[Jewelry making - Article 00312] - Re: [Orchid] What do you want from an MFA program?

[David Huffman]

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Hi Goo;

>     well, you know what they say you can send an art student to
>     college but you cant make them think! 

    The students were less a problem than the faculty. I wrote a small
    brochure while in grad school, about 10 double spaced pages or so. It
    listed the locations of all the computers on campus that allowed the
    general student body access. I listed the times these facilities were
    open. I listed the software on these machines and what could be done
    with it. I told them to stop printing their term papers with their
    lousy typewriters and use the word processors with spell check and
    the laser printers. I told them how to apply for Internet access,
    what this was useful for (email, downloading programs and images,
    albiet uuencoded). The art department humored me but filed the paper
    in a drawer somewhere. A few art students wanted copies, most just
    thought I was weird. I took a copy to the computing department and
    they published it and distributed it as the how to manual for campus
    computing. But now, Temple University has an extensive CAD program
    in their metals department, as do other colleges, and the usefulness
    of computers and the Internet is taken for granted. Nobody would want
    to be without them. 

    The fact is, the average college art department is NOT interested in
    preparing students for careers other than teaching at the college
    level. The private institutions will do that because they see it will
    bring enrollment. Students won't get this stuff until they demand it
    of their colleges. And students don't yet realize that colleges will
    definitely respond to these kinds of demands, if there are enough
    students making noise about it. 

    I don't try to be ahead of the curve, I just find myself there as a
    result of my tendency to lose myself in investigative obsessions and
    this darn right-brain tendecy to metanoia. My biggest problem is that
    I don't have any good way to tell people bad news, so I've taken to
    keeping my "predictions" to myself. But I do hint at some of it in
    Jewelry In Fashion Trends magazine ... but I make it a point to put a
    hopeful face on things. 

David L. Huffman
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