On Saturday the 13th of May, the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design celebrated it’s 28th graduation at Casa de Campo’s newly renovated Flamboyan conference center, where surrounded by their family and friends the 49 graduating students received their diplomas and thus took their first few steps along the long road of life! Here we bring you an article by Stephen Kaplan, Rector of the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design, written in honor of the graduating class.
“Small Is Big” by Stephen Kaplan
Often visitors to The Altos de Chavón School of Design ask me why we don’t expand the school, make it bigger, with more students, more major areas of study. Recently we were talking with a guest lecturer from Parsons who was insisting that we needed to add two more years to our program. We do undergo changes, but they are not necessarily to make the school bigger. Better has always been our first priority.
For example, in February the Certificate Program in Digital Design moved to Casa de Chavón, in Santo Domingo. This program aims to train professionals who work during the day and study at night, and whose commitments do not allow them the luxury of living on the paradisiacal Altos de Chavón campus. So Casa de Chavón now offers not only modular continuing education courses, but also a certificate program for the Dominican Republic’s future generation of designers that builds both their traditional abilities in art and design and their contemporary technical skills.
This year’s graduates, our 28th class, are similarly prepared. They have had the luck to study where every one of their teachers knows their name, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to tailor their learning experience to help them absorb the information they’ll need to become designers or artists. Smallness is part of what makes that possible. With one teacher for every 15 students, we offer an intimate learning environment that few other universities can afford.
Our program is strong in the traditional skills of drawing, observation, and analysis. We’re about learning to see, and then learning to accurately report what we’ve seen. After that comes concept development and, as students’ skills grow and take hold, we foster experimentation, so that individual styles and messages begin to emerge. The relationship between mastery of skills and liberty of expression depends on the individual.
There are life lessons, as well: learning to share, to find a way to cook, eat, and organize a living space, to plan time for homework. This is the process of becoming responsible, of making friends, of sharing with other students who may have a different outlook and different opinions. Perhaps that, and the appreciation of teamwork, are the greatest and longest-lasting lessons of the Chavón experience.
This graduating class has shown itself to be a true testament to the Chavón experience. Every graduate has grown—just ask them, just spend some time viewing their work in the senior show. During the two years they’ve spent with us, each has gotten closer to his or her potential. Our 2012 graduates are ready to impress the world with their skills, their work, their work ethic, and their cooperative spirit. All that is, in part, why we think we’re big, and it’s largely because we’re so small.
Following the graduation ceremony, the students, as well as their friends, families and teachers continued the celebrations at the inauguration of the “End of Year” art exhibit presented at the Altos de Chavón art gallery (photos soon) – an impressive presentation of paintings, sculptures and sketches as well as fashion and graphic designs. Even later, the celebrations continued at Altos de Chavón hotspot, Onno’s Bar!
Best wishes and good luck for the future Altos de Chavón class of 2012!
The following photos of the graduation and the celebrations were contributed by the school’s Chair of Fine Arts (and proud teacher), Raul Miyar, who as declared by one of his students, Marion Wilson is “the best teacher ever!”
About the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design
A component of The Altos de Chavón Cultural Center Foundation, a U.S. 501(c)(3) public charity, the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design has been graduating students from its two-year associate-degree program, affiliated with New York City’s prestigious Parsons “The New School For Design” since 1983.
Three majors are offered: Graphic Design, Fashion Design, and Fine Arts/Illustration. In addition, The School has developed a state-of-the-art Certificate Program in Digital Design.
Click here for more articles, photos and info about the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design!
Spanish
On Saturday the 13th of May, the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design celebrated it’s 28th graduation at Casa de Campo’s newly renovated Flamboyan conference center, where surrounded by their family and friends the 49 graduating students received their diplomas and thus took their first few steps along the long road of life! Here we bring you an article by Stephen Kaplan, Rector of the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design, written in honor of the graduating class.
“Small Is Big” by Stephen Kaplan
This year’s graduates, our 28th class, are similarly prepared. They have had the luck to study where every one of their teachers knows their name, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to tailor their learning experience to help them absorb the information they’ll need to become designers or artists. Smallness is part of what makes that possible. With one teacher for every 15 students, we offer an intimate learning environment that few other universities can afford. Our program is strong in the traditional skills of drawing, observation, and analysis. We’re about learning to see, and then learning to accurately report what we’ve seen. After that comes concept development and, as students’ skills grow and take hold, we foster experimentation, so that individual styles and messages begin to emerge. The relationship between mastery of skills and liberty of expression depends on the individual. There are life lessons, as well: learning to share, to find a way to cook, eat, and organize a living space, to plan time for homework. This is the process of becoming responsible, of making friends, of sharing with other students who may have a different outlook and different opinions. Perhaps that, and the appreciation of teamwork, are the greatest and longest-lasting lessons of the Chavón experience. This graduating class has shown itself to be a true testament to the Chavón experience. Every graduate has grown—just ask them, just spend some time viewing their work in the senior show. During the two years they’ve spent with us, each has gotten closer to his or her potential. Our 2012 graduates are ready to impress the world with their skills, their work, their work ethic, and their cooperative spirit. All that is, in part, why we think we’re big, and it’s largely because we’re so small.
A component of The Altos de Chavón Cultural Center Foundation, a U.S. 501(c)(3) public charity, the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design has been graduating students from its two-year associate-degree program, affiliated with New York City’s prestigious Parsons “The New School For Design” since 1983. Three majors are offered: Graphic Design, Fashion Design, and Fine Arts/Illustration. In addition, The School has developed a state-of-the-art Certificate Program in Digital Design. Click here for more articles, photos and info about the Altos de Chavón School of Art and Design!