve grown, what your goals are, and how you want to improve or mature.
We always take time to logically and systematically tease out all the different essay prompts and video stories required for your college applications and portfolios, keep these organized, and tackle them one at a time.
The Common Application personal statement gives you a chance to tell a story from your life that reveals a characteristic or aspect of your personality found nowhere else in your application.
The artistic statement is an opportunity to show your capacity and motivation to grow as an artist and to express your unique creative vision or contributions to your field.
Additional short essays or even video prompts present a way to highlight an unusual hobby or fascination outside your art form or to show your specific knowledge about a given aspect of your art.
The common short supplemental essay—Why this Major?—allows you to dig deeply into the program’s courses, professors, and internship or study abroad opportunities, and to articulate how the school’s offerings match your own academic and artistic needs.
We understand that your whole world might revolve around painting, practicing your instrument, or making films. For your personal essay, we’ll guide you to discover other details of your life that relate a trait or characteristic outside your artistic world—something unique to you not found in the rest of your application. These pieces of your personal life also deserve to be told and, with your artistic endeavors and aspirations, complete the puzzle of who you are as a human being and an artist.
If you are looking for help writing your artist statement or any part of your performing and visual arts application, contact us at info@bestfitedu.com