ART ASS FOR DUMMIES:

Art Association was founded in the fall of 2001 by a group of several artists whom were unsatisfied with the working conditions offered to artists/art majors at Muhlenberg College. The college itself advertises a highly acclaimed art program, but the majors, both Art History as well as the Studio Arts, were not at all pleased with the lack of studio space, full-time professors, and attention given to each art major to help them pass through the program with the tools necessary to function as knowledgeable art people in the real job market.

With this in mind, the Art Association was started to give an outside outlet to those artists. The ultimate goal is to provide a secure place for Muhlenberg artists to work from, without feeling as if they are competing against thirty other departments and activities to get some attention and recognition for their works and research.

Perhaps as a reaction to the students' feelings about the art major , as well as the surrounding faculty to the lack of involvement of the art department in its' majors academic careers, the art department as since Art Association's founding slowly but surely made more openings, concessions, and adjustments to better accomodate the needs of this increasing field of work at Muhlenberg.

However, Art Association most importantly advocates its openness to everyone, not just majors. Having been founded on the premise that all active artists should have a forum and support network for their work, Art Association will always be available to anyone in need of just that.

FOR ART'S SAKE:

The following article was published in the Muhlenberg Weekly approximately 2 weeks before the founding of Art Association. This may help to more adequately sum up one student's feelings about the conditions of the then highly lacking art program at the college:

FOR ART'S SAKE

I lived on the theatre floor; yes, Muhlenberg has a theatre floor, designed to house those of the same interest so to further the theatre major’s interaction. It pays to be a theatre major at Muhlenberg: not only does a floor accompany the deal, but the respectable Baker and Empie Theatres, a recital hall, a full costume store, rooms with truck entrances for set construction, and neat little light-up dressing rooms are included. Majors graduate with a sense of confidence and professionalism, knowing that their experience was somewhat conducive to a real world theatre life. Do I think that theatre majors should have such amenities? Yes! Am I jealous? Coincidentally, I am one of many jealous art majors who care just as much about a career in the studio as those who walk the stage deliberate over professions.

“Wonderful Town” wouldn’t look so wondrous if staged in the Seeger’s Union lobby; viewers would walk by, stop for while, and think: “Man, get these guys a stage or something!” That same sentiment courses through my brain every time I pass through a dorm room cramped with canvases or clay projects that cannot fit in the meager “lockers” allotted to art majors. However, one will rarely encounter a Muhlenberg dorm room teeming with pieces of artwork; most majors have accepted the reality that their work will be critiqued by a professor and otherwise ignored, thereby dropping incentives of producing prolifically. The display of work is a crucial part of any artist’s career and should be understood at an early stage of the trade. It’s relatively simple: if a painter cannot exhibit work, no one gives any feedback or wants to commission the painter (here the term “starving artist” becomes an ironic reality). The artist is left without responses from viewers, or ways to grow and enhance skills based on outside responses. I assume this school wishes to promote success and making connections into the art world before art majors go crazy and cut off ears. A student gallery would be a pleasant start on that path.

But why stop at a gallery? Much more can be done. In the CA, one cannot help but encounter works in progress crammed into corners, drying oil paintings smeared by reckless accidents, and old works from years past still waiting to be picked up and taking up space. Space and security: art majors have neither. Personal rooms, studio locks, more classrooms, better access to supplies, and a student gallery are only a few changes that should grace Muhlenberg campus; these are also the goals of the newly founded Art Association, a creative and driven group of art majors bound to make some positive changes for the betterment, and involvement of the major. For those interested, the Art Association will be meeting next on November 7, 2001 in Seeger's Union. A college cannot thrive on weak majors, but with some exertion, perhaps Muhlenberg visual arts will be worth boasting about and working for.

WANNA JOIN ART ASS??? HMMM???? REALLY???? E-MAIL US AT OUR OFFICIAL ADDRESS...DO IT!

ArtAss@Burntmail.com

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