People who are professors at most major Universities are generally expected to be very active in their field. They are usually expected to do research, to publish, to participate, etc. This is often a requirement in order for them to become tenured.
Are art professors under a different set of rules?
When I was an art student at the University of Washington School of Art, in beautiful Seattle, nearly all of the professors that taught there, people like Jacob Lawrence, Alden Mason, Frances Calentano and others all had one thing in common: they exhibited their work regularly and were a vibrant part of Seattle's great art gallery scene.
With a few notable exceptions, when I visit area universities to look at student shows (which I do regularly), I often look up the names of the faculties at these same schools and I often encounter names that I do not recognize.
Nothing unusual there, but it would seem to me, that as a person who visits 25-30 gallery shows a month, plus receives over 100 invitations to openings every month, that I should be able to recognize a high percentage of the names in our area's art schools' faculties.
So, just for fun I am going to look up a few art faculties from some of our area colleges, and see if I can figure out where they are exhibiting, or have exhibited, or plan to exhibit.
And if I can't find that information, then I will take it as a 21st century negative mark in the sense that if you are an art professor, you should have a good, solid Internet footprint.
I'll start with the Maryland Institute College of Art, one of the best art schools in the nation.
In two clicks I can find this impressive page about MICA's faculty. Question: 231+ people in the faculty? WOW! That's a lot!
Article comments
1 - Lisa
Thanks for sharing the link to the Jacob Lawrence page. Very nice site. You made an excellent point here...something I had not thought about.
2 - Latimer
I have to agree with Mr. Campello. There is no way to perpetuate the system of nepotism and self aggrandizement we call the art world without a rigid structure of superficialities like simple name recognition to maintain a semblance of control within our institutions of influence.