Thursday, November 09, 2006

Breaking Local News - Herron approved for MFA program

*** Indiana's Congressional Art Report Card below ***

According to this morning's Indianapolis Star, "the Indiana University board of trustees approved the degree program, which will offer studio teaching experience and real-world art-making opportunities, said Valerie Eickmeier, Herron's dean."

The MFA in Studio Arts needs to pass one final phase before joining masters programs in Art Education and Visual Communication already in place, approval from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, which Eickmeier expects in the first quarter of next year.

I have been screaming from the mountain tops that this is the key component to potentially making this a vibrant contemporary art town. There are certainly other factors as well, but if Herron can attract the staff to attract some of the best and brightest students, we will certainly be on the right track.

3 Responses to “Breaking Local News - Herron approved for MFA program”

Anonymous said...
November 9, 2006 at 9:00 PM

Hey Christopher, it is a testament to your blog that that I still read it and am no longer an Indianapolis resident! I worked on this whole MFA thing while I was at Herron and generally thought it was a good idea. There are lots of MFA programs out there. Do you have any ideas about how Herron could create a great one? (besides getting famous faculty)
-Kat


ChristopherWestPresents said...
November 9, 2006 at 11:07 PM

Kat, this is such a great, and extremely difficult question to answer. Yes, MFA programs are everywhere, and yes the competition is fierce. This should probably be the topic of numerous posts in the future.

I don't think the wheel needs to be entirely reinvented, but the times are changing. It seems the ideas of the past 10 to 15 years have been to build a great space and everything else will fall in place. It's becoming very obvious that whether you are talking about some small, niche places like the Eiteljorg or iMOCA or grand places like the IMA or even the new MOMA (please extend this analogy to Cincinnati, Milwaukee, etc.) and you'll see this thought process probably won't sustain itself if things remain static.

I don't have the answers, all I can say is that we need to now act dynamically. I hate to say think out of the box so I'll say think beyond the bubble. Business is certainly doing this, the arts can too.

There has been so much criticism recently as to how the new MOMA fails, how the Whitney seems almost irrelevant, and how they might fix it. Again, I don't have the answers but I do know one architect or one director or one donor can't solve all those problems alone. It's a combination of local interest, regional involvement and national relevancy that could make something special.

Holy crap, I'm now thinking of my next 47 posts. And Kat - you have been on my to email list for weeks, expect to hear from me soon.


Anonymous said...
November 22, 2006 at 1:29 AM

Herron and especially Indianapolis desperately need and MFA progra, so htis is a huge developemt. I think its the long, long overdue next step for Indianapolis to create a challenging creative environment where people actually respond to and evaluate the art that they see instead of relying on museums to confirm that which we already believe to be art--which museums have historically been only too happy to provide. (No- risk mentalities abound....)


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