Let's not email - Let's Blog

Folks,

First of all I want to say thank you for all the emails!! It demonstrates a lot of interest in the letter Banny, David and I sent out. This conversation is exactly what we were hoping to stimulate. The 18 or so emails that ensued after my "Open Letter" indicate to me that you all care a great deal about what we are doing at Stanford and that is great news.

Next, I want to assure you that Matt Kahn has not retired and this is still very much a program that involves the Art Department. In fact, Matt is teaching ArtStudio 160 and Advanced Creative Studies this quarter, and is attending Tuesday night's Thesis Class when he can (he is not able to drive). Due to some health issues Matt took a leave Fall quarter (perhaps prompting rumors of retirement) but he has no plans to retire any time soon. He will stage the annual Design Show Spring quarter and plans to teach his Professional Practice class as well. In addition, he has a museum mounting a major show of his paintings and professional designs - but I'll let him tell you all about that when he is ready. I can't tell you why he is not on the brand new Art website but Matt is feature prominently on the Design site: his bio is at http://design.stanford.edu/pd/faculty.html and his Spring Design Show portfolio, with a quote from Matt, can be found at http://www-design.stanford.edu/PD/designshow.html. John Edmark continues to anchor the second position on the Art side and, in addition to teaching ArtStudio60 and 160, has added classes in animation, color theory, and designing with paper to the curriculum. And as Minjeong Kim points out, Art and Industrial Design are represented in the Venn diagram that "titles" this blog - appropriately on the Human-side of the diagram.

I want to correct one other misunderstanding. Steve McCarthy's excerpt from the letter he sent Prof Samuelson, the new chair of the Art Department, might have left some readers thinking that Art Department is, at best, a weak supporter of the Program and nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, we have never had better support from the Art side than under Kristine's leadership. Being a Professor at the University of Minnesota (congratulations Steve), I'm sure Steve knows the difficulty in opening new faculty positions, especially in the Arts. Luckily, Stanford is has almost completed raising a billion dollars for the Humanities and the Art department is relatively well-funded. In fact, students entering the Program from the Art side currently receive, for the most part, full scholarships for their MFA, something the Engineering School is unable to do for the MS program (another fund-raising opportunity?? I think so!). Professor Samuelson has assured us that securing a second billet for a tenure track faculty in Design is a priority and that, when Matt goes Emeritus, a search would begin immediately for a world class Design educator. In addition, we have been inviting other Art faculty to attend critiques: Paul DeMarinis and Gail Wight have both been at final presentations and their contribution has recognized by the students.

It is safe to say Art is still "in".

That said, I'd like to second the comments of Hsiao-Yun Chu. Professor Chu (congratulations, Hsiao-Yun!) suggests that the role of the Designer has changed substantially since the program was created 50 years ago and there is a thoughtful conversation to be had around those differences. We've always been a program that creates "T-Shaped" people and as such we teach many things - but we don't teach everything. For instance, we are not and have never been a graphics, industrial design, typography or visual arts program - nor do we make any apology for not being so. Those subjects are much better taught at other schools and, when I get students who want to study those worthy professions in depth I advise them to leave Stanford and go somewhere else.

However, we do want to be the best at educating Designers for the 21st century's big challenges. We're very interested in everyone's comments on how to do that and I'd like to gently shift the conversation in that direction. You might start by examining how yours jobs have changed. Imagine that you were going to hire someone - what do you think a young graduate of the Program needs to know to make them the best candidate? Post your idea to blog so that everyone can read them - without filling up their in-box.