Lack of faculty results in reduced fall studio art courses

This fall, the art department will be offering no studio art courses above the 100 level besides two upper-level seminars. The trend of declining course offerings has art students worried about the future of their artistic pursuits at Lewis & Clark. 

According to Associate Professor of Art, Studio Head of Photography and Department Chair Joel Fisher, the lack of upper-level fall classes is due primarily to a faculty shortage, as well as a focus on prioritizing 100-level classes. These can fulfill the general education requirements of all students and provide a gateway to 200- and 300-level studio art courses to be offered the following spring.

Three full-time faculty will not be teaching this fall. Two tenured professors will be on sabbatical and an assistant professor with term will be on parental leave.

The art department has also been trying to fill two tenure-track positions for several years. Ted Vogel, the last full-time ceramics professor, retired two years ago. Debra Beers, the last studio head of drawing, retired three years ago. Beers was a professor with term and taught five classes per year, but the Dean’s Office filled her vacant position with an instructor who teaches only three classes per year. 

The art department has been looking to fill these two full-time positions ever since they became vacant. Associate Professor of Art History Dawn Odell said art faculty were “desperate” to find new professors.

Art faculty are not alone in seeking to fill tenure-track positions. Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Bruce Suttmeier emphasized that the college must choose which vacancies it deems most pressing, looking across the board at all departments. The art department last received a tenure-track position in Fall 2019 with the hiring of Assistant Professor of Art and Studio Head of Digital Media Brian House.

“The process of tenure-track hiring goes through a faculty committee who helps prioritize requests,” Suttmeier said. “That process is underway now and will continue in the fall.”

However, cuts to the art department in a single year can affect it for several years afterward since students might be unable to fulfill major requirements.

“I really do believe the administration supports us and they know what a wonderful department we have, but I think they may not be aware of the repercussions of not filling these positions in terms of the long-term effect,” Odell said. “If we can’t bring students into 100-level classes in their freshman and sophomore year, then they can’t matriculate to be majors in our department.”

Jack Ponting ’24 said he is already frustrated trying to minor in studio art. He is concerned he might forget or lose the skills he learned in Photography I since he was unable to take Photography II soon after. 

“How am I supposed to pursue a medium, like photography, if there’s no other photography courses open?” Ponting said. “If it’s just the level 100, how am I supposed to continue to advance, continue to learn and really try to make this a part of my life?”

The art department is especially reliant on a wide range of faculty to keep a variety of course options open. Odell and Associate Professor of Art and Studio Head of Sculpture Jess Perlitz noted that art skills require a high degree of technical specificity and teachers in one medium — such as ceramics — are not necessarily equipped to teach another medium — such as photography. This specificity, shared by other departments including World Languages, can contribute to reduced course offerings when faculty in a certain medium are on leave. 

While this fall is unusual in only offering 100-level studio art courses, the fall course offerings for 200- and 300-level studio art have been steadily decreasing over the past few years. Studio art classes are cross-listed as both 200- and 300-level. For example, this means that students in Digital Media II and III take the same class together. In Fall 2017, LC offered five studio art courses at the 200/300 level. In Fall 2018, four such courses were offered, and in fall 2019, only two. 

The dwindling course offerings do not reflect a lack of interest on the part of students. Art classes are notoriously difficult to get into, with Ceramics I being especially coveted — the small class of 12 students currently has 46 people on the waitlist for Fall 2021.

Art suffered a further cut in 2019 when the last director of the Hoffman Gallery, Linda Tesner, was laid off and not replaced. 

“It’s very hard to get things back once you lose them,” Perlitz said regarding the loss of Tesner.

The responsibilities of the curator, which had previously been a full-time position, now rest on art department faculty. Joel Fisher, the current department chair, taught the senior thesis class and set up the senior art exhibition, a task which previously fell to the gallery curator. 

“No one could teach a full-time course load and also run the Hoffman Gallery,” Odell said.

Even before Tesner was laid off, the art department was discussing hiring an art history professor who would double as a curator. They would teach one to two classes per semester, leaving time for them to run the gallery. However, this idea has not advanced beyond the discussion stage.

While the art department has suffered cuts, the college added a Fine Arts committee to its Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) initiative meant to attract and retain students. 

“The goal is to bring more visibility to the arts at LC, enhancing opportunities for students and connecting them more strongly with the vibrant arts scene in Portland,” Suttmeier said. “Planning is well underway, with implementation getting more fully underway in the fall.” How the fine arts will achieve greater visibility while the art department is unable to provide courses beyond the 100-level remains unclear.

In the meantime, current art students are feeling the strain of a department under stress. 

Studio art major Misha Davydov ’21 sent a letter to Suttmeier and Vice President of Student Life and Dean of Students Robin Holmes-Sullivan in April 2020. In the letter, they outlined their concerns about the department, including the lack of a new curator at Hoffman Gallery and decreasing course offerings. They also advocated for more full-time faculty because of the importance to students of developing strong relationships with professors who work in their medium, which is difficult to do when there is a turnover of part-time faculty.

“It is super, super important in art to have a long-standing relationship with a professor in your medium who really understands your work and also understands you technically,” Davydov said. 

Ponting feels like he does not even have a chance of signing up for art classes because they fill up so quickly. He believes the ballooning waitlists of courses such as Ceramics I is evidence that the college needs to offer more sections. 

As evidenced by the high demand of studio art courses, students find great value in the fine arts component of their liberal arts education.

“The arts retain students on campus,” Perlitz said. “It makes the campus a vibrant place.”

Emily Brandridge ’24, a double major in sociology and studio art, said via email that she came to LC in order to build a solid liberal arts foundation to inform her art practice, but worries that her art education might not be satisfactory.

“I almost started crying in my art class today because my art teacher was talking about how the painting department is getting less and less classes,” Brandridge said. “This makes me so worried for my future as an artist. I don’t want to have to leave this school to get a better art education. Art classes aren’t only necessary to fulfill my major requirements, but also they are so important for my mental well-being and I know many other students feel this way as well.”

Fisher noted there is often a stigma around art and art making, but that it is an inseparable part of the education that LC offers.

“‘Arts’ is part of the liberal arts,” Fisher said. “It’s about thinking about the world from diverse perspectives.” 

Odell agreed, saying that a sensitivity to visual languages is a great benefit to students.

“The arts are central to a liberal arts education, and it would be very difficult, I think, for a college to claim that it was committed to the liberal arts without having a robust art department, and that’s true for theater and music as well,” Odell said. “We engage with the contemporary world in ways that other disciplines can’t, because we’re thinking about being makers as well as scholars of art.”