Following her retirement from Princeton University, celebrated historian Dr. Nell Irvin Painter surprised everyone in her life by returning to school―in her sixties―to earn a BFA and MFA in painting. In _Old in Art School_, she travels from her beloved Newark to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design and struggles with the unstable balance between the pursuit of art and the inevitable, sometimes painful demands of a life fully lived. How are women and artists seen and judged by their age, looks, and race? What does it mean when someone says, “You will never be an artist”? Who defines what “An Artist” is and all that goes with such an identity, and how are these ideas tied to our shared conceptions of beauty, value, and difference? _Old in Art School_ is Nell Painter’s ongoing exploration of those crucial questions, drawing on insights from two careers. Read about Nell Painter, ageism, and "disappearing women" [here](https://medium.com/@ForumNetwork/disappearing-women-nell-painter-and-christine-lahti-e508da6b5271 "Disappearing Women: Nell Painter and Christine Lahti"). Photo: [Time](http://time.com/5318242/nell-painter-old-in-art-school/ "This Woman Went to Art School in Her 60s, Proving It’s Never Too Late to Pivot")
