Atlanta College of Art Disregarded
What kind of title is “Coming Together” for this news? Standard Atlanta stuff – they’re clearly closing the Atlanta College of Art. Merger? No, I don’t think so.
So now the art professors there won’t be at an accredited school or be granted tenure when they’ve earned it. They weren’t included in the discussion and planning – they’re just going to take a 100-year old fine art college and assimilate it into SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design). Resistance is futile?
In this article, the chairman of the ACA Board of Directors saw it as “an opportunity to broaden opportunities for students.” Well, they might have asked the students…or the faculty…or even the dean.
It would be as if Boston Conservatory of Music were absorbed into DeVry Technical. And they didn’t even discuss it in advance? What about those teachers? Do the tenured ones then “lose tenure”?
The whole thing smells pretty rotten to me. Anyone looking at the money trail? Who really benefits from this? I wonder what the real issues are? Woodruff wants them out of the building? Part of the charm of the place is that the campus is right there at the Atlanta Symphony and the Art Museum.
I’ve taught at Atlanta College of Art. The students there are independent, self-motivated – really wonderful. They are protesting, but it won’t make any difference.
Update September 13:
ACA 100 – a coalition of ACA students and friends of the college, which was formed at the end of July, 2005 to oppose the decision of the Woodruff Art Center to “merge” the college with the Savannah College of Art and Design.
I think it rocks. that you have a Phd. I just needed to let you know that today.
Sad to see the school go. ACA was a gem, a single light in an otherwise sad state of affairs that is the Georgia’s art schooling. It’s not surprise that ACA got not support as SCAD closed it down, since there is hardly a high school in Georgia with any fine art class. There is little support for the art in Georgia that doesn’t match the sofa.