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The
programs were very effective with all students having consistent
educational experiences. The interrelationship of the different
courses was better understood by students because of how the
program was conceived.
The Kansas City Art Institute and the Minneapolis School of
Art were the two principal advocates for this type of Foundations
program. Very few institutions adopted this type of program
because operationally it was not cost effective compared to
other concepts. It locked up space, it limited tuition income
because of restricted enrollment to one hundred to one hundred
twenty five students. Instructional costs were higher than
most other institutions because of reliance on all tenure
track faculty. There was a greater investment in facilities
with a larger operating budget. This mode of instruction clearly
favored students and educational quality over operational
costs.
Open
Enrollment and Multi-Sections
Between
1955 and 1965, there was a growing proliferation of visual
art programs at universities, and especially so in public
institutions. The first Fine Arts program within the university
was at Yale University around the middle of the nineteenth
century. Painting, sculpture and drawing were first brought
into universities as a liberal arts experience, and later
they became separate programs of study. During the 1930s and
the arrival of the Arts and Crafts movement into America,
a number of craft programs in ceramics and weaving were introduced
into curriculums. Industrial design was first taught at Carnegie
Institute during these same years. After World War II, some
combination of photography, printmaking, industrial and advertising
design (after 1965 it became graphic design), fashion, ceramics,
wood-working, glass-blowing and jewelry design were added
to the Fine Arts program at most universities.
Universities
tend to allow open enrollment into the Foundations program.
The majority of students enroll to elect as preparation for
an art major but a number of enrollees take Foundations as
a liberal arts elective. Enrollments at the entry level range
from one to four hundred students at most universities.
Some
programs have one full-time person who serves as the coordinator
for introductory studies. One or two full-time instructors
from the disciplines might be assigned to one or more sections,
and the balance of instruction is handled by graduate students
and part-time instructors. Students are divided into sections
of 20 to 30 students per section. In many programs, there
are eight to eighteen sections for drawing, design and color.
Visual
art programs in universities tend to be dominated by Fine
Arts personnel and philosophies. This still holds true although
enrollment in design generally is larger than Fine Arts.
Most
university entry programs are little more than a one-year
indoctrination to the institution. There are limited benefits
from the experience of doing, and the introduction to materials
and media, but the overall learning experience tends to be
minimal. There are too many students, too many sections and
instruction is generally poor to fair making the educational
experience between sections extremely uneven. All to often,
pedagogy is weak with misplaced emphasis and little to no
relationship between sequence of exercises and courses. Unfortunately,
those basic programs with too many sections, overreliance
on graduate students and ineffective programs of study are
educational disaster areas.
The
university open enrollment and multi-section foundation program
is blatantly oriented toward operational interests. At universities,
funds are frequently allocated on the basis of enrollment,
and more than one administrator has been heard to say that
larger classes with more students and less teachers were needed,
or that studio programs would do better to create some lecture
courses to increase enrollment figures. While enrollment figures
are excessively high, instructional costs are minimal because
of reliance on graduate students and part-time faculty with
lower salaries and no benefits. Multi-use space for instruction
is extremely efficient. Operating budgets and facility requirements
are minor or nonexistent. Students are cheated of the education
they believe they are receiving, and the multi-sections foundations
program should be a subject for guilt and shame by the university.
Foundations
Within Schools
With the advent of Schools as divisions within the
college, occasionally foundations is divided between Fine
Arts and Design with either having its own program. In my
opinion, design programs do a better job teaching basic design
within the major than do the fine arts. Schools are comprised
of related disciplines. Design is more pedagogically oriented
than fine arts, but when the design foundations serves several
different disciplines such as industrial, fashion, graphic,
etc., it can suffer from many of the same problems as entry
level fine art programs in terms of uneven instruction, too
many students, too many sections, weak instruction, lack of
program, etc.
However,
if the proper variables are in place, it can be done effectively.
There generally are fewer students and design faculty tend
to be methodical in sequencing courses and program content
is based in pedagogy of one kind or another.
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