Proko 2.0, competition or a supplement?

[Jack]

Morning all,

With the launch of Proko’s new site, both a social media and learning platform for artists, I wondered how NMA will respond? Is it seen as competition or a supplementary resource?

Proko lists quite a few NMA artists (Huston, Villpu, Todorovich) as instructors, will they continue with NMA too? The website is slick to use and makes NMA (which I think uses WordPress?) feel sluggish, but of course it lacks the depth of content. It seems the intention is to provide a curated platform for artists to sell their own courses, rather than a pay-to-get-in subscription based service.

I’m interested if there’s anything on the NMA roadmap to fend off up-starts? 🙂

[Natalie Montelongo]

Hello, Jack.

All of those instructors mentioned only have short demos or simple interviews with Proko. None of those artists are, in any way, moving over to Proko, or shooting in-depth content with Proko. There will always be shallow, low-quality free or lower cost videos made available by individuals and other companies, which only make it more difficult for students to know where to turn for quality art instruction. At New Masters Academy, we make it easy by only working with the best artists, and our courses are rigorous, college-level instruction. We also don’t sell our courses individually. With a NMA subscription, you get access to all of our courses. Our instruction is simply of a different depth and caliber than what is offered elsewhere. That being said, New Masters Academy will be launching a brand new website experience in the coming months that will bring the platform into the future. You can expect improved reference tools, practice tracking, faster load times, and more. We are also now offering interactive live classes with instructors like Glenn Vilppu, Iliya Mirochnik, Heather Lenefsky, and Joshua Jacobo. These Live Classes will offer a more in-person art college like experience. And in the coming months you can also expect to see big changes in our Coaching Program, making professional one-on-one training affordable and accessible for all. All of this is in addition to growing our library of courses each month. Our focus is, and will remain, providing rigorous, high-quality art instruction, focused on strong foundations, and industry-agnostic skills that will empower our students to excel however they apply their craft.

[Jack]

Hey there Natalie – thanks for the response and providing a sneak peak at the roadmap for NMA! It sounds like there are some exciting changes coming up.

I think replicating the ‘in-person art college experience’ is the name of the game these days. Personally I find online instruction more informative and, well, instructive, than the classroom setting. But some elements are harder to reproduce online, like figuring out a learning path, coaching, feedback on assignments, and a sense of community; anything NMA can do to fill that gap will keep me paying 🙂 That’s not to disregard some of the brilliant new courses that have been added in the last year, which keep getting better imo.

[Author]

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