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About
YOU About ACE
About ROBYN
About YOU
Finding Answers When Art is Your Calling
Many of you are interested and passionate about art while remaining unaware of the opportunities available to you in the field. Maybe your family is nervous about supporting something they don’t think will provide a good living. Perhaps you can’t decide which field of art to enter, let alone which school to attend. You may need help developing your portfolio.
School guidance counselors are not versed in a career in the arts, and most families can't provide direction for their aspiring artists as art careers require different kinds of education than most regular four-year colleges provide. ACE gives you a solid grounding in ALL areas of the visual arts, leaving you with a true sense of what it's like to work in each field, and guides you in a direction that excites and motivates you, because it's a direction that aligns with who YOU are and what kind of life you hope to lead.
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A Lifetime of Savings
This approach will save you thousands -- likely tens of thousands of dollars -- by providing you with options which point you directly to your goal on the most efficient and cost-effective path.
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Pathways for Non-College Seekers
For many of you, the numerous non-college educational programs ACE reveals to you will be the answer to your dreams: You will find them usually less expensive than a four year college and allow you to progress faster to your goal in certain fields.
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Whomever you are and whatever kind of visual artist you want to be–
we got you.
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The Impetus for ACE
While mentoring and teaching high school students art over the last several years, I found myself responding to the need of numerous students who were interested in the arts but often had no idea how to channel their passion. Was an art career for them? What kinds of careers are there in the arts? Were they interested in commercial art (what even is that?) or fine art? They loved video games but what are the actual art jobs in that field? Some of the students were focused on a specific art career but didn't understand the difference between an art program within a general college or a dedicated art school. And all those who applied needed guidance through the cumbersome application process including writing the college essay -- which for art school is more of an artist's statement than a traditional college essay -- and developing the right portfolio for the right school. I found myself creating curricula for the different needs and pathways.
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Turning Points
Out of this need, Art Careers and Education (ACE) organically formed, with the intention of providing services to many more students at different points in their lives. Along with high schoolers and college students, ACE mentors adults who realize they are unhappy in their current careers, and want a creative career that fits their lifestyle.
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Today's ACE Program
Today, ACE provides online one-on-one consultations with students, their parents if they wish, and career changers which address where the creative person is, and provide the information, guidance and mentoring to help them determine a direction and get them to that ultimate goal. Given the cost of education, coming to the decision of pursuing a career in a particular field can save a family many thousands of dollars, and the student critical years of their life.
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The Newest ACE Program
Seeing the need to reach creatives all over the world, we have developed a brand new beta program, Art Careers Navigator, which we will be launching over a weekend in the summer of 2025 and for which we are seeking a limited number of participants.. This program will be offered for free in return for feedback. Each participant will receive free one-on-one coaching in addition to the live, recorded workshop. For more information on how to participate in this one-time-only event, click here.
About ACE
About Robyn
Paying for The Myth
While my dream was to go into the arts, I wasn’t allowed to go to art school as my parents were convinced that there was no way I could end up supporting myself on a career in the arts.
My passion was so strong, that after wasting both my and my parents money and four years on a biochem major, I began taking art classes in New York after college on my own. A visiting artist to my college, the famous fiber artist, Sheila Hicks, had seem something in me during our time together and hired me right out of college on her new textile magazine. There I was exposed to and fell in love with graphic design. An internship with Frank Nofer, one of the most notable graphic designers of his generation, in Philadelphia, and an intensive program with Milton Glaser, "a giant in the history of graphic design," (Cooper Hewitt Museum) laid a foundation for my love of design and my own work. I further trained on the job and through courses at Parsons and the School of Visual Arts in New York. Eventually, I worked in several ad agencies in Philadelphia and abroad in Germany. A few years later I started my own agency and built it up into an award-winning boutique agency with local and blue chip clients.
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Reinventing My Art Career
Art careers have the added bonus of being able to be reimagined at different points in one's life. Over the years I kept up with my fine art as much as I could, and, after three decades of working in advertising, I decided to focus on illustration and fine art along with teaching. I achieved an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in painting from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2017. Since then I have curated shows, won awards in juried shows and turned my love of working with students into ACE.