Is it time to kill the MFA?
Moderator: Paddy Johnson
Panelists: Thomas Evans, Catherine Haggarty, Nato Thompson, Charlie White, and Dexter Wimberly
Date: February 9, 7:30 EST, 5:30 MT
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Moderator: Paddy Johnson
Panelists: Thomas Evans, Catherine Haggarty, Nato Thompson, Dexter Wimberly, Charlie White.
IS IT TIME TO KILL THE MFA?
The educational system isn’t working. Enrollment in art schools is down. Tuition costs are going up. Adjuncts don’t make a living wage and tenured professors work in broken administrative systems.
As job opportunities for artists dwindle, and loans saddle artists with debts that can take a lifetime to repay is more secondary education really what artists need? How can we remake an educational system that counters the structural inequity that often precludes high-level opportunities for BIPOC artists?
Is it Time to Kill the MFA? brings together professionals working inside art institutions and outside to build art practices, and to help tool artists with the skills they need to get ahead. Some believe that by working within post-secondary institutions they can make needed changes while others have sought solutions elsewhere. The panel serves as a forum to discuss the conditions placing pressure on artists leaving the institutions, and what we can do to support them.
Following the panel, we will be joined by special guests Gridthiya Gaweewong and Heather Darcy Bhandari who will help us think beyond the discussion and inform questions that we will all take during the Q&A.
This talk is free and open to the public.
Read the full press release.
Press contact: paddy@vvrkshop.art
Image credit: Allyn Cox teaching an Art Students League class, 1940, Smithsonian Archives
meet the Panelists
Paddy Johnson
Paddy Johnson is an online pioneer with more than 15 years experience in communications and publishing. She is the founder of VVrkshop, an online platform offering high-level professional support to artists and the co-founder of the national publishing project Impractical Spaces. Formerly of Parade NYC, and Art F City.
Thomas Evans a.k.a. Detour
Thomas Evans is an all-around creative specializing in large scale public art, interactive visuals, portraiture, immersive spaces, and creative directing. His focus is to create work where art and innovation meet. A born collaborator and “military brat,” Detour pulls from every conceivable experience that shapes his landscapes and perspectives.
Catherine Haggarty
Catherine Haggarty is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She’s had solo shows Massey Kleinn Gallery, Proto Gallery, Bloomsburg University, Look e Listen and This Friday Next Friday and has lectured widely. Haggarty is an adjunct professor at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) and co-directs NYC Crit Club with artist and critic, Hilary Doyle.
Nato Thompson
Nato Thompson is an author, curator and what he describes as “cultural infrastructure builder”. He is also the founder of The Alternative Art School. He worked as Artistic Director at Philadelphia Contemporary, Philadelphia Contemporary, and Creative Time as Artistic Director and as Curator at MASS MoCA.
Charlie White
Charlie White is Head of the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University. Under his leadership, CMU significantly increased resources and support for its MFA program in Art by adding a new 10,000 square foot facility, expanding financial support for students, and restructuring the curriculum to provide greater individualized mentorship.
Dexter Wimberly
Dexter Wimberly is the co-founder of the financial literacy platforms Art World Conference and Art World Learning. He is also an independent curator who has organized exhibitions and developed programs with galleries and institutions around the world. Wimberly is currently a Senior Critic at New York Academy of Art. He is also the founder and director of the Hayama Artist Residency in Japan.
participating Institutions
Art World Learning (AWL) is a new online education platform created by Art World Conference. AWL brings financial health to artists, designers, and cultural producers through a series of videos and learning materials presented by and for creatives on topics such as freelance finance, budgeting, taxes, credit, debt, investing, and intellectual property. The subscription-based platform is currently being used by educational institutions across the country and is available to schools and arts organizations that wish to foster the financial independence of their students, alumni, and artist/designer communities.
We can make a world together. We can do it by supporting, listening, learning and building with each other. Using the informal networks of a global arts community dedicated to art that meets the public half-way, we launched The Alternative Art School. At TAAS the formula is simple: affordability, well paid visionary faculty, and intimate class sizes. We take this formula and put it into motion in an on-line platform that emphasizes group work, community building, and dynamic modes of sociality and art-making. TAAS stands firmly on a commitment to the production of dreams, alternatives, social relationships and inner-dialogues produced in tandem with an active caring for each other and our planet.
The School of Art, housed within one of the most respected research universities in the United States, offers an unparalleled convergence of contemporary art, technology, and critical discourse. Combining a renowned studio program with the interdisciplinary resources of a cutting-edge research environment, the School of Art bridges the fundamental areas of studio practice with the experimental practices of new media, physical computing, and program-based expression. Esteemed faculty provide an intense, professional-level learning environment that fosters experimentation, boundary crossing, and the development of hybrid processes.
NYC Crit Club is a radical alternative offering critique, community and connection for artists post BFA and post MFA. We are proud to offer BIPOC Scholarships and work study rates for artists in financial need. NYC Crit club is run by Hilary Doyle & Catherine Haggarty and operates on Zoom due to the Pandemic. Now in its fifth year, NYC Crit Club began with rotating studio visits and critiques held in Brooklyn and Manhattan studios and galleries. The Spring 2021 semester is offering 12 courses with 11 new faculty and 50 guest critics.
Presented by
VVrkshop: With courses on art statements, social media, and website optimization, VVrkshop gives arts workers access to high-level professionalization tools at an affordable cost. The hub of professionals, founded by writer and educator Paddy Johnson in response to the pandemic, helps independent artists generate more opportunities.
Redline Contemporary Art Center: Located in Denver, Colorado, RedLine Contemporary Art Center fosters education and engagement between artists and communities to create positive social change. RedLine serves as an incubator for a thriving group of resident artists, through an in-depth, two-year residency program that includes free studio space, community engagement opportunities, and professional development.