I have never been a fan of formal teaching of studio art in art schools although I went through at least seven years of it. Mentoring has a place in the course a trajectory in art but learning old master techniques or aesthetics seems like a futile exercise in imitation and nostalgia. That is why it does not surprise me that Art Schools in this country are generally suffering from lack of students and teaching focus. It seems the smaller institutions are closing or merging in large numbers. We saw this in the DC area with the unfortunate 2015 merging of the Corcoran School of Art into George Washington University. Here is a link to a recent article about this in artnet.com… https://news.artnet.com/art-world/heres-why-art-schools-are-under-such-extreme-pressure-1460836. Even though I find instruction of art futile, I believe the environment of art school is invaluable experience given the proximity to other artists, ideas, history and techniques. According to the article, it seems like about a fifth of the art schools in the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) have faced an operating crisis in the last few years even though the top schools have seen a moderate (2.4%) increase in enrollment. This statistic however excludes schools that have closed or merged. One of the comments in the article promotes the idea of art schools training artists in tangent disciplines as ‘creatives’. It seems to me like this completely defeats the purpose of an art school – may as well teach artists to fish. Most if not all students of art are well aware of the sacrifice necessary and of the lack of options available in the real job market after graduation with an art degree. Most do not see only a future of gallery representation or teaching. Yet I believe most students would agree the experience is worthwhile as long as the focus is exclusive to art and not some lame version of a ‘normal’ education. Intense immersion in an art environment is the real value of art school and art teachers should stop worrying about their students finding gainful employment post graduation… both the anxiety and the prospects do not compare favorably to the realities.