Teach 4 Amerika

Teach 4 Amerika Tour

The Bruce High Quality Foundation (BHQF) stopped @ Carnegie Mellon University for their Teach 4 Amerika tour today, and they presented a lot of valid points to consider.

Today, there are a lot more artists and art in the art education system than the art market can support.  Most people who get a BFA or MFA will not succeed as fine artists. So, what is the real purpose of an arts education? They say "business", which is I agree is true. The idea of a liberal education in America, or an education for the pursuit of knowledge or personal betterment, is declining significantly. Today, a college education's main goal is to get a job. Even in a wider context, organizations like the National Endowments for the Arts work to convince why art is important through its economic contributions, instead of its inherent cultural value. This economic approach may or may not be beneficial to studies in academia, but this does not and should not apply to art. Artists do not go to school in order to get a job or make money - artists do art to do do art. It is an intrinsic necessity. An art education should not be made to fit into how other vocations are educated, like a business major or engineer, because the goals are different.

BHQF's limousine

Art education needs to be adapted to the needs of artists because "deciding what art is is the job of artists."

The BHQF believes in a system of artistic collaboration and communication, where the curriculum and instruction are done for artists, by artists. BHQFU is their own paradigm for what they think art education should look like. An art education should not mean being debt-ridden and restricted to the priorities of the society (especially when those priorities do not apply).

"Being a real artist means taking the risk of being alive."

The BHQF is not necessarily arguing against the market, or telling all art students to drop out of school. Instead, they are encouraging change and telling students that their education is their own responsibility, and they have to take initiative to make it worth it.