[spectre] FYI

[saul ostrow]

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
sostrow at gate.cia.edu

EXPECT EVERYTHING / FEAR NOTHING