Dear APSA Committee:  

As we approach a time of transition in Guilford’s leadership, we need to carefully consider what we deem important as a community.  The members of the art department want to share our views with the people entrusted with making decisions about this college now and in the future.

Interested faculty and staff from the art department met on October 7, 2013, not to hold a gripe session, but to build solidarity in our program and share ideas about productively moving forward in ways that allow our voices to be heard. During our meeting we recognized the difficulty of the task put before the APSA Committee and want to acknowledge your sustained efforts to respond conscientiously to the committee’s charge and your diligent work to make difficult but concrete recommendations.  

It is our belief, though, that some of these recommendations should be revisited. 

Julie Dameron, a painting student, summarized her response from the perspective of an informed community member:

“I am amazed that, with the seven values out there on the campus, this is going on.  I’m just taking one class, but I went through orientation and noted the emphasis on student excellence and success. … Take away the fine arts and you take away from student learning.  I attend the EMF events in Hege Library every summer and everyone goes to the gallery first. … The representation of Guilford College made public through the Bryan Series and this proposal does not connect. … To say that you adhere to Quaker process and doing it are two very different things.  It might be more difficult, complex (but worthwhile).”

While many of the recommendations in the APSA report impact the arts community, we strongly advocate reconsideration of the recommendation to close the Guilford College Art Gallery.  From our perspective, the qualitative impact of the gallery, its vitality and connection to the art program, and its importance to the Guilford community are clear and vital.

One recommendation from our constituency relates to collection of qualitative in addition to quantitative data.  From the comments at the open community forum, it seems like many people across campus shared the concern that additional qualitative research was needed.  According to survey expert Michaela Mora, “qualitative research is by definition exploratory, and it is used to when we don’t know what to expect, to define the problem or develop an approach to the problem…Quantitative research is conclusive in its purpose as it tries to quantify the problem and understand how prevalent it is by looking for projectable results to a larger population.” [Michaela Mora, “Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research—When to Use Which, www.surveygizmo.com/survey-blog/quantitative-aualitiative-research/]  Qualitative research, though more time consuming, requires direct interaction with individuals on a one to one basis or direct interaction with individuals in a group setting. Certainly our colleagues in the social sciences could supply a thorough methodology regarding the collection of qualitative data, but we feel that this aspect of the report was lacking.  For example, to our knowledge, no one in the art department was asked to comment on the impact of the gallery on our teaching.   

We would like to offer evidence to support its direct link to our classes, to the strength of the learning for our students (both majors and minors), and to the importance of the gallery as a cultural and educational link between academic departments as well as across the campus, Greensboro, and larger community.

The Art Gallery is an integral part of the arts education at Guilford College.

Art major Kelly Taylor ’13 said, “Seeing paintings in person is crucial (for an art student).  When you look at a real Josef Albers painting in person, it is a whole new experience.  You see the brushstrokes… it is completely inspiring.  Why take that away?”

While as a faculty we advocate and facilitate off-campus trips to see art both in and out of the Triad, being able to walk across campus to study art, sketch from direct observation, and hear living artists and collectors speak about their practice is invaluable for our students. Art major Gloria Taylor-Williams ’14 very eloquently described her first experiences with the art gallery on campus:

“Before I started taking art classes, I would see people sitting in the library, drawing, taking their time, looking around.  I had never been able to until I took a class. Taking away that space would take away that opportunity for people.  Others might also wish they could have that experience.”

There are probably others who feel the same way that Gloria does.

Without the Art Gallery, students who do not take a class in the art department would likely never encounter art directly.  It will become more difficult for individuals and for the general campus population to have this kind of experience if the gallery is closed.  Direct, experiential learning from artworks in art classes would only be able to happen when we take students off campus.  Due to the increased investment of time, such off-campus trips might even become more difficult to take in the future.  Therefore, this resource is one that we would like to see protected.

Lest we start down the slippery slope of thinking that interaction with the art collection and its programs is extraneous, studies from the past decade have shown the importance of fine art in education.  On behalf of the Katy, Texas Independent School District, Bob Bryant collected data to emphasize both academic and non-academic benefits from studying the arts:

Sufficient data exists to overwhelmingly support the belief that study and participation in the fine arts is a key component in improving learning throughout all academic areas. Evidence of its effectiveness in reducing student dropout, raising student attendance, developing better team players, fostering a love for learning, improving greater student dignity, enhancing student creativity, and producing a more prepared citizen for the workplace for tomorrow can be found documented in studies held in many varied settings, from school campuses, to corporate America…. The fine arts also provide learners with non-academic benefits such as promoting self-esteem, motivation, aesthetic awareness, cultural exposure, creativity, improved emotional expression, as well as social harmony and appreciation of diversity.”  [Bob Bryant, “The Importance of Fine Arts Education,” Katy Independent School District,” www.katyisd.ord/dept/finearts/Pages/The-Importance-of-Fine-Arts-Education-.aspx ]

Additional studies have suggested that authentic creative thinking potentially offer American students a distinct advantage over the out-sourcing of many jobs and technological automation systems taking over many professions.  The importance of creative thinking as offered through the arts has been touted in publications like Daniel Pink’s best-selling 2005 book “A Whole New Mind:  Why Right Brained Thinkers Will Rule the Future” and Cathy N. Davidson’s 2012 book “Now You See It:  How Technology and Brain Science will Transform Schools and Business for the Twenty-first Century.”  Many writers have commented on Pink’s claim that “an MFA the new MBA” due to the importance of genuine engagement and nuanced problem solving that benefit students in any discipline and serve as critical skills for any career.  Davidson emphasizes the importance of collaboration in a world where endless information is at everyone’s disposal.  That fundamental fact makes it crucial for us to share knowledge and experience, even when we are not literally working together.  This kind of learning is provided in the art department and in the Art Gallery each and every semester.

In addition to offering the opportunity for direct engagement, the exhibitions and programs Terry Hammond cultivates in the Art Gallery themselves explore the process of creativity and collaboration.  The examples are far too numerous to list here, but of note are the significant impact of “Disorderly Conduct,” Patrick Dougherty’s 2011 collaborative sculpture project; “Again and Never Again” Bryant Holsenbeck’s 2010 collaborative mandala made with exclusively recycled materials; frequent exhibitions of art faculty, alumni, and art collectors in our community; “The Sound that Jazz Makes:  Illustrations by Eric Velasquez” (2007); and “Thresholds, Expression of Art and Spiritual Life” (2005).  Not only does the exhibition roster specifically build on the college’s academic programs across disciplines and intentionally integrate our core values, but they also have the potential to increase retention due to the generation of impactful experiences the students have at their disposal.  This recommendation has made us aware that “promotion of the art gallery to students could be much broader, more aggressive, and directed towards them”(Will Kimmell). Based on evidence of the quality of the art gallery, it seems more warranted to allocate resources towards that end rather than removing the gallery. 

As far as academics go, the college’s Arts Breadth requirement explicitly emphasizes engagement rather than remote “book-learning” (see APSA Appendix 1 for the full Arts Breadth Requirement.):  

“The arts engage the senses and the mind, serving as a catalyst for intuitive yet thoughtful perceptions of the human condition.”  

The Art Gallery directly assists in the acquisition of the criteria for assessment.  As mentioned previously, having artworks available for direct observation contributes to two of the four stated criteria:  

1) Engage students in the evaluation of specific examples of the art form; and

3) Require documented attendance at no less than one event in which the tools and techniques of the art form are exhibited.

The Art Gallery creates a uniquely local experience of the fourth criterion:

4) Engage students in formal consideration (either written or oral) of the way art functions in a specific social, cultural, and/or historical context. These contexts may range from the immediate here and now of a classroom at Guilford College to the where and when of other communities, nations, and time periods.  

In addition to the study of art history, the Gallery offers us a glimpse of the art made by and impacting our own community in a way that no other resource could.

As we discussed academic impact during our October 7 meeting, one student commented that the “Art Gallery is equivalent to the importance of the library on campus.  It is utilized in ways that are difficult to measure… People who walk past the gallery incidentally is impossible to measure. “

In addition, it should be noted that art classes use the Gallery each and every semester (we have 173 students this semester alone).  It was also mentioned that Terry intentionally appeals to multiple departments for each exhibition and each program, as evidenced by the current exhibition of contemporary Inuit art which has engaged classes from Sociology/Anthropology, Economics, Religious Studies, and History in addition to Art.  Behind the scenes, there are additional artworks in the library that art students have been able to hold and experience tactilely.  

In reflecting on the work involved in planning, coordinating, and installing the kinds of shows we have seen at the Guilford College Art Gallery, it occurred to our group that it might seem quite a bit easier than it is in reality.  In fact, it is likely due to the fact that Terry and her staff work as hard as they do that it seems that way.  Ceramics Instructor Charlie Tefft ’97 has organized three ceramics shows over the past few years in the gallery.  He noted the critical importance of hands-on experience with the medium for those who are studying art.

He said “Terry did the major if the work for the shows, but it is extremely hard to convey how much there was to do.  While Terry’s value to the college has recently been acknowledged by her adjunct faculty status, she also contributes to the senior thesis experience by teaching professional practices and mentoring thesis students to hang and display their own work.”

Maloney said, “Putting the actual thesis show together taught me more than I would have anticipated.”

As a group we concurred that the assistant position is one that may seem easy an easy target for elimination from an external perspective, but putting the artworks on the wall is “just the tip of the iceberg.” Even without this position, the nature and caliber of the exhibitions the Gallery is able to host will drastically change.  One student said, “the art does not hang itself.”

It is our feeling as a department that the Art Gallery has significant impact on the atmosphere of positive learning at Guilford College.

Senior Julia Breskin said she has been polling students for Hand/Eye, the art department’s blog, and she found that “Students who aren’t even art students study (in the Art Gallery) with the art around them, and it (makes them more) peaceful.  It gives them something special.”

The Art Gallery also fosters a sense of community on campus as witnessed by the numbers of faculty, students, and staff that attend openings.  Students at the art department meeting also commented on the impact of the Faculty Art Exhibition, which happens every few years.  This exhibition displays work by anyone on the faculty or staff who make art.  One student said that the exhibition “gave me a lot of insight.  Seeing my professor’s artworks and what they do outside of the classroom is crucial.”  This is one example of how the Gallery becomes a reflection of our community in addition to having an impact on what we find important.  Creativity is motivating to students.  Having a venue to show it is really important.   

“When people are making decisions about the art and the spaces we inhabit there is a history of not consulting those directly involved.”  Despite the studies to the contrary (cited above),

(W)hen times get tough, art is often cut first because it is seen as extraneous or non-essential.  It all depends on the kind of existence you want to have.  Guilford’s core values suggest that we value communication across boundaries of homogeneity and seek diversity to foster an ethical dimension of knowledge.  An institution of higher learning can, of course, exist without art.  However, art provides a heart to this institution:  it is a source of communication, motivation, learning, skills preparation, and, yes, job-preparedness training.  If the core values, in fact, do matter, it is important to take note when we are promoting inequality by setting a hierarchy of value.  Instead of taking more programs away, we should be figuring out ways to add educational opportunity.  

During our discussion, Assistant Professor Mark Dixon pointed out that the “culture that promotes standardized tests contributes to a factory, mass-produced society.  We do not live in that time.  Today collaboration and critical thinking are crucial.”  The way that we try to teach art at Guilford contributes to a wider approach to existing in the world and these initiatives go hand in hand with the Art Gallery.  Closing the gallery would undoubtedly not only reduce our visibility within and outside the college, it would tarnish it.  Along with the Bonner Center, the CRRC, Friends Center, multi-cultural education, and CPPS, the Art Gallery should be promoted as a real point of difference for this institution so that our graduates will have an advantage.  Upon reading about the budget cuts suggested by the APSA report, art alumna Katie Maloney ’12 said, “Those are all the things that made me feel like I got a good education.”

What do you need to hear from us to prove that the Art Gallery is a good thing?  If you do not have that information, let us know what it is.  We feel certain we can gather it and welcome the opportunity to do so.  As far as recommendations for alternatives, perhaps instead of seeking ways to divide our institution into ways that seem “expendable,” we should be looking for ways to preserve the lifeblood of our institution.