The MFA was once a terminal degree that artists earned in order to gain a teaching job, part of a kind of arms race among artists seeking a secure lifestyle. (More recently, there’s even a fine art PhD.) But these days, the panelists reported, too many MFA applicants see the degree less as a means to teaching than an investment in fame and a money-making career in the care of a major gallery.
The morning’s panelists threw cold water on that idea. Petrovich pointed out that the artist collective BFAMFAPhD found in a 2014 report that just 10 percent of two million arts graduates nationally make their primary earnings as working artists.
Fawundu decried what she called the “pick me” attitude she sees in students who are dying for access to the David Zwirners of the world, calling the mindset “dangerous.” How about instead bringing something new to the world, she asked? Higher education can put you in a room with people from all over the world who want to change things, to flip the script, she said, but she is distressed to see students instead thinking about what size painting is most salable.
“What happened to exploring what kind of artist you want to be?”
Cronin agreed. “The rush to get into the market is bad,” she said, stressing that art school should be a place to find one’s voice. What’s more, she said, female graduates have more than once come to her years later to report that their male counterparts have all achieved success that still eludes the women.
(She urged prospective female applicants to read the Burns Halperin Report to see how little progress has been made in recognizing female artists.)