Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Dissolving...Eroding
I just returned from a meeting at Moore. It's been decided that we will no longer be addressing "Fine Arts" in the traditional 2-d/3-d fashion. We will now be having an all encompassing "Fine Arts" major. Back when I was in under-grad, there were majors like, Printmaking, Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics...which then turned into 2-d/3-d a few years back. There has been a decline in specialized majors, not to mention some budget confusion. I'm confused by the turn of events...but looking forward to a change in the way information is absorbed. An idea for a Freshman elective is also on the block, The content is Symbol x Shelter = House x Home. The objective is to expose freshman to different materials and processes, outside of the basics core. For lack of a better term, a "fun" class. Those who will be teaching will have to have a backround dealing with a variety of materials to accomodate what the students may wish to create. (We used to have a broad theme like "Book," that students had opportunity to translate into materials common to different departments, like Ceramics, Metals, Illustration, Fashion Design, etc. Students were placed in a Fine Arts Class for 6 weeks, then switched w/ a Professional Arts class at mid-point. A final crit of 2 projects of both diciplines was had at the end. Metals and Fibers...Ceramics and Illustration...Printmaking and Fashion Design were some of the teams paired to try on. The goal was to cross diciplines and examine how broad themes could be contemplated in different mediums. The quality of the work varied...students were afraid to make choices, but at the same time were disappointed they were placed in the class and didn't get to choose it.) The goal is still the same, but not to be used as a major recruting tool, as it was in the past...because majors have now been dissolved! I am intrigued by the idea, but have concerns it may be too nebulous for the freshman to really sink their teeth into in a three hour class. It also sounds like an enormous amount of prep...that will probably fall to adjuncts! I also worry that a jack of all trades mentality is permeating the atmosphere and wonder where it will lead. Any thoughts??? Please let me know. Terri
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3 comments:
I think for the undergraduates and the all-important BFA degree – specialization is beneficial for the students, the old “learning the language before writing poetry” analogy. I think Kierkegaard put it best “the more you limit yourself the more fertile you become in invention.”
I would also be concerned that the degree’s respectability will be lessened to that of a community college (not to disparage community colleges) that offers a general Fine Arts major for lack of facilities, faculty and finances.
I understand the whole “this is not a Brillo Box” school of art school but if you take too much of the past structures out of the art school experience it may negatively effect keeping some students and recruiting new students. I’m interested in how this plays out.
To play devil's advocate, I think ellen Harvey has a point when she observes that in the publics' mind, painting is art and then there's all this other stuff that drags along, too. By collapsing all art produciton under a single term - fine arts - while simultaneously promoting transdisciplinary practices ("lithoramics"?!?) are we really baking our cake with a world that already has limited patience for art and artists?
Good God, yes... what a cake!As this drags on in meeting after meeting, they are asking folks to chair academic survey comittees...faculty that teach 3 credits a week to assess the soph and junior core cirriculum. If you don't sign up, they threaten to assign you a committee to meet with, at a time that you work somewhere else!And who?...is doing the shopping on that list? The iron chef's secret ingredient shopper...Sinatra?!The curse of the every day adjunct!
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