Assessing creativity.

An artist,
Someone who dedicates their life to the portrayal of creativity in any for of media they choose. Someone that looks at life in a number of ways, from abstraction, minimalism and futurism, to merely drawing what they see in front of them in a realistic "still life" approach.

How can this someone possibly be assessed on what they do?

I often wonder if there should be such a term as an "art institute", a place that artist go... To go and do what, learn? To follow the paths of tutors? Who are merely taking the artists away from their own creative paths. I don't quite understand how young artists are meant to follow their creativity and at the same time, jump through the various hoops laid out by the educational boards.. ?

As much as I contradict myself, being an art student, I have come to realise this strange truth.

The art institution chooses, picks, decides between all it's board members as to what can in fact be classed as art, but what can be classed as art then? For example, Marcel Duchamp's fountain, this infamous piece of art is a great example. Being rejected by the institute, not being allowed to be classed as art, then went on to be one of the most famous pieces of art work in the 20th century.

Can you really choose what is art?
How can you tell?
Surely it's too much of a personal subject?

How can we students be educated to fit into the art world? When we don't even have the guarantee that we will make it. All this jumping through hoops just for a letter of rejection from galleries and other such institutes, stateing that our works may not be classed as art.

I don't quite understand how this works.
But as my education grows, I realise that I truely hope one day I manage to beat the institution, making them re-think all these ideas they have of what can be classed as art.