AP art students participated in National Portfolio Day at the Kansas City Art Institute on Oct. 28. This event gave student the opportunity to have their artwork evaluated by college admissions advisers from colleges all over the country.

Students had the opportunity to meet with nearby colleges such as the University of Kansas and the Kansas City Art Institute, along with many out-of-state schools.

“All the big art schools are there,” art teacher Tim Mispagel said. “They basically stand in line and wait for the next opportunity to open their portfolio up on a table and have a college admissions person evaluate that portfolio and give them some feedback on if they want to see more or less of something the students take that with a grain of salt.”

Senior Sam McGuire had his portfolio evaluated by both the KCAI and the Chicago Art Institute. McGuire focuses on 2-D art, especially charcoal and pastel portraits.

“Both schools told me that I have developed mastery of rendering skills. They told me I should work on observational skill and using different materials and that new concepts and ideas would be helpful in my portfolio.”

Mispagel stressed the importance of “nice clean presentation” in a student’s portfolio, as well as giving the admissions representatives a window into their own creative process.

“I always encourage them to take a sketchbook as well and paperclip some different pages they want the college admissions person to look at, to show a little bit of their thought process as they’re working on pieces,” Mispagel said.

Both McGuire and Mispagel had a positive outlook on the day. McGuire felt the day gave him “direction” when going forward in building his college admissions portfolio.

“Portfolio day is nice because there is an outside audience who judges your work unbiased,”McGuire said “It’s nice to see what the instructors would expect and where I’m at in the whole process.

Mispagel received positive feedback from the students who participated.

“I think each of them felt empowered by the visit. They got some good feedback and direction for helping them make choices moving forward,” Mispagel said.