VCU Open Graduate Studios will be held this Friday, february 4th, 7-9pm, School of the Arts, Fine Arts Building, 1000 West Broad Street, all floors and lobby.
Yay! Open Studios are the greatest.
But.... the Adaption Syndrome panel (see two posts down) runs from 4-6pm and the opening reception for that show is immediately following, running 6-8pm. Uh oh, could be a conflict.
Richard Roth, the head of the Painting Department, is also sitting on the Adaption Syndrome panel so you would think that an effort would have been made to avoid this conflict - unless of course you are familiar with how the Painting Department is run. Richard didn't attend last year's Open Studios either.
Very few people* went to last year's Open Studio's, not because of a conflict, but because nobody knew about it. This year even less of an effort has been made to get the word out. Who would've thought that possible?
for information call 804-828-1477
*VMFA curator John Ravenal came! He always makes the effort!
The VCU School of the Arts had nothing to do with the organization of open studios this year. Open Studios was voted on by members of the Graduate Art Association (though no one can remember voting) and the majority of students wanted the event to happen. Therefore, the non existant publicity for open studios resides soley on the graduate students themselves.
ReplyDelete...which brings us back to the total lack of communication between the administration/faculty and the students.
ReplyDeleteOf course the students want to hold open studios! Why is the administration so disinterested in this? The administration is consistent in it's failure to make the students it's top priority.
I totally agree. The administration is a torment. They are disorganized and NOT concerned with the student's welfare. They take our money and then rape us. You might as well sit back and enjoy it. We'll be gone in a year anyway.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I'm not 100% qualified to have an opinion in this discussion, I'm not going to keep quiet if someone patently abuses the term 'rape' to define the conditions by which their priviledges meet responsibility.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot I don't know about the MFA program at VCU, and I won't pretend to guess that I do. But from my experience in the BFA program, I know what kind of resources you have available to you. You have a -lot- of resources, from collectors, to gallery owners, to visiting artists, to faculty and alumni, to one of the key people in charge of Richmond Public Art. Is City Hall not good enough for you? How about Style Weekly? You talk to Gregory Fucking Volk on a two-week basis and "earn" visits from internationally acclaimed artists. You have so much available to you that when I traveled to NYC with a group of grad students, you knew what you wanted so well that I felt like I was in your own back yard.
You're going to tell me that you couldn't have made a couple of phone calls to get someone to show up? When Kuspit was here, he was thrilled to be here and even put it in print. I don't know what you're doing wrong.
I watch undergrads set aside serious money to print full-color postcards of their work to promote themselves and work with the community to get seen; they gather local galleries before they even get their BFA, and you're crying rape because you decided on your own to host an event and then forgot to promote it? Those studios are -yours- and they're among the best in the country. I didn't hear that from the faculty, I heard that from 3 years of grad students who came before you... grad students who knew how to work with the faculty and not against them.
You're going to be out of here in a year? Hopefully by that point you can stop relying on the Administration to hold your hand, and start developing some individual artistic integrity. I know a lot of you have it, there's still some impressive things happening, but posts like the one above make me have serious doubts.
hi, comment poster #3 -
ReplyDeletei'm confused if you are addressing my original post or the comments of comment poster #2, or possibly both.
it sounds like poster #2 is a current and unhappy grad student while poster #3 is someone (a current undergrad?) looking in who thinks it all seems fine and that you're a whiner. any response?
i think it would be great if current students used this space to anonymously (if you prefer) debate the merits of the program - and grad school in general - but how about you all come up with some sort of "cyber-nicknames" so we can keep things straight.
martin
Dear undergrad, You are so ABUSIVE! Stop pretending that you know how it feels to be a grad student. YOU DON'T. It really stinks to pay all this money for mistreatments. There is very little faculty student interaction. I've made so many appointments to meet with the painting faculty and guess what? They can't make it. Yes, my studio is nice. But I'm paying for it.
ReplyDeleteAnd another thing, undergrad, have you ever heard of a metaphor?
ReplyDeleteStop your foolish bickering! turn off your radios in your studios. Rent an apartment! Buy some sweat bands. And SHOW MORE PASSION IN YOUR WORK!
ReplyDeleteLove, Javier