Mississippi Snow

Just want to reply to this with a firm “yes” Myself, and another close friend, are both in top Ph.D. Programs now. Other friends have moved directly into curatorial positions at museums, both in NYC and elsewhere, or have progressed in their career following their MA at Hunter. Probably the most unique example of this is a friend who entered the program just after me, who at the same time started an entry-level job at a well-respected museum/art space in Long Island City, and is now the (interim) director of this institution. Others are curators as part of High Line or assoc. curators at Brooklyn Museum. It’s a pretty unique place to be in, because you are students together and quite immediately some of them start having very mature positions.

As a graduate from Hunter MA, I am so happy you are asking this question. I applied, and was accepted, into the Hunter MA with a 2.5 cum GPA in my undergrad, and only a minor in art history. My GRE scores were completely lackluster, with a 3.5 on the writing, and maybe 154 on the analytic. Now, chalk this up to either me being horrible at taking tests—yes—or Hunter being a bit lax—yes, +100 students—but really our discipline is much deeper than that. Our discipline is built on passion. And, to further accentuate, I want to underline something very important. The test scores do not matter (in most cases). As you already stated, your SoP and writing sample, if strong, will be more than enough. What actually got me into Hunter, as I was told later by my advisor who said she fought for me to be accepted, was that I wrote her an impassioned email about my desire to study with her and to be at Hunter. This, I’ve found, has helped me more in gaining employ or favor with people than anything. So, look through the professors’ emails and find one you gravitate towards. I would be happy to put you in touch with my advisor—whom I am now on very good terms with as I am in a new Ph.D. Program—as she was completely supportive throughout my entire time there. Good luck. Don’t hesitate to ask people for things.

I wish I was in your position to consider a failing grade as B/B-. Yes, adcomms do look at GPA pretty heavily--particularly for coming directly out of undergrad--but, as has been noted above, the B/B- will not really effect you so much. Having the language, and particularly being able to write essays in Japanese, will be way more to your benefit. Stay in the class. Take the grade. Maybe try and offset it by some award or other notable achievement, and move ahead. Also, you already said yourself that you do not want to drop the class. That should be enough reason to keep it.

Any word on UCLA?

I can only respond to your note about Hunter and the exhibition spaces. Yes, those spaces are more for contemporary and modern work, but the largest space is also there primarily because of the MFA program and the artists' thesis shows. Hahn, whom I am guessing you are referring to as the Medieval scholar, had been doing work on Medieval Reliquaries and the relationship to Paul Thek's work to hopefully broaden this interest in exhibiting contemporary work (which I think is smart in order to show the non-linear aspects of Art History, particularly in museum exhibition practices these days, which is something you will not readily find in Europe). However, the Art History program itself is far and away NOT focused on Modern and Contemporary to the degree that other programs in the city may be. Living in central Europe for the past two years, and having studied in NY before, I would argue that your ability to research, learn, network and grow in the field is much better in NY than here. I had Cynthia Hahn for my first semester at Hunter, and that class influenced my perspective on other periods of art history more so than any other class following it.

I'll be there for just Friday morning, and late Thursday evening, chairing and presenting. I have to get back to work for the evening, and flying right after work Thursday. Edit: However, if any of your presentations fall on Friday morning before noon, or just after the noon session, I would love to check it out.

This is not so relevant to the subject, but, for future reference, it is spelled résumé. I say this, because I see it spelled wrong nearly every day, and I think it could become of significance--if spelled properly-- in an application as it stands out.

For any interested, the Turkish University Commission (YOK) has upped the number of ETA's from 50 to 80. Last year they even had around 60 while only advertising 50. I had read that Turkiye was looking to expand the program, so I think this would be a really great opportunity for anyone wondering which country they might possibly want to try for. I am waiting to hear back from a serious job position, which if I get it I'll have to forego, or at least defer, the Fulbright process for a bit.

I'd like to know more about the lives of artists who drew and wrote in the margins of medieval texts. Those cats sounded like pretty awesome ... cats. On the real, Monet was also a pretty big asshole to his family, as was George Ohr, the local, Mississippi eccentric potter/ceramicist. Raphael was supposed to be a ladies' man, though.

I feel as if the thing I'm most having a problem with is the period before moving. Counting down the days before moving, I just want to be there and away from all this. "This" being home, a relaxed/non-productive environment where, whenever I arrive home, I just fall into a routine of immediately sitting on the couch and not doing much besides reading articles online. Mississippi isn't the most exciting or culturally productive state, at least the culture I'm looking for/I'm tired of for so many years, so that may be the problem as well. Does anyone have the problem of coming home and not feeling very productive, and therefore anxious about the lack thereof?

Well, I would discount a lot of those artists I listed then, with the exception being Christian Boltanski. "Above the poverty line" is quite vast, but I assume just above. Seeing that you have Brazilian in your username, I'd guess you already have Vik Muniz -- his documentary Wasteland is exactly what you'd be asking about. I'd also possibly suggest Richard Mosse's new series "Infra" that's being shown at the Ireland pavilion of this year's Biennale. It's about the lives and means of fighters and impoverished in the DRC. I'd also suggest looking into who the artist was that did the "poor city" at this year's Art Basel. It received a lot of controversy for allowing rich people to play poor and go "slumming." I think Francis Alys might also be applicable to this with his projects like When Faith Moves Mountains and his dOCUMENTA work Reel/Unreel, each incorporating the poor in neighborhoods to change or do something to their environment. If I remember correctly Olafur Eliasson was also designing some light that would help poor in Africa better live. I also can't believe I almost forgot Subodh Gupta, India, who is basically everything you're looking for rolled into one. Ya, maybe that'll help.

Christian Boltanski for sure, particularly his work for Monumenta. Carsten Holler, Petrit Halilaj, Sarah Sze -- in a more ecological sense. I think Rirkrit Tiravanija has done a lot of installation work in these areas. God, this is such a broad area in Contemporary art. I think in a lot of ways you could count Rachel Whiteread's work in the categories given. These are just the artists off the top of my head; I will get you a longer list once I really think about it. Is there an area of the world or region that you might be most interested?

Personally, I took the gap year and worked to build my CV more. I had two internships during undergrad, both at museums, but I mostly took the gap year to know that I wanted to go into grad school for Art History. I was also able to build my CV up a lot more by writing reviews, working at one of the museums I interned, starting up an artist co-op and organizing pop-up or "art in the unlikely" shows, chairing and lecturing at a conference in October, and refining the direction that I wanted to take my arts blog (focusing on artists in developing countries). Needless to say, I think the gap year paid off so much more than if I had just applied straight out to graduate programs. As a side-note, though, I also felt forced to work on my CV due to my lacking GPA in undergrad (a horrendous first two years is all I will say). So, I would highly encourage the gap year just to build your CV up even more against competition, know that you for sure want to continue on your set path, and really just learn more about the entire process. You're much smarter than me for looking into this your junior year, though, so you will probably be well-prepared to take on grad school. I also agree that museum work would be much more favorable than gallery work, although the status and pedigree of where you work could make a difference as well (as someone noted above). Also, as I'm sure you know, get a language or two under your belt. And know it well. That's really the only thing that would be easier in undergrad than the gap year. If you're leaning to the gap year, definitely do it, it will only abet you in your path to doing and being the best at what you want.

Applying for Turkey ETA, side research being Turkish contemporary art. It's such a hotbed right now, and has been for art. I'm going to be amazed at what this revolt turns out artistically. It's sad to see one of my favorite cities under such duress, but I see so much creativity coming from it all over the country.

Yup