Fall is fall...preoccupation is natural...go with the flow

So, it seems that the Fall class is a no-go at the LaGrange Art League - simple lack of interest, reflected in a total lack of registration. Fall is always a difficult time to get students for a formal class, especially if they are either A, returning to school, or B, adult students with children of their own. Either way the deck is stacked against something that is specifically another course of study, rather than being craftsy and/or directly project-oriented, where the winter holidays do give some motivation for doing creative things. Learning/working on skills themselves, though...logically, in this clime and culture, there's less of a drive there than at other times of the year.

I'd say that Spring and Summer are the most attractive times so far as scheduling by quarters, as the seasonal instinct is more towards opening up and experimentation and testing one's limits. Fall is a cocooning and tight-focusing time, and it really takes seeing art as a personal discipline for one to include it into one's schedule as days grow shorter and time more practicality/survival-oriented.

At least that's my somewhat-existential read of it. So far as the simple fact of school goes, anyone connected to formal schooling, whether teacher, parent or student, is going to be preoccupied with starting the school year off, and will not tend to be open to new projects and pursuits. I think that as a matter of efficiency, I should simply not teach a formal course through the LGAL or any other organization in the fall, and have it be strictly devoted to single-shot workshops, flexible private/small-group lessons, and catching up on my own work for display and sales. That way I don't have have to deal with either an outside school's overhead or the minimum class registration levels that it requires, at a time when a process-focused but non-credit art course like mine is on the lowest-possible end of seasonal demand.

That is my thought as of tonight, and I think that it makes more sense than repeatedly scrambling for more students at the last minute - better to keep myself advertised all year long and build greater demand for organized classes, instead of dissipating it every quarter of the year.


Thoughts? Requests?

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