IS IT TIME TO KILL THE MFA?

Moderator: Paddy Johnson

Panelists: Thomas Evans, Catherine Haggarty, Nato Thompson, Dexter Wimberly, Charlie White

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 9, 2021 at 5:30PM

VENUE: VIRTUAL

RSVP: REGISTER TO ATTEND, free and open to the public

The educational system isn’t working. Enrollment in art schools is down. Tuition costs are going up. Adjuncts don’t make a living wage and tenured professors work in broken administrative systems.

As job opportunities for artists dwindle, and loans saddle artists with debts that can take a lifetime to repay is more secondary education really what artists need? How can we remake an educational system that counters the structural inequity that often precludes high-level opportunities for BIPOC artists?

Is it Time to Kill the MFA? brings together professionals working inside art institutions and outside to build art practices, and to help tool artists with the skills they need to get ahead. Some believe that by working within post-secondary institutions they can make needed changes while others have sought solutions elsewhere. The panel serves as a forum to discuss the conditions placing pressure on artists leaving the institutions, and what we can do to support them.

Following the panel, we will be joined by special guests Gridthiya Gaweewong and Heather Darcy Bhandari who will help us think beyond the discussion and inform questions that we will all take during the Q&A. 

Read the full press release

Image credit: Allyn Cox teaching an Art Students League class, 1940, Smithsonian Archives