University of Arts closing

As an alumnus of UARTS, I was particularly saddened by the news of UARTS closing after 146 years. I have gone through many phases of a love/hate relationship with that institution, but at the end of the day, I came out proud of my alma mater. However, the events that transpired in its final days I find particularly disturbing.  Moreover, the reaction of the public that I’ve seen via the internet is particularly pathetic. For a culture and a society that claims to value art, what I’ve seen is downright despicable.

To start, the idea of giving an entire workforce of professionals, academics and creatives a mere 7 day notice of closure is a slap in the face. There were professors that left tenured positions at other institutions to start a new chapter of their career only to find out they were SOL before the gig even started.  There were students who paid their fall tuition a mere hours before the announcement. Good luck to them trying to recollect it!  Furthermore, the existing students are facing a worse challenge: most of their credits do not transfer to other schools (I know because I tried it!). Students on track to enter their senior year would barely have enough credits accepted to a new school to be considered sophomores. It’s been shown that many of them in that situation will give up on collegiate study all together. Others may take an “extended break” but the longer they stay unenrolled, the less chance they have of returning for many factors. The least of which being the astronomical, continually rising costs.

Additionally, reading comments on news broadcasts and articles about the closure sickened me. The amount of “Now you’ll just have to get real jobs” and “Try becoming a productive member of society” sentiments was staggering.  Do these cretins realize that they consume the work of artists every day? They must be living under a rock to not see the amount of young people in this country that aim to make a career out of their creativity. Formal study in their chosen discipline gives them a fighting chance to be contributing member of society and not a drain on it. For some people, formal study of any subject could elevate their existence and teach them skills they might otherwise lack. Try motivating a passionate writer to dig deep into calculus; it’s not always just about what the degree says on that paper.

The people that design the logos on your products, the engineers that keep that news broadcast on the air, the prop masters for the latest Hollywood re-hash, the coders that developed the platform they are using to bitch, all likely studied at a school for (the) arts and design.

I digress, what a populous full of half-wits to not realize that without artists, they’d be living a real mundane, miserable existence. Yet collectively, we continue to undermine the value of original, creative thought and those that engage in it.