On "Top MFA Programs"

I get a lot of traffic on this site due to a couple posts that Dennis Baker links to in his 2008 post "Rutgers MFA Acting Program". Today, there was a comment I'd like to give more circulation to, because it raises some pretty pointed questions. While I don't necessarily agree with everything, I agree with enough of it to repost. And I would say "ditto" in reference to BFA programs. Here it is:

Author: SayItLoud
Comment:
1. This idea of ‘top MFA’ programs makes absolutely no sense, if you stop and think about it. If you add up the so called top 10 programs, they get less than 200 students per year in total. Now, if they are so good, why do they limit that to 15-20, sometimes 7-8 students per year? Is it because there is no need for top actors out there? – now, that is a ridiculous notion. Clearly, there is demand coming from the industry. Is it because there is no demand coming from people wanting to attend? That we know not to be true. Or is it because there is a shortage of real talent out there that could be educated into becoming top actors. That’s against the main definition of acting school.
2. Now, are these really ‘top schools’? A top school must be a leader in the industry, a trend setter, a visionary. Are they? Over 90% of the films made lose money, even though they are made for ‘commercial’ reasons and not for art.. over 90% of the plays (including on Broadway) lose money and over 90% of the actors cannot find work (including actors coming out of these ‘top schools’). If these schools are ‘the industry leaders’ they look like terrible leaders, don’t they.. There isn’t another industry that can claim leaders that show such sub-mediocrity in influencing the industry positevely..
3. Most of the ‘top MFA programs’ should be banned. I simply do not understand how they get away with calling their programs ‘graduate’ programs when in fact they are nothing more than ‘vocational’ schools. One recent example is Juilliard’s MFA program – they made it 4 years and actors training is exactly the same as undergraduates or people who get a certificate.
4. Most of the ‘top MFA’ programs entrance selection is based 100% on a 2-4 minute audition – with total disregard of people’s records – that is the most obvious proof that these programs are ‘vocational’ schools and not graduate schools. For a vocational school it may make sense to admit students on what you can see as talent, because they have no record to base the decisions on. For graduate school, disregarding ones record is total BS. These ‘gods’ pretend that they can look into someone’s eyes for 2-3 minutes, or often times not look at all or not listening at all, and tell with 100% precision what his/her future is going to be. So, who needs to look at an existing record, right? Totally, against any notion of a true ‘graduate’ program.
5. Quite a lot of the heads of the top MFA acting programs do not hold any level of graduate studies. For some of them, their educations clearly come from vocational acting schools.
6. Are these schools really in the 21st century? Most of them are relics of a century long gone, it’s just that the school leadership is too impotent to adapt.. or worse, it’s too ‘convenient’ not to adapt.. One example is the example that Yale is using by pointing to Meryl Streep. Think about it, Meryl went to Yale 40 years ago and she probably followed a program designed decades prior. Does anyone truly believe that a student going to Yale in 2012 will be able to function the same way Meryl does today, 40 years from now? In the era of iPad I really do not think that anyone is that naïve.. so, why then, these ‘top MFA programs’ continue to do what they did mid last century?
7. If all of these things were happening in a 3rd world country, I do not believe that anyone would call them ‘top MFA programs’.. rather would think of ‘corruption’ and ‘crooked’ first.. that’s what these ‘top MFA programs’ seem to be. A disgusting charade.. or better yet, a scam that keeps perpetuating out there only because people are too afraid to take them to court to force them to disclose what the ‘real’ deal is. False, deceptive or misleading advertising is illegal and they should stop it.
8. Everyone should demand that all MFA acting programs change their admittance procedure as well as programs to adjust for true ‘graduate studies’ rather than ‘vocational studies’ as they are now.
9. Everyone should demand that all MFA acting programs post their records that they have internally, or force them to collect those records to indicate what graduates do 1-2-3 years after graduation.
10. Everyone should demand that all MFA acting programs clearly spell out their admittance criteria. If you look at the ‘profiles’ of people who graduate out of these programs there is a strong indication that they select mostly blue/green eyes/blond red hair/ white skin for anyone to really believe that in the 21st century only those people are talented or ‘pretty’.

Misrepresenting the NEA

OK., this and this is making me angry. Listen, I am glad that the President has requested more money for the NEA -- not enough, of course, because we are so far behind the eight ball as far as inflation is concerned that we would need to about double the budget to catch up. But let that lay.

What is getting me angry is the presentation of NEA funding as being somehow focused on " small-town arts institutions that support culture for America's rural and suburban populations who, polling data suggests, tend to vote for the people who want to abolish the NEA." This is complete and utter nonsense.

Oh, sure, a couple small towns got some "Our Town" grants, but the lion's share -- indeed, a couple of lion's shares -- goes to the same urban centers and wealthy institutions as always. Narric Rome trumpets, "More than half of these [Our Town] grants were awarded to communities with a population of less than 200,000 and seven went to places with fewer than 25,000 people." But the fact is that 90% of American counties have populations under 200,000 and, in fact, 82% of them have populations under 100,000. I analyzed the "Our Town" grants here and here. Here are a few lowlights: 90% of the grants given went to counties with over 100,000 people in it. In fact, the average population of the counties funded was a bit more than 2.163 million people, and the median population was over 966,000. Of the grants funded, only two (Marfa TX and Sitka AK) could be classified as rural counties.  Further, as I wrote here, an "examination of the percentage of submitted grants that were actually funded in the last round of the Our Town program reveals that proposals from cities with populations over a million had a 100% acceptance rate, whereas those from cities under 100,000 had an acceptance rate of less than 40%."

As far as the argument that Shane Ferro makes as to why red states legislators ought to support the NEA, I made that argument in January 2011 when Rocco Landesman made his "supply and demand" comments at the Arena Stage convening. I said that the reason NEA grants (and other grants) should not be centralized in a few established institutions but rather spread geographically across America is that by not doing it, it makes it easier for those legislators to vote against NEA funding. But you can't make that argument until you have actually used funding fairly and equitably. It may be that the NEA would like to make this claim of geographical diversity -- I hope that is true -- but you can't make it yet. Nothing has changed yet. It is still a big city game.

The Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change report has thoroughly documented this in the philanthropy field, and have indicated that government funding follows the same pattern. Check out the finalists for "placemaking" grants at the ArtPlace if you want proof. ArtPlace is "an unprecedented private-public collaboration of nine of the nation’s top foundations, eight federal agencies including the National Endowment for the Arts, and six of the nation’s largest banks. ArtPlace supports creative placemaking with grants and loans, research and advocacy." I haven't even had time to look up the populations of each of these places, but it doesn't take a statistical genius to see that most of them are going to large urban areas. I'll highlight the ones that are clearly cities. Maybe Shane Ferro thinks anything that isn't Manhattan is rural and suburban.

City	State	Organization
Homer	AK	Bunnell Street Art Center
Anchorage	AK	Anchorage Museum Association
Juneau	AK	Juneau Housing Trust, Inc.
Savoonga	AK	Native Village of Savoonga
Sitka	AK	Alaska Arts Southeast, Inc.
Anchorage	AK	Alaska Native Heritage Center
Anchorage	AK	Out North Contemporary Art House
Little Rock	AR	The Oxford American Literary Project
Phoenix	AZ	Roosevelt Row Community Development Corporation
Los Angeles	CA	The New School
Various	CA	Creative Work Fund/Walter and Elise Haas Fund
Yolo County	CA	Yolo County Arts Council dba YoloArts
San Jose	CA	MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana
San Francisco	CA	San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association
San Jose	CA	San Jose Public Art
Fresno	CA	Fresno Arts Council
Long Beach	CA	Khmer Arts Academy
Long Beach	CA	Arts Council for Long Beach
Los Angeles	CA	City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
Los Angeles	CA	Cornerstone Theater Company
Los Angeles	CA	Esperanza Community Housing Corporation
Los Angeles	CA	Los Angeles Philharmonic Association
Los Angeles	CA	Machine Project
Los Angeles	CA	MASS Design Group
Los Angeles	CA	Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County
Los Angeles	CA	Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc)
Modesto	CA	California State University, Stanislaus College of the Arts
Oakland	CA	City of Oakland Cultural Arts & Marketing
Riverside	CA	City of Riverside – Development Department
San Francisco	CA	Burning Man Project
San Francisco	CA	envelope Architecture + Design (envelope a+d)
Stockton	CA	University of the Pacific
Visalia	CA	Visalia Arts Consortium (Arts Consortium)
Manitou Springs	CO	Business of Art Center
New Haven	CT	Arts Council of Greater New Haven
New Haven	CT	New Haven International Festival of Arts & Ideas, Inc.
Washington	DC	Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Miami	FL	Wynwood Arts District Association, Inc.
Miami	FL	Bass Museum of Art
Miami	FL	Miami Light Project, Inc.
Jacksonville	FL	City of Jacksonville Planning and Development Department
Sumerville	GA	Chattooga County, Georgia
Macon	GA	The Corporation of Mercer University
Boise	ID	Trey McIntyre Project
Chicago	IL	6018NORTH
Chicago	IL	Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Chicago	IL	Redmoon Theater
Chicago	IL	Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Peoria	IL	Tri-County Regional Planning Commission
Chicago	IL	University of Chicago
Indianapolis	IN	Harrison Center for the Arts
Indianapolis	IN	Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (iMOCA)
Whitesburg	KY	Appalshop, Incorporated
Cumberland	KY	Higher Ground Coalition/The Appalachian Program at Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College
New Orleans	LA	Artspace
New Orleans	LA	New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation, Inc.
New Orleans	LA	St. Claude Main Street, Inc. (SCMS) and CivicCenter
Shreveport	LA	Shreveport Regional Arts Council (SRAC)
Dorchester	MA	The Boston Foundation
Mount Rainier	MD	Joe’s Movement Emporium
Baltimore	MD	Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO)
Indian Island	ME	Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (MIBA)
Eastport	ME	Tides Institute & Museum of Art
Detroit	MI	ArtsCorpsDetroit
Various	MI	ArtServe Michigan
Flint	MI	Flint Public Art Project
Detroit	MI	Lincoln Street Art Park
Detroit	MI	Marygrove College and Detroit Economic Growth Corporation
Hamtramck	MI	Power House Productions
Detroit	MI	Detroit Institute of Arts
Detroit	MI	Detroit Creative Corridor Center
Various	MN	American Composers Forum
Lanesboro	MN	Lanesboro Arts Center
St. Paul	MN	Ethnic Cultural Tourism Destinations Collaborative (ECTD)
St. Paul	MN	Ordway Center for the Performing Arts:
St. Paul	MN	Forecast Public Art
Minneapolis	MN	Intermedia Arts
Minneapolis	MN	Juxtapostion Arts
Wadena	MN	New York Mills Regional Cultural Center
Minneapolis	MN	Pangea World Theater
Minneapolis	MN	Pillsbury House + Theatre (PH+T)
St. Paul	MN	Public Art Saint Paul
Minneapolis	MN	The Cedar Cultural Center, Inc
Minneapolis	MN	The Gymnasium
Minneapolis	MN	World Savvy
Minneapolis	MN	Native American Community Development Institute
Chatham, Lee Pitt Counties	NC	Regional Technology Strategies, Inc. (RTS) and Public Art Collaborative Art-Force Program
Minot	ND	Artspace
Reno	NV	Nevada Museum of Art
Syracuse	NY	Near West Side Initiative Inc.
Poughkeepsie	NY	PAUSE
New York	NY	Broadway Housing Communities
New York	NY	NOCD-NY (Naturally Occurring Cultural District Working Group)
New York	NY	Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, Inc. (NoMAA)
Brooklyn	NY	Pratt Institute
Bronx	NY	Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation
Bronx	NY	Casita Maria Center for Arts and Eduction
Brooklyn	NY	El Puente
Brooklyn	NY	Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA)
Bronx	NY	Pregones Theater
Brooklyn	NY	St. Ann’s Warehouse
New York	NY	Storefront for Art and Architecture
Brooklyn	NY	STREB Inc.
Cincinnati	OH	American Sign Museum
Cleveland	OH	Northeast Shores Development Corporation
Philadelphia	PA	Asian Arts Initiative
Philadelphia	PA	City of Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy
Philadelphia	PA	Community Design Collaborative
Philadelphia	PA	Philadelphia Mural Arts Program
Philadelphia	PA	University City District
Providence	RI	Community MusicWorks (CMW)
Providence	RI	WaterFire Providence
Pine Ridge	SD	The Heritage Center at Red Cloud Indian School
Memphis	TN	Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Inc. (MSO)
Chattanooga	TN	Glass House Collective
Memphis	TN	Ballet Memphis
Memphis	TN	Community L.I.F.T. / Memphis Music Magnet
Austin	TX	Big Medium
Austin	TX	Downtown Austin Alliance (Downtown Development Corporation)
Austin	TX	The Trail Foundation
Houston	TX	Houston Grand Opera Association, Inc.
Seattle	WA	Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience
Mineral Point	WI	Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts
Sauk County	WI	Wormfarm Institute

I think the NEA ought to get more funding -- but not until it starts distributing it in a way that is focused on diversity of all kinds, including geographic diversity. I'd even go further: it is time for reparations, for making up for the decades in which the rural areas have been virtually ignored. But it certainly isn't time for people like Ferro and Rome to be taking credit for something that hasn't occurred yet.