Learning from Europe

Metalsmith recently received a letter from Heikki Seppä, offering some of his observations regarding education in metals in the US as compared to that in Europe. I have chosen to give Professor Seppä's comments a bit more space than a normal letter in order to generate some dialogue about where we are in metals education in the US, and where we wish to be in the future. While most of the readers of Metalsmith are not academics, I think that we would all have to agree that educational issues affect everyone of us, from the jeweler who takes workshops at the local crafts guild to the chairperson of a major metals departments at a large university. Additionally Professor Seppa sent a long some very interesting photographs of some European metals workrooms, which will allow readers to, at least, dream about the ideal studio. The Editor.

The fundamental need for education in the US is ideologically based. It's goals are subjective and emotional, it offers no career guarantees, and it lacks a niche in the fabric of society.

Metal arts education in the US is too fragmented and dependent on far too few teachers to be called comprehensive. Often the teachers success and fame in the field is the only driving force in the classroom. He/she is like a pastor priest, or rabbi maintaining harmony and positive attitudes toward the work.

Most teachers have developed a single technical specialty and an ideological point of view. These are the main elements which tend to create limitations - real or imaginary - on that teacher's program. One person cannot possibly be a specialist in all of the technical aspects in the vast field of metalsmithing.

Furthermore, facilities in US Schools are cramped and inadequately supplied with the necessary equipment and space. Many schools are still making do with salvaged, invented, and makeshift equipment. Metals departments frequently inherit obsolete, discarded leftovers from industry. While scrounging for raw materials and tools takes a lot of imagination, it little prepares the student for employment.

Most schools also lack adequate safety and carefully and intelligently designed traffic patterns. Efficient and professional work habits are not taught because the teachers, themselves, don't have that kind of experience. This leads to an environment and work place in which a lot of time is lost. Students get comfortable with these habits, and thus will have difficulty in fitting into real-life work situations.

The curricula in the metal arts in the US is often neither linear nor progressive. Seldom do teachers say to students: "You must do this before you can succeed in that." To many students the basics are boring and they want to start their studies with far too difficult a project. When this is permitted a very irresponsible education results. It only wastes time. ( This is most likely a hang-over from the sixties and seventies, when it was fashionable to "Do your own thing."). Orderly learning hastens progress. There is hardly a tool used in metalsmithing which doesn't call for some practice before its benefits are realized.

European schools, on the other hand, have definite objectives and schools meet the practical, established needs of industry, culture, and commerce. There is a need for metalsmiths in the societal structure. Graduates don't have to create their world after leaving school.

The European (specifically Scandinavian) approach to metal arts education is based on clear objectives. The schools:

1. Train workers for industry- who will elevate the product quality in the long run, in whatever capacity.
2. Give training in and encourage careers for students as workers, leaders, artists/designers, business people, conservators, repairmen/women, and teachers.
3. Give training in and encourage the skills needed to be a small business owner/operator, an entrepreneur, shop/studio employer and employee, and the schools encourage the propagation of the profession.

As an example of the differences, Finland, a country with a population of only five million people built a special 3-story building to house their school of gold and silversmithing: "Lahti Design Institute". It is comprised of 9 full-time, and 15 part-time instructors for 100 full time and 35 part-time students. All instructors are specialists. They know their specialty very well - and they can reach it. There is no stardom, except among their peers. Teachers hired to teach silversmithing, for example, don't have to know the finer points of goldsmithing, gem setting, etceteras - only silversmithing at its highest level. And so it is with all instructors. Instructors work a regular 30 plus hours a week, in several levels of instruction. Unlike in the US, promotions in rank do not lessen nor change the workload. This guarantees a constant level of teaching imput to the program without diluting the quality of instruction.

Of equal importance is the fact that an applicant's suitability is screened in several stages. This requirement, quite simply, avoids wasted instruction. The normal time of study is four years though most students already have an undergraduate university level education before entering. Over 10% of the students are from foreign countries and instruction is offered in at least three languages, but the general running of the school is done in Finnish.

The school is veritable center for help and information, serving students, industry, and patrons at large. Special work and commissions are accepted from civic, cultural, governmental, and religious organizations. These commissions are handled in a professional manner and they often lead to teamwork in design and execution. Individual projects however, dominate the program. Students participate in international competitions, and consistently win ⅓ of the mid-European prizes.

The curriculum is as comprehensive as one can imagine. If it has anything to do with gold-silver, smithing it is taught—from metallurgy through computer-design to gemology. The facility has specific studios designated for different activities, 16 separate class-rooms plus display areas. During the planning phase a new work-table with only one leg was designed. The two belly-hole table has a leg in the middle from the floor to ceiling containing a 5″ pipe through which all services and ventilation are accessed, providing both safety and ease of house-keeping. Many other innovations in the state-of-the-art school may be found. The ergonomics of the spaces offer a vast improvement over the numerous cobbled together studios of other institutions, ranging from the color off floor tiles, to lights, traffic, acoustics, disappearing walls, accessible audiovisual aids, down to the height of individual worktables and stools, etceteras. Gone are the dark dungeons of yesteryears where the worktable faced a corner or a wall. Now the worker faces the longest view of the studio, in good light and almost invisible white walls.

Traditionally, project planning and design has been very directed and in a "straight-jacket" format. Even though it is now getting looser it is still not as spontaneous and free as American schools. Overall the Europeans are technologically ahead and they use that advantage in their education. This may be the reason that, comparatively speaking, American craftsmanship is generally not as good as that of Europeans. In the US the emphasis on art-content rather than on execution and technological expertise almost certainly contributes to this. There should be a better balance. Industry perhaps could help solve this problem. How do we get them to try? I suggest that schools and industry make peace-shake hands and work together.

Let's learn something from the Europeans.

The most successful art disciplines have worked with industry i.e.: photography., ceramics, glass, commercial art, and advertising, business, printing, fiber arts, fashion - why not metal? As it is, industry is not hurting us; we are not hurting them. But what a plus, if we worked together blowing into the same embers and rekindling the fame.

Heikki Seppä is Professor Emeritus of metals at the School of Art, Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri.

All Photographs by V. M. Väärä

By Heikke Seppä

Metalsmith Magazine – 1995 Winter

In association with SNAG‘s

Metalsmith magazine, founded in 1980, is an award winning publication and the only magazine in America devoted to the metal arts.