{"id":764,"date":"2005-09-13T10:11:32","date_gmt":"2005-09-13T17:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2005\/09\/somebody_must_be_teaching_crea\/"},"modified":"2005-09-13T10:11:32","modified_gmt":"2005-09-13T17:11:32","slug":"somebody_must_be_teaching_crea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/somebody_must_be_teaching_crea.php","title":{"rendered":"SOMEBODY must be teaching creative thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fred Kirschnit in the <i>New York Post<\/i> rants about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nysun.com\/article\/19846?access=553536\">what&#8217;s wrong with America&#8217;s top conservatories<\/a>, suggesting they focus on technical excellence over creative voice. Says he:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><br \/>\nI&#8217;m not suggesting that the practical side of the classical music curriculum be ignored, but the conventional conservatory wisdom is so antithetical to artistic excellence as to be positively frightening. The message from administrators and those teachers who follow the party line is that, in order to be successful, the aspirant must stand out as more technically proficient than his peers, but should never be perceived as outside of the main stream. If Joshua Bell had gone to Juilliard instead of Indiana University, he would never have developed his signature portamento.<br \/>\n<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The article recalls Daniel Pink&#8217;s essay in the February 2004 <i>Harvard Business Review<\/i>, about how  &#8221;The MFA is the New MBA&#8221; (not available on-line). Said Pink:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><br \/>\n&#8230;businesses are realizing that the only way to differentiate their goods and services in today&#8217;s overstocked, materially abundant marketplace is to make their offerings transcendent &#8212; physically beautiful and emotionally compelling. Think iMac computers, Design Within Reach, and Target aisles full of Isaac Mizrahi women&#8217;s wear and Michael Graves toilet brushes. Or just listen to auto industry legend Robert Lutz. When Lutz took over as chairman of General Motors North America, a journalist asked him how his approach would differ from his predecessor&#8217;s. Here&#8217;s what he said: &#8221;It&#8217;s more right brain &#8230;. I see us as being in the art business. Art, entertainment, and mobile sculpture, which, coincidentally, also happens to provide transportation&#8221; General Motors &#8212; General Motors! &#8212; is in the art business. So, now, are we all.<br \/>\n<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Pink perceives the MFA as a bursting source of creative energy and talent (and the MBA as the opposite). Kirschnit suggests that focused, artistic training is anything but artistic. Both writer&#8217;s expose a common tension among MFA and MBA programs between teaching students for the jobs that <i>used<\/i> to exist, preparing them for jobs that <i>will<\/i> exist, and fostering creative and engaged individuals for a world that <i>should<\/i> exist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fred Kirschnit in the New York Post rants about what&#8217;s wrong with America&#8217;s top conservatories, suggesting they focus on technical excellence over creative voice. Says he: I&#8217;m not suggesting that the practical side of the classical music curriculum be ignored, but the conventional conservatory wisdom is so antithetical to artistic excellence as to be positively [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-764","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}