The Artist as Debtor
The role of educational institutions in shaping and defining artists is being questioned and critiqued by the very professors, students and alumni who make up these institutions. One of these critiques, the nationwide movement to organize and unionize adjunct and contingent university professors, has been building for nearly two years from late 2013. A second critique became public on May 15th with the withdrawal of the first-year class from USC Roski School of Art and Design’s MFA program who noted the ‘accelerating trend’ of their school’s reliance on adjunct faculty and the growth of highly paid administrative positions as a factor. Both of these actions- one a growing labor movement reflecting a renewed relevance of unions due to increasing worker precarity, the other an act of ‘collective and interdependent force’ by seven MFA candidates working in solidarity- connect and reflect the experiences of artists within educational systems that claim to create artistic legitimacy, lineage and networks of influence.
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