Rockport College offers an innovative approach to education and training based on the Transformational Learning Experience. It is through each student's personal path of discovery that each learns to develop and trust in his or her intuition. It is from this intuitive state that each artist responds and creates from a deep inner source rather than an intellectual base. Rooted in part in the tradition of the Renaissance conservatory, where masters and apprentices lived and worked together in a community environment, Rockport College provides a total-immersion, hands-on, practical approach to the development of the artistic mind. The educational philosophy is embedded within the structure of a conservatory approach to "intuitive learning." Conservatory Environment Faculty, staff and students dine and work together as a close community, sharing and growing together. The nature of this small college environment is conducive to the development of a small team approach to work, rather than a more traditional institutional environment. The conservatory approach fosters creativity, imagination, innovation and risk, for the student feels protected and supported in the process of discovery. Students learn to work alone and collaboratively in small teams. Mistakes are accepted for they indicate the student's ability to risk and reach out. The intensity within a conservatory is high and students find themselves sometimes working 16-hour days on their projects as they make pictures, edit, and craft their thoughts, ideas and stories into professional presentations. Rockport College helps students achieve a high level of visual quality in their work and utilize imagination and originality while dealing with the pressures of deadlines, budgets and client needs. These lessons will hold any student in good stead regardless of the career path chosen. Mastery of Craft Training The Pace of the Program Afternoons are generally spent working either in scheduled classes or in the field, the studio or the darkroom. In the evenings, work continues in the studios, labs and editing suites. Students may also attend evening lectures, screenings and slide shows conducted by visiting artists. All classes provide weekly in-depth critiques of the week's work-in-process. Rockport College provides a total-involvement atmosphere where students work full time on their projects and studies. While Sundays are generally free, many students find themselves still involved with their projects, prints and readings. The last two weeks of each semester are the most intense of all, as students prepare their work for exhibition or screening, and ready their portfolios for the Final Review. This marathon pace has a purpose, for it prepares each student to meet the demands of working within a professional community. Like a coach helps an athlete in training, we help our students develop the ability to concentrate and focus, to work long hours, and to persist and overcome obstacles and barriers in order to succeed. The support, encouragement and success from sharing the Rockport College experience becomes integral to later achievement as a mature professional.
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