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My view on galleries is that there are sooo many, especially in more urban areas, that if one doesn't like your work or the direction you feel you need to go in you can just find a new gallery. Also, like has already been mentioned, there's the internet. I don't think online should replace physical galleries (frankly, I kind of hate looking at art online because I never know how the colors in my monitor to the camera used to take the picture or the artists' photography abilities have affected the colors in the piece).
Because I haven't seen it brought up yet, I want to offer my experience in regards to art school. The question of whether or not art colleges teach students a certain style is: It depends on the school. I've personally been in two different college's art programs and have anecdotal information from friends about another half dozen or so others.
The first school I went to, where I got my associate's degree from, we were taught a whole lot of technique and mechanics, the best ways to use various media, and ABOUT different artists' styles. There was a whole lot of encouraging us to critique and talk with each other about our work, to use found objects and unusual media and to find our own style. One professor told me that if we were trying to do someone else's style that made us art forgers, not artists.
So, then I transferred to another school. Complete 180. There were a total of 2 professors I encountered (out of 7 different art classes) who were nurturing and encouraging. The rest were disinterested and just wanted us to reproduce THEIR work. One especially arrogant guy (who was also my advisor...I really struck out at that college) tried to tell me and another girl that because we took our previous drawing courses at community colleges we probably weren't up to his photo-realistic standards and we should re-take drawing 2. I left that school after one year.
The first school I went to is, in the regional (and a little bit national) art community thought of as the best and strongest art program in the area (only problem is that it's a 2 year school, so no BFAs). The second school is nationally accredited for some of its programs, but it has no respect in the art community and local community colleges are actively dissuading people from transferring there. When friends have told me about why they've left such and such school, their complaints sound similar to my issues with school #2.
So, long answer short, lol, good art schools encourage students to find their own style and their own voice. Bad art schools try to pigeonhole students into one thing or the other. Problem is, it's hard to know which a school is until you actually start taking classes.
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