"Hacking" An Alternative to Studio Art Education

With Art Colleges Closing, a Chicago Museum Has an Alternative: The cost of studying fine art is another fact that inspired a short-term intensive program led by artists of color that is an apprenticeship of sorts. (Zachary Small, The New York Times, July 10, 2023)

 

I like it - immensely. Just one reservation: It's definitely an alternative - not a replacement. The article stated it's hoped that people from this program will be hired at the same level as those with traditional fine arts degrees. I think they'll more likely be making their own jobs -- but artists, with or without degrees, always have. I note also that the program carries no academic credit - so yes, alternative, not replacement.

A quote:

"The coming semester will focus on the lessons of FESTAC 77, the 1977 Pan-African convening of Black artists in Lagos, Nigeria (its official title is the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture.) The monthlong event was a celebration of the continent and the African diaspora, a milestone that Crawford considers a crucial but largely unknown chapter of art history."

"Starting in the fall semester it will provide about 50 students each with a free course in Black art history taught by scholars working alongside some of the history-making artists themselves, ..." This, I think, is a very, very good idea.