If you’re a creative student in love with the arts, you’ll be looking for a college that empowers you as an artist and encourages you to go deeper into your favorite forms and fields. You could, of course, find that at an art school — but we find that some students are looking for a college experience with more diversity and greater room for academic exploration than most art schools allow for. After all, when you apply to an art school, you are saying “yes, art, this is it.” But maybe it’s just one piece of you that you want to hold onto and grow, but without having to say goodbye to everything else.
Luckily, nearly all liberal arts schools and most larger universities offer all the arts classes you could dream of that you can pursue as a major or parallel to another field. Some stand out from the pack, though, so we’ve pulled together ten quirky and creative schools that offer artsy students diverse options and significant flexibility to pursue their creative passions.
If you’re an artsy student and aren’t sure what colleges are your perfect fit, send us an email. We help students get into their dream schools.
Bowdoin College — Brunswick, Maine
Bowdoin College is a bit of an enigma. It’s isolated and small, but elite and extraordinarily well-respected. In fact, the isolated location acts as an incubator, bringing many of the top students in the country together alongside world-class artists for collective creativity. Bowdoin sees art, they say, as a way to reveal, reflect, and refocus the mind, and so they encourage all of their students to pursue artistic passions whether or not they intend to major or minor in them. All students also have access to three museums on campus, the Bowdoin Museum of Art (in the words of the Co-Director, “It’s ok to be loud,” which is probably our favorite description of an art museum ever), the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, and the Harriet Beecher Stowe House, a trifecta of art, history, and environmentalism that exemplifies the cross-disciplinary approach to learning at Bowdoin.
Hampshire College — Amherst, Massachusetts
If any college in America is a troublemaker, it’s Hampshire. Hampshire is known as a disruptor of higher education and a petri dish for new ideas and approaches to learning. They have blown up the idea of what a college experience looks like, and are quite proud of themselves for doing so. Artistic alums include actress Lupita Nyong’o and filmmaker Rhys Ernst, and students can learn fabrication and design in a range of materials, including metal fabrication, 3D printing, blacksmithing, and glasswork in The Center for Design. Through the five-college consortium (Amherst, Smith, Mount Holyoke, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Hampshire), students can pursue joint degrees in Dance, Film and Media Studies, and more.
Whitman College — Walla Walla, Washington
Whitman is known for being…weird. But the intellectual kind of weird that’s totally impressive and cool mixed with a collaborative energy that fuels creativity and exploration. Students are encouraged to pursue their students with collaboration, not competition, at heart, and they chase down their passions inside and outside of the classroom with enthusiasm and verve. Through the Maxey Museum (started in 1899), students design and execute exhibits across campus pulling from a treasure trove of over 3,500 historic artifacts and objects focused on the Northwest
Oberlin College and Conservatory — Oberlin, Ohio
The combination of a liberal arts school and a music conservatory makes Oberlin one of the most creative places to study in the country and it’s a meeting place for artsy students from around the globe. Art is everywhere at Oberlin, and students can even rent art from Oberlin’s collection to hang in their dorm rooms for as little as $5 per piece. At Oberlin, students get to explore their intellectual and artistic passions side-by-side, and the school pushes for innovation in the arts and in culture. They invite students to “design the world you want” while at Oberlin.
Bates College — Lewiston, Maine
Bates College offers a diverse arts program rooted in exploration and cross-disciplinary creativity, and the Bates Arts Collaborative brings artists of all kinds, from painters to musicians to writers, together for collaboration. They believe a liberal arts education should be infused with the arts — not just dappled with it — and the IMPACT 21st program at Bates is focused on promoting “new approaches to teaching and learning in the arts.” An Annual Winter Arts Festival is produced by students to highlight and celebrate the work being done on campus by artists of all forms and styles.
Kenyon College — Gambier, Ohio
Kenyon offers opportunities for exploration and discovery unique to their 1,000-acre campus. The college offers a writing-focused education, which may seem obvious (it’s college, duh), but it’s actually not true everywhere and the intensity of the Kenyon focus on writing is truly unique. The Kenyon Review is one of the most respected literary magazines in the world, and students can take courses like “Image and Word: Writing about Art” and “Writing the Television Pilot.” Kenyon offers students state-of-the-art studio and exhibition spaces, and there are specific scholarships available for students studying studio art.
Reed College — Portland, Oregon
Reed is the kind of school where you need to throw out the expected and embrace that anything is possible. It is regarded as one of the most intellectual colleges in the country and is full of student philosophers. Art majors study studio art and art history in parallel, putting practice and theory together. One of the most groundbreaking aspects of the Reed program is that they do not emphasize grades. Instead, they focus on having the faculty provide students with continuous detailed feedback — putting the emphasis not on what a student has already completed, but instead on how they can improve in the future. This, combined with how students can create their own program by combining two or more disciplines, makes Reed a unique choice for college applicants. Once you’re there, you’ll definitely want to spend time in the Cooley Art Gallery, a teaching gallery that offers students exhibitions, lectures, and other learning opportunities.
Skidmore College — Saratoga Springs, New York
Skidmore asks, “Where will your creativity take you?” The college approaches creativity as a valuable asset regardless of field and invites all students to take part in the Skidmore Summer Studio Art Program for summer intensives. Alongside the ‘standard’ arts programs, during the school year students can study less common forms such as fiber arts, jewelry and metals, and communications design. Between classes, you can explore the three art venues at Skidmore: the Tang Museum, the Schick Gallery, and the Case Gallery.
Bennington College — Bennington, Vermont
Known for the most beautiful rural campus in the country, Bennington treats the classroom as a lab for interrogating new ideas, concepts, and points of view — and it’s often not a traditional classroom. For example, one past class combined making ceramic bowls and studying world hunger. If written arts are more your thing, the Poetry at Bennington program brings together great poetic minds for collaboration and learning. The Art for Access program is using art to improve access to and equity in the arts, and 87% of graduates have “published a piece of writing, produced an album, exhibited a piece of art, performed or directed for a public audience, or presented a scientific paper or poster.”
RISD — Providence, Rhode Island
We’ve put the Rhode Island School of Design last on this list because it is technically an art school, but it’s more than that. Through the Brown | RISD Dual Degree Program, students can pursue combined majors that push the boundaries of what’s expected. Past combinations have included “Apparel Design and Environmental Studies” and “Furniture Design and Mechanical Engineering.” Students can cross-register at Brown even if they aren’t pursuing a dual degree, opening the world of an Ivy League education at Brown open to RISD students.
If you’re an artsy student looking for an equally artsy school…but aren’t sure art school is your thing…you may have seen a trend here: small liberal art schools are most likely your best bet. Through their modest student body, diverse curriculum, and small class sizes, small liberal arts schools can offer both the academic opportunity and the community you’re looking for.
If you know where you want to go to college but aren’t sure how to get there, send us an email. We help students like you get into their perfect fit.