I'm Going to Study Art with Leonardo

So far, I'm going to Arcadia.  I can't speak for Tara, but I was sucked right in.

Arcadia University is in Glenside, Pennsylvania, a suburb about twenty minutes north of Philadelphia.  The directions said to turn left into the castle entrance.  I was driving too fast and missed the entrance but knew it immediately because there was definitely a castle on my left. 

The castle was modeled after Alnwick Castle in Scotland.  You might know it better as Hogwarts.  Thirty students are allowed to live in the castle, and I'd like to be one of them.  I walked through the lower level and it was dark, cavernous, and majestic.  Our art program information session was held in the Mirror Room.  The seats were all facing the floor to ceiling windows.  It was lit by ceiling chandelier and wall candelabras.  The back wall sported a large fireplace topped with a mirror.  The doors behind us were mirrored.  These doors were later opened so we could exit into another elegantly esconced room.   If I were filming The Ball sequence in a fairy tale movie, this would be the set.

The presentation was given by a small team of art professors and students.  The emphasis was on travel.  Arcadia has study abroad programs to everywhere in every academic discipline.  In fact, all students are required to either leave the country or find another culture in our own nation.  Just for the record, my passport is up-to-date and I figure I could be packed for anywhere in under an hour. 

Most of the campus is modern.  In fact the new student center will be completed before September.  They have nice dorms, a library, classrooms, green expanses of lawn, besides the medieval castle.  They've got lots of computers, wireless computer service, a pool, a gym, and lots of course choices.

Then there's the art center.  Think Leonardo da Vinci in the 21st century.  The old carriage house and stables form a square to house me in my new career as an artist.  The doors are pointed archways.  The stairs creak and you'd better hold the railings.  One studio flows into the other.  The equipment is the same as we've seen everywhere else, but this building is old in the most charming way possible.  I could imagine the Maestro painting and inventing in a place like this.  At one point in the tour we were following the hall and I looked out the window down onto the little courtyard.  Then I looked into the room on my left to find tables of extra-large Macs for graphic design.  Now meets then.

So Arcadia is my first choice school.  I will get my housing request in immediately.  I know I could test well enough to get through Admissions, but I'd still have to present a portfolio.   Everything can be bought online except artistic talent.  Tara, can I borrow something of yours?