A symposium addressing challenges and opportunities for educating artists today
Friday, March 6, 2015, 1–6pm
Pratt Institute
200 Willoughby Avenue
Brooklyn, New York, 11205
To address current challenges and opportunities for educating artists, Pratt Institute will present “Situation: Art School” on Friday, March 6 from 1 to 6pm. As part of the event, deans, chairs, and faculty members from prestigious New York art programs will participate in panel discussions on the values that inform art education today. The event, which is geared toward educators, students, and those in the art industry, is free and open to the public with RSVP.
Artist and author Luis Camnitzer will kick off the day’s event with a keynote on the relevance of institutionalized art education programs, the role of art-thinking within the broader educational system, and art as a meta-discipline.
Subsequent panel discussions will weigh questions such as: Has the art school—including university studio programs—become a factory for turning out career professionals with market-ready portfolios? Does it still offer students alternatives from which to challenge the hegemony of the commercial market? How can we reinvest art education with renewed transformative potential, as an enterprise that is not in the service of capital accumulation but about radically reorganizing our understanding of the world and of the possibilities for the artist within it?
The schedule of events is as follows:
Keynote, 1pm: Luis Camnitzer, artist and author
Panel I, 1:30pm: “What Are We Preparing Art Students For?”
Moderator: Kit White, Faculty, Fine Arts Department, Pratt Institute
Panelists:
Anne Gaines, Dean, School of Art, Media, and Technology, Parsons The New School for Design
David Ross, Chair, Art Practice MFA program, School of Visual Arts
Lisa Corrine Davis, professor, Department of Art and Art History, Hunter College
Panel II, 2:30pm: “What is the Role of Art School in a Market-Driven Art World?”
Moderator: Eva Diaz, Faculty, History of Art and Design Department, Pratt Institute
Panelists:
Jean Shin, faculty, Fine Arts Department, Pratt Institute
Nayland Blake, Chair, Advanced Photographic Studies MFA program, ICP-Bard
William Powhida, artist and writer
Refreshments, 3pm
Break out session led by the Camel Collective, 4pm (Carla Herrera-Prats and Anthony Graves)
Panel III, 4:30pm: “Beyond the Bricks and Mortar Art School”
Moderator: Katherine Carl, curator of the James Gallery and Deputy Director of the Center for the Humanities at The Graduate Center, CUNY
Panelists:
Ann Messner, professor, Fine Arts Department, Pratt Institute
Caroline Woolard, faculty, Parsons The New School for Design; collaborator on Trade School and BFA/MFA/PHD
Bruce High Quality Foundation University (Sean J Patrick, Joe Kay, Andrea Arrubla)
Closing discussion/Q&A, 5:30pm
Public reception, 6pm
Graduate Galleries, Steuben Hall
“Situation: Art School” is funded by Pratt Institute’s Office of the Provost and School of Art Dean’s Office. The event is organized by Pratt Institute’s Department of Fine Arts and is part of RiDE, a series of educational and cultural episodes that inspire and instigate curricular innovations.
About Pratt Institute
Founded in 1887, Pratt Institute is a global leader in higher education dedicated to preparing its 4,700 undergraduate and graduate students for successful careers in art, design, architecture, information and library science, and liberal arts and sciences. Located in a cultural hub with historic campuses in Brooklyn and Manhattan, Pratt is a living lab of craft and creativity with an esteemed faculty of accomplished professionals and scholars who challenge their talented students to transform their passion into meaningful expression.
