Nude Student Models in College Art Classes

Talk to most all studio art school graduates and they all had to do it: figure drawing classes. At our school it was from around 5–8:30 two nights a week, a nude model, the class, and the teacher. I was one of the models for many a classes. In fact, I was at dinner the other night with one of the figure drawing professors, she didn’t make it weird, I didn’t make it weird, it wasn’t weird.

But I had a deep conversation that was sadly cut too short with another professor that wasn’t at my alma mater. He said that their school didn’t allow students to model for figure drawing classes.

That sentiment really got me thinking.

Most of my fellow art nude models that I meet in the profession started with figure modeling classes. I did. I was 19 and posing as did a few other of my classmates.

I wouldn’t say I was particularly encouraged or discouraged to be a nude model in my academia setting, I usually didn’t bring in nude photos of myself for our school assignments, like I did when I started graduate school. But having the ease of access and opportunity to one of the highest paid on campus positions made figure modeling an attractive job opportunity to me. Seeing that another school would tell students they couldn’t model for other students sort of made me slap my head and say, duh, of course not. Why would a university be encouraging students to be naked in front of their professors and classmates? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about normalizing nudity and not making it…