THE ART OF A
COLLEGE EDUCATION
in the arts face some of the highest rates of unemployment among
all recent college graduates.
This has created divided opinions about the Academy among its
graduates. Some remain fans.
“There’s people that rave
about the school; and there’s
people who are really sharp critics of the place, the ones who
think that it’s this money-hungry
art school,” says Tommy Stracke,
a recent 3D modeling graduate who is working for a startup
gaming company in the Bay Area.
“I think you make of it what you
put in, really. There are people
who have a passion for art but
maybe aren’t the most skilled. A
lot of times they can get in, but
then they just kind of find themselves in a stagnant state.”
Others have walked away from
their experience at the Academy
with a harsher view.
“I think their ambition and
their greed has fueled the rapid
pace of growth,” says Ryan Ballard, a New Orleans artist who
recently graduated with a master’s degree in sculpture from the
Academy’s online division. He
says he regrets enrolling because
he is no better off than before he
entered and is saddled with more
HUFFINGTON
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than $100,000 in debt. “They
have quite possibly lost their soul
in a lot of ways in the drive to
make money.”
FROM A LOFT
TO AN EMPIRE
The massive university that now
dominates downtown San Francisco got its start in a humble
two-room loft in 1929. Richard S.
Stephens had just returned to the
West Coast with his young family
after a stint in Paris trying to make
it as a painter after World War I.
He took a job as art director
for Sunset magazine, which had
chronicled the natural splendor
and gradual development of the
American West, and in the evenings he decided to teach illustration on the side. He named his
school the Academy of Advertising Art, starting with a class of
five students.
At the time, there was a huge
demand for professionally trained
illustrators for the burgeoning
publishing industry. As photographs began to supplant illustrations on magazine covers and
on advertisements, the school
launched a photography major
in the 1940s.
When Richard S. Stephens
gave control over the university
to his son, Richard A. Stephens,
in 1951, a scant 250 students