Students attending a class.
Doha: Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar), a Qatar Foundation (QF) partner university, will offer portfolio development classes for high school students during the first semester of the academic year 2024.
Organized by the University’s Community and Continuing Education (CCE) wing, the classes are a series of in-depth, non-credit sessions for students who would like to gain the skills necessary to develop a competitive portfolio of their art and design work tailored to university requirements.
The program is offered across four different time schedules, allowing students to choose a timetable that best suits their individual needs and day-to-day routines.
For the year 2024, applicants can choose from classes that run as follows: September 1 - October 20; September 16 - November 4; October 1 - November 19; and October 23 - December 11.
The program focuses on a key factor that art, design and architecture universities look for in addition to technical skills when selecting suitable applicants for their programs—originality in thinking and development. Hence, the program is designed to encourage participants to develop portfolios that reflect their unique interpretations of a theme or topic.
The classes will be taught by experienced and qualified VCUarts Qatar alumni who will provide personalized feedback during the learning process. Participants will receive a certificate of completion upon meeting all the course requirements including attending the required sessions.
Participants will be exposed to a series of sessions that will teach them the nuances of basic, advanced and observational drawing, the process and application of creative thinking, methods to effectively communicate ideas to an audience, and how to use a camera to document progressive stages of their work.
One of the previous participants, Haya El Amadi, shared her experience. She said, “It was my first time taking the portfolio development classes and I enjoyed it. I quite looked forward to the Wednesdays when I attended them. In the process of building a portfolio, I learned a lot about art and design. My instructor was very helpful and always ready to offer additional guidance when we needed it.”
Rasha Alkasab, VCUarts Qatar’s Community and Continuing Education Program Manager, noted that the relevance of the program lies in the fact that an art or design portfolio is considered to be a prerequisite not just for admission into a university, but also for job prospects across fields as varied as art, design, architecture, product design, technology, and innovation.
Alkasab explained further, “This 8-week course gives potential applicants an advantage as they can develop their portfolios under the guidance of experts. It also serves as a tool to expand students’ creative processes and teaches them complex thinking techniques that can be applied in all fields, including the sciences.”
