Art supplies are expensive. Not just at Oberlin and not just now. 

In the 35 years that Professor John Pearson has taught art at Oberlin, he has watched the cost of supplies increase upward of ten percent per year. Over the same period of time, the art department’s expendable materials budget has struggled to counter the skyrocketing costs, as it has increased only one to two percent each year. 

Pearson teaches silk-screening at Oberlin. For his classes, he orders $10,000-$14,000 of wholesale, expendable material per year. This­ material is then sold to students at cost. There is an additional lab fee to cover other materials used in class such as covers, thinners, chemicals and specialty inks.

If two students split the necessary materials, the initial cost is about $232. However, more supplies will be needed as the semester progresses. 

“The expendable budget is about $1500 a year total. The amount then for each class [about $400] barely covers the [cost of] materials for one student,” Pearson said. 

As stated earlier, this is not a new problem. Kenyon College, Wesleyan University and even the renowned Rhode Island School of Design obligate students to pay for their own supplies. According to Pearson, “The budget for expendable material has been entirely inadequate the entire time I have been here.” This has led to significant out-of-pocket expenses for students.

Silk-screening is one of many art classes offered at Oberlin, and is not the only one that requires expensive supplies. According to College junior and student senator Colin Jones, “It seems like lab fees have gotten to the point where you might as well not sign up for art if you are a student from a disadvantaged background. That is the opposite of what Oberlin is supposed to stand for.”

Pearson agreed, “I think there is a possibility that [the high cost of supplies] has an effect on the demographic of classes. Students should not be closed out of courses because they can’t afford it.”

Responding to concerns about the affordability of art courses, Acting Chair of the Art Department Sarah Schuster said, “No faculty would deny a student admission to a course because of financial reasons if they could help it.”

Schuster suggested that students could, for instance, in an oil painting, choose to work with two colors or with used paints, instead of buying a whole new set. Schuster admitted that cutting corners in this way would make it impossible to maintain a uniform standard for art classes, but it would prevent excluding art students due to financial concerns.

“We are not structuring our classes to be exclusive or to privilege certain people, but nothing changes the fact that making art costs money,” Schuster said.

Senior studio art and thesis majors complete thesis projects that are shown each spring, and the cost of these projects can range greatly depending on scale and material.

To help offset these costs, if only slightly, Shuster said, “In our budget last year and this year — although it is very tight — we provided $100 towards senior thesis exhibitions for every senior studio and thesis major.”

There are also some student-run initiatives to help alleviate costs. The Photo Co-op offers use of its dark room and chemicals in exchange for a membership fee. Normally there is an Art Students Committee that awards stipends for projects monthly; however, no one has stepped up to run the committee this year.

Even so, College senior Jennifer Ray, a studio art major who is planning to create a photo project in Cleveland for her thesis, said that she expects to pay $1500 of her own money.

“Not having a lot of money forces you to be creative, but there are people who are trying to do more meaningful projects for the Oberlin community at large,” Ray said. 

One such person is Julia Vogl, also a senior studio art major, whose project is an enormous endeavor in which she will transform the facade of Mudd, or at least its 40 front windows into a giant installation. Her project will cost $2000, a minimal sum considering its scale.

“I spent all of September planning out the technical and financial costs of this project. I wrote a grant proposal and submitted to the Dean of Arts and Sciences and to the Winter Term Office. Through both these resources I was able to get $900,” Vogl said.

Vogl hopes to raise the rest of the money by soliciting co-ops, dorms, student organizations and academic departments. 

So the problems of cost are not always without solution. Some students have creatively sidestepped expenses by choosing to use found materials and even trash for their projects.

College senior Naomi Rosenberg will be using items she found in the garbage to create human-powered machines and sculptures, limiting her purchases to wire and glue.

There are also other, more traditional ways for students to save money on art supplies, such as at large discount stores outside of Oberlin and through internet retailers.

In town, there is always the Ginko Gallery and Studio on Main Street. While its prices are comparable to those in the bookstore, students enrolled in art classes at Oberlin receive a 15 percent discount and an additional five percent if they pay in cash. 

Liz Burgess, owner of Ginko Gallery and OC ’73, explained, “We are artists ourselves here, so we try to keep the price of art supplies as low as possible for people who have to buy them.”

The shop also keeps in touch with the art professors to ensure that they will have needed items in stock.

Burgess did offer some words of comfort to frustrated studio art majors.

“Art supplies are expensive, but you don’t have to buy many books, and the equipment, if taken care of, can last a lifetime,” she said.