Wow. I thought this story might be cooling down, but instead it’s exploding! Check out this link-filled update by Hrag Vartanian on the occupation & arrests at The New School over the mass firings of adjunct fine art faculty calling for New School President Bob Kerrey’s resignation. UPDATE: (check out this website for statements issued directly by students and others involved in or sympathetic to the protests, rallies, occupation and other recent New School-related events).
Vartanian’s following the events closely via news, blogs, and Twitter updates from those on the ground. The New York Times has background on the story, plus video of the arrests and photos of the protest.
New York Times
Claudine Isé has worked in the field of contemporary art as a writer and curator for the past decade, and currently serves as the Editor of the Art21 Blog. Claudine regularly writes for Artforum.com and Chicago magazine, and has also worked as an art critic for the Los Angeles Times. Before moving to Chicago in 2008, she worked at the Wexner Center in Columbus, OH as associate curator of exhibitions, and at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles as assistant curator of contemporary art, where she curated a number of Hammer Projects. She has Ph.D. in Film, Literature and Culture from the University of Southern California.
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Clarification: The recent protest had absolutely nothing to do with the firing of Parsons faculty. It was about one sole issue–the resignation of president Kerrey. The firing of faculty might be called a consequence of Kerrey’s leadership, but those kids who protested don’t care about Parsons. (My guess is they only care about attention and political posturing, but…)
Thank you Alicia, I’m going to clarify my original post above. I’ve been reading the website “The New School in Exile” to better gauge what is going on and I suspect your guess above is probably correct.
I’m sick and a bit out of touch but WTF is going on in our arts education world? Between the New School, SFAI, and NYU protests and faculty firings it is hard to keep up. Is there a “Art Schools in Crisis” list out there somewhere? What do things look like at SAIC? What happened at NYU?
Alicia,
As someone who is friends with those who were inside, I have you tell you: they care deeply about the Parsons professors’ plight. Not just that, they care about Parsons students. We want Parsons to have more space, more resources and more scholarships.
But the only way to get that done is by removing the #1 obstacle to that – Kerrey. The New School should be united and not let the administration play the divisions off against one another! – NSSR solidarity to Parsons