Frequently Asked Questions for Corcoran Students (February 2021 Edition)
Below are frequently asked questions from Corcoran students from our student meeting in February 2021. If you don’t see your question answered, please send a note to your program contacts or to [email protected] and we will get back to you as quickly as possible!
How is the Corcoran planning to return student projects and work to students, especially those graduating before a return to in-person classes? Specifically, projects that were in the process of being completed in March 2020 and were left behind, as well as projects being stored by the program?
For students who are not returning to campus in the spring semester, you may request to have your items left in studios shipped. Provide instructions and a tech will pack and ship your belongings at your expense. Alternatively, if you live locally or are planning a trip to D.C., you can arrange curbside pickup with a tech. Submit your request here
For more details about studios, please visit Our Spaces and Open Studios page.
What is currently available in terms of studio access?
Because of the nature of our disciplines, GW has agreed to allow a very limited number of Corcoran students in studio-based or performance programs to use our physical spaces. Detailed guidance about which students are eligible for spring studio access.
Pre-approval is required.
For students with approved campus access, we were able to open up studios to a small cohort between the hours of 9 am - 6 pm, Monday through Friday. For more hours and questions about studio availability, please visit our Open Studios pages or email [email protected].
How can we be featured on Corcoran’s social media?
You can nominate yourself or any of your amazing classmates for an Instagram or social media feature via this form. Throughout the year, we also ask your professors for nominees, too! At the end of April, all graduating students, through their NEXT final submission form, will be asked to share content that we can use to talk about their final capstones, too. For all things related to NEXT, check out the 2021 NEXT FAQ for students.
We want to show school pride! How can we get fun Corcoran swag?
Thank you for this question! We are so excited that you want to share school pride. We do have some fun items that we typically give out at orientation and the beginning of the year when we are together, from lanyards to stickers to wearables to water bottles, and we are so sorry we couldn’t see you in person this year to share these items with you.
This year, all graduating students will be receiving a care package containing swag - from a student-design t-shirt to an artistic license to posters - in June or July 2021.
In addition, we are working on creating a new program this spring with students and alumni. This hasn’t been announced yet, but more details will come soon on the student emails. It will be one or a series of workshops for students with Corcoran alumni to design a series of posters around the theme of “creativity is power” which we hope to send to students. In addition, the school is working with the GW campus store to host a competition for a student designed t-shirt. Unfortunately, we had to put this on hold over the past year because of the pandemic. The campus store does have a shirt available for sale here.
In past years, the graphic design students in a class called “DesignLab” have also created Corcoran-themed swag. The class is still being organized for this fall, so we can’t promise anything yet - but please stay tuned!
For program-specific items, feel free to reach out to your program administrators to see if anything is available.
Will we be on campus in Fall of 2021?
The university and the city of Washington, D.C., will be making the decision on whether Corcoran classes will be held in person or virtually this fall. While we are hoping that in-person instruction is possible, it depends on many factors. Our foremost priority is your health and safety, and so the best place to check for updates on future planning is GW’s updates here.
Will classes be scheduled with consideration to rush hours so that students can avoid crowded metros?
We will bring this to faculty’s attention when scheduling classes; we aren’t sure yet.
For students hoping to complete an in-person internship in the DC area, do you know when those opportunities will be offered again?
Sadly, we don't know when DC area museums, companies, and other institutions will be fully open to the public or operating at full capacity in person. We encourage you to meet with your advisors to ask about internships that are possible during this time.
Is there programming available about how to secure freelance work?
We know that students who are young professionals may want resources for contract templates or information on how to protect their work. We are considering programming about this in the coming months and will also encourage your professors to include this in their professional practices courses. Here are a few resources to help guide you as you get started:
- GW Library Guide to Contracts and Freelancing
- AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Contracts
- Legal Services at the Innovation Center
- And, ask your professors who are professional practitioners for advice!
Corcoran also just launched a Professional Development Series with upcoming events for students thinking about applying to jobs, internships or graduate school in the visual arts, performing arts and design fields. We have programming about applying to schools as part of the series on March 24.