Stephani Stephenson on mon 5 jun 00
here=92s my take on MFA and jobs...note: this is an anecdotal and persona=
l
view, I don=92t pretend to say this is how it is, just this is what I=92=
ve
seen, which is a true but very small slice of the big enchilada.
I think you have to look at demographics when you look at numbers of
MFA=92s handed out acompared t o the number of full time
college/community college teaching jobs.
First, look at the =91veneration=92 generation, I call them that because=
so
many of our =93venerable ceramists and educators=94 are in this group. Ru=
dy
Autio explains it the following way himself. A lot of guys,
(demographics, remember), went to college on the GI bill after WW2
and Korean War. College was suddenly very accessible .Many of these men,
like Rudy and Peter Voulkos and so on and so on,took art and pottery.
They graduated just ahead of the baby boomers, who hit college in the
60s.During that time a lot of pottery departments were opening and
expanding like crazy . Pottery classes, along with other liberal arts
courses,were wildly popular. People like Rudy and George Kokis and
others I personally have spoken to about this say they hardly even
applied for their teaching jobs. Teachers were needed for burgeoning
enrollments and growing departments.
Now, fast forward to the late 70s, the 80s and the 90s.
Guess what, a lot of the folks who were hired in the 60s and early 70s
hung on to their jobs for a long time. In addition, institutions
started reducing funding for ceramics and the arts, and cutting
department size. They moved toward hiring of adjuncts, who often earned
less than a teaching graduate student. Many of the elder department
heads were not successful in keeping or adding to faculty, even when
enrollment remained high.
So, those of us on the tail end of the baby boom had a difficult time
finding a full time university or community college job.The word was
always,(and I sincerely mean no disrespect), you had to wait till
someone retired or died to get a job.
Now, I KNEW this while getting an MFA,(1990), yet because I loved clay,
I believed that I could get a job and I also told myself that , anyway,
I was doing it for the love of it and for the knowledge. Throw in a dose
of the =93Follow your bliss=94 , stuff that was quite popular at that
time, there you have it. I believed. I strode , ha ha, mightily past the
warnings.
In fact, I actually got a sabbatical position, 11th hour, right after
graduation, so I thought, well this isn=92t so tough! I worked very hard
that year and loved it. It was a one person department however, and
there was no possibility of continuing after that year so I moved on.
Then I had a medical crisis which cost me a year of recovery and
necessitated my working full time immediately thereafter in order to pay
off student loans as well as medical bills..I worked full time managing
an art store at a university bookstore, still trying to look for
teaching jobs and trying to build my own studio to keep up my
=91professional=92 progress.
I did the best I could, but later felt I had definitely slipped on to a
very slow track as far as ever getting a teaching job. I also felt like
I could never quite get ahead of the game with regard to personal
promotion and getting into shows.. I taught workshops locally for
various groups, and kept working and showing . After 3-4 years, I cut my
job back to 3/4 time and later to 25 hours a week, and devoted more
time to clay. .In 1997 I decided to try in earnest to get a teaching
job.I had applied for some positions but never got past the first cut. I
scraped money together to go to NCECA. I never made it to CAA. I
received weekly postings from the Chronicle Of Higher Ed. I applied for
several positions. In 1997 I received A Montana State Artist Fellowship
and possibly because of this, I started getting past the first =91cut=92=
in
the application process.
Many of you may not know what is involved with the application process
these days.The written applications are complex and lengthy. Some of
them are 20 pages with a list of essay questions that will boggle you.
No two apps are the same. Once you marshall your slides,written
application, statement of philosophy, transcripts, etc and meet the
deadline you wait.
Getting an interview is thrilling because it is likely that 200-400
other people, most of them well qualified, have applied for the same
job.
After =92performing =91 at a few interviews, I felt I was qualified to hi=
t
the road as a one woman show.( Picture yourself in a formal interview,
wearing low heels, nylons and career gear one minute, then whipping on
an apron and sitting down to the wheel!)
Here=92s how it can go.You may have separate interviews with the college
president and the department head or dean or vice president of the
college. You will have to =91dress for success=92 to meet with these folk=
s,
then dash off to face a student panel and answer their questions or
present your slides. you may then have to turn around and present slides
to a faculty panel.. Some but not all will be artists: some will be
ceramists, some will be English or psych professors. Some look
interested, some are bored out of their gourds the minute you walk into
the room. In between two slide shows , you may have to do a demo such as
=91throw a matching set of 3 jars with lids=92, probably with a 15 minute
time limit; then go on to a hand building demo, again, a 15 minute
session, hand building, while discussing the state of contemporary
ceramics, then you might be led into a room where there are several
sculptures and /or pots, sometimes as many as 40. Some are beginner
pots, some are very sophisticated, some are horrific. Some of the pots
might actually be pots or sculptures made by the very head of the
program who is sitting right there on the panel.. You don=92t know for
sure . It is difficult to critique them because the people who made them
aren=92t there, so there=92s no chance for interaction, so you hear yours=
elf
making statements you can=92t believe you are making. You want to show of=
f
what you know, but god forbid you insult the professor=92s pot!
Then, finally, come=92s the ACTUAL interview, which can be congenial or
nerve wracking or any number of things. I even had one that was
invigorating, stimulating. It was fantastic. (I didn=92t get the job). I
had another, at 3PM, 95 degree heat, everyone half asleep. I was
nervous, sweating,( I for sure didn=92t get the job).
You will be asked, if , in addition to ceramics and ceramic sculpture,
can you also teach computer graphics? metal sculpture? Design? drawing?
Art Appreciation? Can you also supervise the operation of the gallery?
what about photography, can you teach photography?
The interviewing panel is made up of generally good folks. Sometimes
they are with it, sometimes they are exhausted , or , worse yet, the
decision has already been made, and the whole thing is a formality they
have to go through to meet the standards of affirmative action, or
hiring practices.
. I would like to think that in some of the interviews I was really
considered but in each of the five =91finalist=92 interviews I landed, th=
e
job in each case was given to an insider. I=92m not faulting this, as
the =91insider=92 was likely very talented and had probably worked for ye=
ars
as a poorly paid adjunct, just to get the job. I know other cases where
the =91insider=92 will work for years hoping to get a crack at a full tim=
e
job and then get passed over. I=92m sure in every case , a very qualified
person was hired, after all there are so many very qualified people.
though part of me felt like a good deal of time and expense had been for
naught, I have to say that each interview was truly a =91learning=92
experience in itself. Even so,after awhile you do get the feeling you
are hurling yourself repeatedly into a brick wall.
And then there's the fact that you just spent all your egg money on
nice clothes for the interview.
Truthfully, I could not help but feel crestfallen and rejected at
failing to get the job each time. I was plagued by self doubt. The most
recent interview I had was last year. It was the worst of all. It shook
me up because I actually wondered afterwards if it was just too late
for me. It had been so long since last I taught, ...THAT was a scary
feeling.
I realize now that I didn=92t know a darn thing about how things really
worked when I left school.. I think schools can do a better job in
preparing MFA grads. Educate students in what they can do after school.
Explore the business of art, teaching, showing, entrepeneurism and how
to survive and succeed in Art. A grad student=92s artistic soul is not s=
o
pure, so untaintedly creative that it can=92t handle a dose of the real
world! Most of us were begging for such classes.
Secondly, in most schools, the art department and the art education
department are separate. Either you get an art ed degree with time for
one or two semesters of ceramics at most, or you get an MFA or BA, with
no room for an ed curricula. I think there should be a little mixing.
Most MFA students are never taught how to =91teach=92. You are just left =
to
figure it out. If you have a good roll model, fantastic, if you don=92t,
good luck. Yes there are natural teachers. I do think some training in
that area would benefit at least some MFA students who want to teach.
Finally, my advice would be, go to a school where you will have a strong
department and a fantastic individual with a good reputation, within
that department. Make your degree and your association with that person,
that professor, work for you.
my motto in hindsight would be.
SCHOOLS DON=92T HIRE PEOPLE. PEOPLE HIRE PEOPLE.
work it.
OK, I=92m typed out for now
Stephani Stephenson
mudmistress@alchemiestudio.com
| |
|
