Arts First?

The arts seemed to be enjoying a great year at Harvard. Last November, President Drew G. Faust announced the formation of a Task Force on the Arts that issued a report calling on Harvard to make the arts a more “integral part of the cognitive life of the University.” Among its recommendations were proposals for increasing the presence of arts practice in the curriculum and increasing student access to arts-practice courses. A quick glance at the studio art course offerings of the VES department underscores the serious need for such changes. But, with the imminent departure of Nancy Mitchnick, one of only two painting instructors in the department, the university appears to be moving in the wrong direction.

Undergraduates already have a dismayingly small number of studio art courses to choose from, even fewer of which focus specifically on painting. Moreover, studio courses are generally limited to 12 students, and, given the limited number of courses, priority must be given to VES concentrators. This situation makes it very difficult for non-VES concentrators to have the experience of taking a studio art course during their time at Harvard. Both VES concentrators who pursue serious work in visual art and non-VES concentrators who desire to take an art class simply for enjoyment purposes find themselves with a dearth of options.

Yet, instead of expanding painting offerings in the curriculum, Harvard is allowing beloved painting instructor Mitchnick to depart as soon as her visiting lecturer contract expires. In a recent Crimson article on the future of the VES painting program, both VES concentrators and department members expressed concern that this development marks a trend of the department’s shifting emphasis in a conceptual direction—essentially moving from art practice to art theory.

Such a shift away from technical skills education is troubling given that practicing art is integral to thinking about art.

A comprehensive education in any field is supposed to give students the tools to explore issues that interest them in their subject of choice. Just about every concentration requires students to master certain basic skills, whether it is through tutorials, survey courses, prerequisites, or something similar, in order to move on to more advanced and often more conceptual material. Painting courses such as Mitchnick’s provide that kind of base for students who want to concentrate in art.

In keeping with the Task Force on the Arts’s recommendations, Harvard should take care to reaffirm its commitment to strengthening rather than weakening the quality and breadth of arts-practice programs in its current effort to improve art education at the university.