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When people think about the arts, the first thoughts that may conjure can be those of elite places like the symphony, museums or Broadway. Worlds that may feel a world away to a student in rural Ohio or from an urban center with little access to those kinds of institutions and experiences. But we know that art is also free and part of the human experience. And in today’s interconnected world, students have more access than ever to artists both world-renowned and amateur, who are putting their emotions out into the universe in a myriad of different ways.  

But for those looking to study art in a higher education setting, the gatekeeping often still applies. Students need a portfolio of formal artistic experiences to even apply to most programs, which excludes swaths of populations of students who didn’t have the ability to do much private training for a whole range of different reasons: cost, transportation, availability of teachers in their area, or they might have realized their talent or interest when they were teenagers instead of children. That is where the �������� College of the Arts steps in. A core principle of the college is that portfolios are not required, not even for the world-renowned fashion program.

“Any student can come into a program and we will welcome them where they are,” said College of the Arts Dean Diane Petrella. “It means that we are a type of arts-based program that isn't centered around a student who's had 10, 15, 20 years of previous study. We're taking a student who has an interest and a capacity and saying: ‘This is a field that we will welcome you in regardless of your background and we will meet you at your entry point and then challenge you and develop you. So that when you leave this program, you're going to be prepared for a career or whatever your next steps will be.’” 

Programs start with the basics for everyone. If a student has had a lot of training already, they can take the opportunity to test out of the introductory classes, but some opt to stay as they move through it quickly to bring everyone up to the same speed and many feel it’s a good refresher.   

“All of our arts-based programs are outstanding and generating strong graduates who are going out and being successful in a variety of fields. None of this is implied to be a watering down of a curriculum or making it easier,” Petrella says. “Whatever level a student comes in with, we're going to nurture that talent. We're going to nurture that passion, and we're going to nurture those skills in a way that consistently elevates that. And my goal is that students end up at the same or greater place as somebody who came in, who had maybe had more opportunities and experience. Not every institution is going to do that.”

Petrella stressed that there were many careers an arts student could pursue, whether that’s further education in graduate programs or working in the greater art world.  

“It is not unusual for a kid to come into that school of fashion with no training, no background, but just really interested in fashion. And then you're seeing them four years later getting big time jobs in New York City and it's really exciting to see,” Petrella says.

She also stressed that the skills students get through an arts curriculum are often sought after even in business jobs or corporate jobs that typically don’t seem arts focused. And beyond the career benefits, are the impact the arts have on society as a whole. 

“The arts are what makes us human,” Petrella says. “It's an important part of our society and how we tell stories about our world around us and about ourselves as individuals. Anybody participating in the arts, I think, is exploring themselves is exploring their community around them and really looking into how they can impact the world that they live in in various ways. And I think that's why I will always be an essential part of our society.” 

Jaden Millin

Dance Performance

Freshman

Jaden Millin started dancing when he was around three years old at a program through his preschool.  

“One main reason I actually got put into dance classes was the Beyoncé ‘Single Ladies’ music video and I would at three years old, all around preschool, hit this move,” Millin says. “Honestly, when I first started dancing, I think the role of like pop culture in media really played a big part.”

His parents saw his interest and enrolled him in dance class. He first learned the beginnings of tap, ballet, hip hop and jazz and when he realized how much he liked it, he started going to studios near his home in Akron. By the time he got to high school, he was focused on dancing with the Akron School of the Arts, which he supplemented with a private studio, as well.  

He said a pivotal moment for him in his decision to pursue dance in college was attending a free dance showcase in Cleveland, which included a duet from ��������.  

“Seeing the dancers on stage and knowing that that option was out there to go into professionally and for a job to sustain myself. I knew it was what I wanted to do,” Millin says.

Millin says that students have dance advisors, members of the faculty who help guide them to help them figure out what they want to do in the future, and then how to get there. He's participating in a summer intensive this summer in Chicago and said a few of his professors helped him make his dance combinations to get in, as well as helping him submit everything he needed to help with scholarships to afford the program.  

Students who come in with a lot of dance experience like him are usually placed in a higher level class from the beginning, but he mentions lower level classes that are open for people with less experience or who want to minor or just explore an interest in dance. “No matter how much or how little experience you have, I think it's very accepting for the different levels here,” Millin says. “When I first came in, I wasn't very technically trained. That might have come from what styles I usually preferred to take; I was heavy with hip hop a lot of my life. So going into a very heavy, technically based major, I was very scared at first to look at my schedule and see that I had an hour and 30 ballet class four times a week. But overall, the professors are very understanding. They're very adjustable. And now I'd say my technique is looking a lot better than I thought it was when I would come into this program.”

Professors sit down with students around midterms to discuss their progress and what they can work on to achieve their goals.  

“This is a very inclusive, very peer-supportive environment. There's no toxicity. Literally everybody is friends with everybody here,” Millin says. 

Echo Davis

Ceramics

Senior 

Echo Davis found her passion for art by going out on a limb and trying a Groupon pottery class. “Cooking was my artistic outlet,” she said. “I didn’t draw or paint. Anytime I tried to do anything artistic it didn’t feel like I was making anything worthwhile.”

She had won a raffle in fifth grade in art class which earned her the opportunity to use a pottery wheel and she liked it, but didn’t end up following up on it at the time. Fast forward to her 20s when she tried the pottery class and found she loved it and had an encouraging instructor who told her she could pursue a higher educational career in pottery and she found the �������� ceramics program.  

“Right off the bat, �������� was one of the most realistic feeling options for me because Kent's art program doesn’t require a portfolio,” she said. “In place of a portfolio they do a mid-degree check-in to check your trajectory to see if you know what you want to do or focus on a kind of practice.”  

Davis started during COVID, which meant the first half of her time at �������� was completed through online classes. She wasn’t able to do her in first in-person studio class until years into her degree. She said the head of the Ceramics department, Peter Johnson, really took the time to make sure she had what she needed to complete her goals.  

“Kent really set me up for success as far as giving me the opportunity to make the work to build my portfolio,” Davis says.

She did her common review in her third year instead to compensate for the fact that she hadn’t gotten as studio time because of the pandemic. She’s on track to graduate this spring along with a minor in glass work. She said everyone on the board for her common review were supportive and offered her advice on books to read and which classes to take to make sure she completed her goals.  

“Overall, it’s been really lovely. I’ve received an enormous amount of support from faculty and peers. I’ve never felt alienated or othered as an untraditional student,” she said. “It’s been such a trip to be uplifted as a student who doesn’t have the traditional art background and be given the opportunity to create the future that I want for myself.”

She hopes to move on to graduate school and arts residencies in the future. For now, she’s focusing on graduation and doesn’t want to take for granted the opportunity she’s had studying art at the college level.

"There are a lot of things that I struggle to communicate that I can communicate through art. Things I could not experience if I did not make art or view other people's arts. There is a lot of power in exploring materials, like mud and clay. It has redefined my life having a career in the arts and a degree in the arts has allowed me to view the world differently,” Davis says.  

“It’s such a full body experience to be invested in the arts,” Davis says. 

Charles Levier

Piano Performance

Sophomore 

Charles Levier decided to start playing piano during COVID to keep himself busy so he taught it to himself. He had been a jazz drummer for 18 years, but never played the piano and he didn’t read music. So he turned to YouTube, watching people play and watching their hands move and copying that and then going online to look up the notes and figuring out how to read them.  

“I'm a lot better at memorizing, so once I read it about three times, it'll probably be in my fingers for it'll probably already be in my fingers, and I can go from there,” Levier says.

He started his college career at a community college in California, but then had a professor there who recommended that he come and study at �������� with the piano professor who is now his mentor, Donna Lee.  

He learned the repertoire for his audition in three months, still not knowing how to read music fluently. “I was probably in the practice room for like 13 hours a day over the yeah, over that summer,” Levier says. “It was a lot of work.”  

He recorded his audition and ended up packing up and flying across the country to pursue piano.  

“My goal is to impact the musical world in some way,” Levier says. “The people who have come before me, the predecessors of the piano literature, they've really impacted how we play. They've really shaped in the way of teaching in pedagogies, like where they teach at the conservatories and what not. And I just think it's really fascinating that their interpretations have caused such an impact on the classical music world. And I want to do that myself. I would love to share my ideas.”

His experience at his first school allowed him to test out of the first couple of levels of piano classes when he arrived, but he still sits on the introductory courses sometimes because of the graduate school friends or teachers and says it’s good to be reminded of the basics.  

“I really do love music to the point where like I can I I'm able to like see colors like when I play the sounds have that in my brain. Like if I close my eyes, I can see this color is this tambour, this tone is this and that. And so those ideas kind of float out of my music,” Levier says.  

His mentor is Donna Lee, coordinator of the piano division in the School of Music and he was inspired to see a concert of her alumni who came back together for a recent anniversary of her time at the university. “It was amazing to see the seed that she had sown in these students and the fact that I'm also getting the same thing is wonderful to see,” he says. “She's given me many opportunities and life advice. All around, she's just a wonderful mentor.”

He’s been happy at ��������, learning from different professors and students. He hopes to go on to graduate level piano after he graduates and has hopes to experience many different factions of the music world, from performance to composition and even teaching at a conservatory and for kids.  

He’s been inspired by his professors and their commitment to the future of music.

“I have such a great relationship with a lot of the teachers here. All these people are working together for the greater good of the students, and that's something that I really admire here at �������� is that they do these things not for the benefit of themselves, but more so for seeing these students grow and thrive in the musical world to come,” Levier says.