As members of the latest cohort of SVA students begin their studies this fall, each of them will undoubtedly have come to the College with some measure of personal and creative goals already in place. However, there is one overarching, deceptively straightforward goal that I think is vital for any student in any discipline to keep in mind throughout his or her years of study: Try something different.

The willingness to attempt something new and to risk failure is an essential ingredient of an SVA education. There is an extraordinary freedom to be had within the pursuit of an undergraduate or graduate art degree—a freedom to experiment and to fail with few negative consequences—that is unlikely to come around again. When students at SVA look at a raw canvas or a blank screen and begin to make work without the inhibitions of profit or public acceptance, they can stretch an artistic vision. If they attempt something that falls short, there is no serious downside, because it happens in an environment that encourages learning from the experience and building on it for the next challenge. And, what is learned from trial and error is inevitably more fundamental than what little is learned from easy success.

Once our students complete their time here, there will be contexts and mitigating factors that may dictate how, when and why they create. But the time at SVA can be used to navigate a personal artistic path—a rare opportunity and one that should be used to its fullest.

David Rhodes
President