Regina Hackett (“Another Bouncing Ball”? Really?…Another Bouncing Ball as a blog name?) blogs about MFA degrees here, and clips the very same quote from Sarah Thornton’s book “Seven Days In The Arts World” that I have in a draft blog post on Diana DeAugustine’s work and the CalArts masters program, and takes a similar look at MFA degrees as I generally do. Some additional information on MFA’s seems due.
For the past 30 years the study of art in higher education in the U.S. has exponentially grown into a minor industry in and of itself. While the theory behind MFA’s is that the course of study is to get you (the artist) to be more truly you expressed in the work, everyone knows that the real reason to get an MFA has always been to get a university job that would eventually lead to tenure, meanwhile still having enough time to devote to one’s primary concern, that of creating art work. But that prima facie reason for taking on the expense and dedication to one’s artistic vision is becoming a thing of the past in the commonly understood art world. The market for university positions in art is flooded. MFA degree holders must now travel the country for several years, taking an assistant professor position for a year, then relocating the next year to another school, until hopefully somewhere along the line a position will stick. Assistant professorship position openings are usually met with hundreds of applicants, to which only one can be selected. The supply of MFA degrees now far exceeds demand in universities. For those that do somehow get into a teaching position, the prospect for future earnings as a university professor do not appropriately exceed the amount of debt one incurs to get the advanced degree in the first place. The whole justification for advanced degrees is that it is expensive, but it pays off because the higher degree makes one a higher wage earner in the job market. This is not the case in the art world, where art jobs have significantly lower salaries (in general) than most other careers requiring advanced degrees.
But that fact has historically not stopped yound artists from seeking out the traditional MFA route. MFA study isn’t like law school or an advanced research degree, where massive amounts of information are digested and repetitive exercises reassemble one’s brain to fit a compartmentalized segment of society. But it is a concentrated studio practice (along with history and criticism) that allows a large amount of time to be devoted to ones craft and intent which ordinarily can’t be achieved in day to day life.
Artists today are increasingly becoming shrewd about these realities and taking their works directly to market after receiving their BFAs. It’s true that investors and galleries like to see an MFA behind the name of the artist because it shows a level of dedication and goes a long way by acting as a salve to investor and gallerist anxiety and uncertainty over whether or not the work is actually any good (many don’t know what their eyes tell them, instead relying on written critical opinions and what other buyers say). But as artists continue to become more cognizant of the professionalism necessary in the market, and other technologies make art careers more DIY friendly, the trend of artists forgoing the MFA route will continue.
There are examples of artists who thrive without MFA degrees, and those who grew because of advanced study. Two great examples of each are William Betts, who hit the ground running after undergraduate study and never looked back, while Kristine Moran used the opportunity for graduate study to evolve and grow exponentially as an artist. There are hundreds more examples for each camp.
The unspoken, yet much more important career necessity to MFA study and art careers, which makes all these issues moot, is the patron, usually a family member or spouse who works to pay the bills. It’s an informal number but probably 9/10ths of all artists rely on some form of patron to pay the bills while the artist works on less economic concerns. Take away an artist’s patron, and they would not survive in the market and would have to find other work after a short time. Creating art takes time, years of time to formulate and work out. The patron is the far more important career necessity than an MFA degree. Word to the wise.
