Arts Education as Cultural Capital:
A Conversation with Adjunct Commuter Weekly and BFAMFAPhD
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
6 to 8pm
Ted Mineo for Adjunct Commuter Weekly. [Image Description: A bagel wearing a blood red beanie leaning on a commuter bus on a street blanketed in snow.]
The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation hosted Arts Education as Cultural Capital, a conversation between Dushko Petrovich, founder of Adjunct Commuter Weekly and BFAMFAPhD (core members Susan Jahoda, Agnes Szanyi, Vicky Virgin, and Caroline Woolard), moderated by the Foundation's Artistic Director Sara Reisman. This panel addressed the economic, professional, and intellectual impacts of art school, from the perspectives of both students and alumni, as well as artists who work as adjunct lecturers. Panelists presented research and analysis that highlights how the professionalization of the art world has led to the art market’s unprecedented expansion, which starkly contrasts the growing debt on the part of artist alumni. Considering the economic implications of both studying and teaching art, Arts Education as Cultural Capital took an honest and rigorous look at what constitutes value in the cultures of artistic practice and academia.
Bios
Adjunct Commuter Weekly was the first magazine to address the lifestyle needs and shared interests of a rapidly growing and increasingly influential demographic. Edited and published by Dushko Petrovich, Adjunct Commuter Weekly was created entirely by current and former adjunct commuters. First published on July 30, 2015, the print publication was shuttered on August 10, 2015 due to the financial and time constraints of the adjunct commuting staff. It has since been rebranded as ACW, an online multimedia platform.
Concerned about the impact of debt, rent, and precarity on the lives of creative people, BFAMFAPhD asks: What is a work of art in the age of $120,000 art degrees? Core members Susan Jahoda, Agnes Szanyi, Vicky Virgin, and Caroline Woolard create reports, pedagogical tools, and movement syllabi including Artists Report Back, Census Report, Statements and …in which nothing can be finally paid off.