Preparing Your College Art Portfolio for Admissions

At Montserrat College of Art in Massachusetts, all first year students participate in a core group of courses geared toward developing skills and vocabulary common to all disciplines (painting, photography, design, illustration, sculpture, etc) in the visual arts. The college art portfolio you submit when you apply serves more than one purpose: it is evaluated for admission, for scholarship and if you are transferring from another college or art school, possibly for transfer credit.

Another purpose of the college art portfolio requirement is to determine if you are open to the challenges and experiences of Montserrat's rigorous first year program. For this reason even if you know you want to focus your work on photography, animation or graphic design, we ask that you include drawings created from direct observation and we ask you to show us both realistic and abstract compositions.

Your art portfolio for college should reveal your artistic abilities, experiences, and personal interests. We emphasize: originality, variety, excellence in your preferred medium, technical skills, and passion for creating art.

1. Submit a selection of 12-15 examples of your most recent and best work. Work may be in any media or dimension. Choose work from class assignments or work created independently. Demonstrate that you devote time and energy to your artwork by including some finished, high quality pieces.
2. Be original. Show who you as an artist and put your strengths forward. Work must not be copied from other artists' work or directly from photographs. Demonstrate that your work is unique and shows your own interpretation of a subject, scene, or method.
3. Include minimum of 3 examples of drawings completed from direct observation. This means working directly from real life and the world around you. How do you show a three dimensional object or space on a flat surface? Examples include: still life, landscapes, interiors, a self-portrait, your friends and family, or studies in a figure drawing class. Only in exceptional cases will we accept an art portfolio without drawings.
4. Include 2 self-portraits. We would like to see who you are. One self-portrait is to be completed from direct observation, not copying from a photograph. The second self-portrait is to be more conceptual in nature, completed in any dimension or medium.
5. Media exploration and experimentation are integral parts of your experience at Montserrat. Include work in your college art portfolio that shows your area of interest as well as both realistic and abstract work using a variety of materials. Examples include, but are not limited to: painting, drawing, sculpture, found object art, collage, bookmaking, printmaking, photography, graphic design, web design or video.

Submitting Your College Art Portfolio
Whenever possible we recommend that you have your college art portfolio evaluated in person either at Montserrat College of Art or with one of our admissions staff at one of the National Portfolio Day events. If you live in Massachusetts or within 150 miles of Montserrat, we strongly advise that you visit the college and bring your art portfolio with you. The admissions staff reviews art portfolios for college year-round so there are plenty of opportunities to set up a visit and review.

College art portfolios are only returned if you include a self addressed, stamped envelope with appropriate postage.