Marilee Schumann on thu 1 sep 11
This is my two-cents worth of experience: I was teaching pottery at
the local small liberal arts college, where I first learned myself 30
years ago, and the program was dropped this year. They had hired a
very prestigious, world-class video and performance artist from NYC to
take the one full-time studio teaching spot. I was just an adjunct.
Her work is pretty wonderful, moving, inspiring, and, well, important,
I guess. Ask me off-list for her name, if you want. But for all her
excellence as an artist and professor, she doesn't have an
appreciation for the value of hands-on craft as you all have expressed
so well. She rarely came into the studio, and during one visit,
pointed to a dirty, clay-encrusted towel lying on the floor, and said,
"I would rather see that than the students' work," and another time,
"Why would anyone want to make a bowl?" She wanted to re-design the
program to be more conceptual, so they eliminated pottery and
printmaking. Then she left for a job at a better university.
I will draft a letter to the head of the art department and the dean,
giving the case for getting pottery (I mean "ceramics") back into the
program, and I will quote some of what has been written here. If
anyone has anything more to add, please let me know.
Thanks.
| |
|
