MFA Thoughts

When I came to Pittsburgh, I did so with the awareness that the region is home to a lot of respected art programs. CMU, WVU, Penn State, IUP, Edinboro, and Kent State come to mind. I knew a few great artists who had gone to these schools while living in NY and I hoped to be making it out to see a lot of the MFA shows but this has not happened. I was very lucky to catch LeRoy's great show at IUP almost by chance.

In NY right now it seems like the MFA shows are not to be missed part of the scene. Here is some blog buzz to give one an idea of the fever here, here, here, here, here, here, and in LA, -- here, here, here, and in San Francisco-- here, here and Philly--- here.

Now we are all by now aware and a lot of us are a bit mad about the almost pedaphilic interest that the current art world has for hot creative flesh and the MFA's evolution and merger with the debutante ball seems gross. But in this region one can see that the reverse is not good either. There are many serious artist's flowing through these schools whose work deserves to at least be seen. For many, the MFA show is the culmination of some of the most concentrated studio work they will ever have a chance to do. Unfortunatly, most of it will just be seen my a tiny number of academic insiders and students. This is wrong and a huge lost oportunity for the students.

Wouldn't it be so great if these schools started getting serious about interacting with the wider world and started working on joint MFA shows. For the last 2 years 8 schools in Southern California have worked thier MFA shows into a single art blitz called "Supersonic". ( here, here and here is more dope on Supersonic )Couldn't something like that be done in Pittsburgh, using empty spaces in the city?