Picture this. You’re sitting in your classroom with ten minutes until it ends, and your professor tells you, “Next week you must bring a Windsor & Newton Artist Water Color Sable Pointed Round #5 brush, ten sheets of tracing paper and black construction paper.” Now imagine how easy it would be to go down to the first floor and buy those items right at school. It’s honestly astounding that an art school like Otis does not have an art supply store on campus.
Every student is regularly carrying dozens of art supplies every day yet the nearest store is 5.1 miles away. On top of that, it could take over thirty minutes to reach the supply store, depending on traffic. The fear of realizing you forgot one Staedtler Mars Lumograph 4B pencil and knowing you are at least a thirty minute drive away from said pencil is just unreasonable.
Now, I haven't been attending this school for very long but I bet if you gave me a few days and a dolly I would clear enough space to make a small supply store. Possibly, with the new building coming, there will be more space in either building for the store. It doesn’t need to have every product known to man but even a choice of pencils, kneaded erasers, sharpeners and drawing pads would suffice. Maybe a few X-acto knives as well wouldn't hurt.
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| Nick Verreos from "Project Runway" |
Other private art establishments give their students an art supply store, small or large. For example, FIDM, or Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, has three on-campus stores; The FIDM Museum Shop, The FIDM Store, and The FIDM Scholarship Store. The FIDM Store offers school and office supplies, art supplies, greeting cards, tote bags, gifts, and Adobe software (fidm.edu).
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| A well-stocked The Art Center Student Store |
Art Center also provides their students with a supply store referred to as The Art Center Student Store.
As a capitalist country, it’s constantly drilled in us that we must beat out the competition and any one thing no matter how slight can tip the scale.
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| RISD has a building and an online store |
In my opinion, Otis is behind in this never ending race. It would also help the students by creating a few more jobs on campus. Think about the convenience, the new jobs, the gas money savings and the absence of the stress you usually feel when your professor tells you to purchase a new art supply. It’s truly a no-brainer.
- Shelby -
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