2 answers
Tristan
Student
Tyler, Texas
1
Question
Asked
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What does a fine arts technician do on a daily basis?
What are the best school in or close to Texas, centered around fine arts and technology?
#fine-art
#technology
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2 answers
Michael Haight
Artist
7
Answers
Los Angeles, California
Updated
Michael’s Answer
I've never heard of a fine arts technician but I am a fine arts services provider. My duties include packing art safely and securely for shipping local or international, installing art for galleries and private in-home clients, making recommendations on how to curate a group of artworks, consulting clients on shipping handling and installation, and sometimes repairing damaged artworks.
As an artist if I receive a commission I have to be able to know how much time and materials it will take to create an artwork in the size the client has asked for. I have to divide my time between my art services and art creation in order to keep my clients happy. After all, I am providing a service and a product for each client.
In your area you may want to try Rice University or the University of Texas at Austin. Some schools are geared more towards educating and training painters while others focus on New Media and other Genres. You should pick a school where the artists who teach there make art that you respect and appreciate and who also make art in a similar vein to your own work.
Best of luck!
As an artist if I receive a commission I have to be able to know how much time and materials it will take to create an artwork in the size the client has asked for. I have to divide my time between my art services and art creation in order to keep my clients happy. After all, I am providing a service and a product for each client.
In your area you may want to try Rice University or the University of Texas at Austin. Some schools are geared more towards educating and training painters while others focus on New Media and other Genres. You should pick a school where the artists who teach there make art that you respect and appreciate and who also make art in a similar vein to your own work.
Best of luck!
Alan Posch
Senior Technical Illustrator at National Instruments
13
Answers
Texas, Texas
Updated
Alan’s Answer
Hi Tristan,
I'm not sure exactly what sort of position you're referring to as Fine Arts Technician, but maybe what I do is somewhat close. I do technical art for a technology company and have done a lot of what I would call general "graphics tech work" of preparing and optimizing digital image files for publishing and new media.
I don't know of a school in Texas that has a program specifically to cross tech and art. Technical illustration programs rarely exist anymore. One could maybe learn about creating and optimizing graphics in a school's game development program. I'm not sure what Texas schools have good game development programs at the moment, but that could be something to look into. There are also CAD drafting focused programs at tech schools. CAD is quite different than art and drawing though. It's definitely not fine art but is more on the engineering side of image making and modelling.
There are also "technicians" who restore fine art. It doesn't sound like what you're considering though as that's not centered around technology. That would be something one would move into with a Fine Arts painting or maybe art history degree.
As mentioned by Michael before, some programs focus more on new media. That can be more technology oriented in that one could be learning about designing and creating art for apps and other interactive or dynamic media. These programs are usually going to be in an "Art & Design" department and will be considered a Design major rather that an Art major though the degree will still say Bachelor of Fine Arts with a degree in Design or something like that if it's a BFA program. Mine is BFA in Communication Design and Texas State has that. North Texas also had something similar back when I was in school but that was some time ago.
Best thing is to figure out which area you're most interested in and find a program focused on that. Each school's degree program has it's strengths and weaknesses depending on what the professors leading the program are focused in.
Good luck
I'm not sure exactly what sort of position you're referring to as Fine Arts Technician, but maybe what I do is somewhat close. I do technical art for a technology company and have done a lot of what I would call general "graphics tech work" of preparing and optimizing digital image files for publishing and new media.
I don't know of a school in Texas that has a program specifically to cross tech and art. Technical illustration programs rarely exist anymore. One could maybe learn about creating and optimizing graphics in a school's game development program. I'm not sure what Texas schools have good game development programs at the moment, but that could be something to look into. There are also CAD drafting focused programs at tech schools. CAD is quite different than art and drawing though. It's definitely not fine art but is more on the engineering side of image making and modelling.
There are also "technicians" who restore fine art. It doesn't sound like what you're considering though as that's not centered around technology. That would be something one would move into with a Fine Arts painting or maybe art history degree.
As mentioned by Michael before, some programs focus more on new media. That can be more technology oriented in that one could be learning about designing and creating art for apps and other interactive or dynamic media. These programs are usually going to be in an "Art & Design" department and will be considered a Design major rather that an Art major though the degree will still say Bachelor of Fine Arts with a degree in Design or something like that if it's a BFA program. Mine is BFA in Communication Design and Texas State has that. North Texas also had something similar back when I was in school but that was some time ago.
Best thing is to figure out which area you're most interested in and find a program focused on that. Each school's degree program has it's strengths and weaknesses depending on what the professors leading the program are focused in.
Good luck