Colleges ponder joint visual-arts doctorate
Monday, March 12, 2007
Steven Litt
Plain Dealer Art Critic
The Cleveland Institute of Art is spearheading a regional discussion
among a half-dozen colleges and universities about creating a
doctoral-level program in visual arts and design that would emphasize
the overlaps between art, business, science and technology.
The discussion, which is quietly gathering momentum and support,
would capitalize on the collective strength of local institutions and
could put Northeast Ohio in the lead, leaping ahead of more
traditional art and design schools elsewhere in the United States and
Europe.
Graduates of the new program would combine classical artistic
training with research, business, scientific and technical skills,
enabling them to do far more than paint pictures on easels or make
sculptures on pedestals.
"I'm excited because we're ahead of the curve on this," said Saul
Ostrow, chairman of the Visual Arts & Technologies Environment at the
art institute and the lead instigator of the new project. He said
Cleveland's program could be a national first in the arts, because it
would the first to involve so many schools and to blend public and
private institutions.
In addition to the art institute, other potential participants
include the University of Akron and Case Western Reserve, Cleveland
State, Kent State and Youngstown State universities.
The initial organizational conference on the program is scheduled for
Friday and Saturday, April 20 and 21, at the art institute and at
CWRU's Weatherhead School of Management. Ostrow and others say they
hope to formalize plans on organizing the program and seeking
money.The graduate program, which is still in the earliest stages of
planning, has no timetable or budget yet, Ostrow said. But he and
others say it would require roughly 100,000 square feet of space
somewhere in Cleveland.
It would draw on existing faculty at all participating schools, plus
distinguished visiting faculty from other cities who would teach for
periods of one to three years. It would involve 120 to 140 students,
and could be launched within four to five years.
The organizers say money could come from private sources and from the
state of Ohio.
"Saul has a profound idea," said Del Rey Loven, director of the Myers
School of Art at the University of Akron. "The question is how we
draw upon the strengths of the major educational institutions in our
region, pool our brains and resources, and take art and design
education to the next level."
Traditionally, the master of fine arts degree was as high as an art
student could go. Ostrow and others now envision a doctoral-level
program that would give artists and designers a toolbox they could
never have imagined before.
For example, graduates of the new program would be equipped to create
community-based art projects involving an advanced understanding of
sociology. They could learn sophisticated horticultural techniques to
clean and reclaim polluted landscapes. Or they could manage new
businesses or industries based on design methodologies used by
architects and industrial designers.
Emphasizing that artists need to know more than how to draw or handle
a brush, Ostrow said, "Art is now a knowledge-based practice rather
than a skill-based practice."
Ostrow said the graduate program would attract more midcareer artists
and design professionals to Cleveland, where they might be tempted to
stay and establish themselves. Typically, most of the area's college
graduates in the arts leave to pursue master's degrees in other
cities, depriving the region of a potential talent pool.Ostrow said
the graduate program would also reinforce a separate proposal by the
art institute and CSU to create a "District of Design" downtown. That
project is aimed at building national awareness of industrial design
talent in Northeast Ohio by turning empty storefronts along Euclid
Avenue into chic design showrooms.
Loven said the biggest obstacle the proposed graduate program faces
is "the isolation we engage in between institutions and between
disciplines at each institution."Christine Havice, director of KSU's
School of Art, said that "from the perspective of a major public
institution, trying to imagine what this partnership looks like in
the end is staggering, but that may be the most interesting
part."Fred Collopy, a professor at the Weatherhead School and a
professor of cognitive science at CWRU, said the proposed graduate
program "is one of the conversations going on in Cleveland that has a
high potential for an outcome, so I'm excited and putting energy into
it."He said the discussions so far have had a bottom-up quality
rather than a sense of being led from the top down by university
presidents and other leading administrators.Loven said he hopes he
and other planners can come up with "a new graduate program that
would attract the attention of students from around the world who
would say, 'There's nothing like this anywhere else. Let's go to
Northeast Ohio.'
saul ostrow
Chair, Visual Arts and Technologies
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
EXPECT EVERYTHING / FEAR NOTHING
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