Hasta La Ideas

Yesterday afternoon, we talked a little about Steve Rose‘s piece on students graduating from the Manchester School of Architecture and how gloomy everyone seemed about their post-schooling prospects. In that post, we made a weak joke (per usual) about how getting a degree in architecture right now seemed like as good of an idea as a BFA in interpretive dance. And although not exactly related, when we checked up on Jonathan Jones‘ piece, as part of the same series in the Guardian, “Class of 2009” feature, we were a little surprised to find that the students who are getting these more artistic degrees did have more positive outlooks than their architect counterparts. In fact, the ones getting perhaps the most artistic degrees, as Jones decided to talk to graduate students at Goldsmiths College, Damien Hirst‘s artsy alma mater. Maybe it’s that, when you choose to get a graduate degree in art, they know it’s going to be an uphill battle to survive from the start? Or it’s that extra batch of confidence one needs to fully commit to an artistic career (like those thousands of actors moving to Los Angeles every day)? Whatever the case, the students Jones talks to are downright hopeful and optimistic, yet remain somewhat grounded in reality, which puts us a little more at ease after spending time with Rose’s piece yesterday. But hey, because they all seem so strong, if the art doesn’t work out for them, maybe they could get into counseling job-seeking architects?