CCS Awareness Week - Post Graduation
Originally published at RKdia Comics. You can comment here or there.
As you all either know, or can tell just by looking around my site and reading my various comic and blog posts, I attended and graduated from the Master of Fine Arts program at the Center for Cartoon Studies as a part of the class of 2010!
March 6th-12th has been declared CCS Awareness Week by president and co-founder Michelle Ollie. In a personal letter to all alumni, Michelle states:
Why that week? Well, it falls right after our spring Portfolio Day event and is early enough for potential applicants to apply for fall semester. Secondly on March 10, 2011, Vermont will appoint a cartoonist laureate. By pulling together support from Vermont’s Governor and the Vermont Arts Council, CCS was able to create this prominent position that will lead to greater recognition for cartoonists (and with recognition opportunity in regards to grants, teaching positions, and residencies). CCS is also actively working on establishing a national cartoonist laureate position.
So whether you just want to voice your general support, blog about the cartoonist laureate, or comment on any number of ways CCS is actively involved in the future of cartooning I would be most grateful. Without great students, CCS cannot be a great institution.
I am very proud of my time at CCS and the fact that I was even able to attend in the first place. CCS only accepts up to 24 students a year to enter it’s 2-year program and despite having attended a well established and small private Fine Arts college in Albany, NY, I came out of undergraduate feeling quite lost and confused about how to go about pursuing the career I really wanted. CCS not only let me into the program having near-next to NO prior comics making experience, but the AMAZING faculty and staff worked so closely with each student that I feel they were able to zero in on my specific skill set (and weaknesses) and set me on a path of discovery that would let me best use my talents and grow as an artist. And that growth is palatable on any given day at CCS.
Praise aside; For CCS Awareness Week, I have decided to not talk about my time AT CCS so much as focus on what the school continues to do for me, even now 9-10 months after graduation. CCS is as much a community AFTER graduating as it is while one is attending, and being here in White River Junction provides many opportunities for me to continue to support my alma matter and them to support fledgling alumni like me who are struggling so mightily to carve our own niche in the comics world.
So come back tomorrow as I lay out the first of a whole week of CCS love, pictures galore and plenty of information for anyone who may think they’d like to join the amazing things happening here in Middle Vermont!
-RD