Does anyone Know about Art Instruction School?

[lucyanna girl]

We received a phone call from a gentleman with the Art Instruction School out of Minneapolis, MN today about DD (15).
It seems she had requested a free art ability evaluation kit from them. According to him, he travels the country interviewing prospective students. Also according to him, his school is accredited through the Education department. He really made it all sound good, (called all the correct names of people associated with art around here, etc.). Of course, then he got to the bottom line, if accepted this is what the cost would be.
DH is more trusting than I am and thinks maybe we should let him come by and look at her work She really is pretty good. I, on the other hand, think we should tell him thanks but no thanks. Two reasons, I don't want him to come to our home, (I don't want a strange man calling about my teenage daughter and then knowing my address) and I think the art school is probably a scam.
Any help?

Penny

 

[Hedy]

I'm pretty sure its a scam, and you'd be better off putting DD in a real art school.

 

[JunieJay]

Well I went to art school about a million years ago (Pratt Institute in NYC) but back then Art Instruction schools were a scam. They advertised in the back of magazines or comic books, or sometimes on matchbooks, with a cartoon character and a slogan that if you can draw this you may have a career in art. What they were was just a scam to get the person to send in money...the actual character was pretty easy to draw so a lot of people were led to believe they had great talent when they really didn't.

Again, it was 20 years ago that I went to art school, so take that with a grain of salt. I can tell you back then the ONLY thing that mattered was having a portfolio and natural talent. SATs and high school transcripts had little to no bearing on my acceptance. I'd advise your daughter to start putting together a portfolio of all her work she is proud of from art classes or stuff she has done at home. 15 is not too young to be thinking about a career in art!

Good luck to her!