janelane2

I think you made the right choice. It makes sense to go to school in a place where you want to live long term because you'll make connections in the community--this is especially true for artists. It would be much harder to go to school in California, then move to Hawaii and have to establish yourself there. I'm sorry this is making you feel so low--but as an internet stranger I 100% think you did the right thing and suspect you'd have regretted your choice if you went to another school!

congrats!! that's awesome! throw some of your luck my way pls. i wonder if the funding is department-allocated and the waitlists are then department-specific, or if it's university-wide?

The advice to connect with faculty who will be making decisions is really great. I visited each of the schools I applied to (was able to do so bc it was within a pretty narrow region) and met with the program coordinators and faculty I wanted to work with--the places where I got along well with the faculty and had good conversations were where I got in. I don't think that was a coincidence lol

nope... not holding out hope at this point because as a master's student, I think SSHRC notifications went out a few weeks ago and people would have probably declined their OGS already. Maybe PhDs have more of a chance? I'm applying for other scholarships left right and centre lol

damn. i feel like you might be better off heavily researching schools and faculty members to see where you might fit in best, and focus your energy more narrowly towards those? although it could be an interesting experiment to apply to so many and see where you get in... haha

19 or 20?? each school I applied to had like ~$150-200 in application fees... you're gonna pay that for 20 schools?

welcome to our club haha

Ahhh I see. Do we compete with others in our department? (In other words are a certain number of scholarships allocated to one department?) I'm an incoming student and have no idea how it works. Frankly shocked to be on the waitlist at all because I thought my undergrad GPA was below the cutoff lol. Fingers crossed for both of us!

Hi all. I was just notified I'm on the waitlist (Western). Do any of you guys know how common it is to get off the waitlist? Pretty happy to be waitlisted anyway because I expected rejection!

Have any of you guys heard of funding increasing for students not deferring this fall? A friend just told me he heard someone was offered more money as an incentive to stay in the program...

i totally hear you. you just reminded me of the time i semi-broke down in front of a poorly-paid, depressed adjunct painting instructor in my last year of undergrad. i was making these shitty little paintings at the time and volunteer teaching art classes for low income kids. the volunteer teaching was really eye opening. he came to my studio to critique me and i was just like "what's the point of this? who are these paintings for? why am i making these? to hang in a gallery for rich people to buy? i should just give up and become a nurse or a social worker and get a job that actually helps people." and he just laughed at me and was like "at least you're not a banker." then i went through a political art phase that ended after i showed the paintings in a gallery that, yeah, was only attended by a certain demographic, and the paintings likely didn't change anyone's opinion of the social issue i was trying to bring awareness to... to nobody's surprise. after that i decided it's basically pointless to try to do anything 'radical' within this system--because participating in it is not radical unless you're doing some really smart institutional critique, which, as you said, is more or less impossible in the context of higher ed and most gallery circuits. it was really a struggle to decide to be an artist as opposed to a job that has a tangible positive impact (social work, etc) because, as the process of making art itself feels self indulgent, the whole thing rests on the faith that art is important and helpful for society. then when art is enraptured in capitalism/the pyramid scheme of academia or however you put it, it does make me doubt the whole thing. it's a double bind. once you reach the end of this line of thinking, what's next? you're right, it's basically revolution. lol i don't disagree that higher-ed is a 'credentialism racket' but i think the experience is what you make of it. for me i am operating on the leap of faith that making work is somehow important and a worthwhile use of my time. some days i have more faith in it than others. i don't think this is irreconcilable with activism and organizing.

asking in earnest--what are you doing right now to transform society? (other than trolling this forum). besides abandoning the cult of academia or whatever, what kind of practical collective action do you suggest artists engage in? should we drop our paintbrushes, band together and go burn down some banks? alright i wrote that last sentence in jest but it doesn't sound bad upon second reading... i've lived abroad for the last few years making paintings alone in a shack by the sea, and i'm from a hinterland city in canada with a tiny art scene, so the ego and money-driven NYC art thing is foreign to me... but i also have zero desire to go to the US and play that game, i guess for essentially the same reasons you mention. i just want to make paintings, and a funded MFA seems the best way to do that. i think there is value in spending time developing my craft and trying to produce something that might be resonant with others, even though whatever benefit art might provide is abstract and impossible to quantify. do you think it's ethically irresponsible in this global context to want to pursue any kind of higher studies and we should focus our efforts only on organizing?

who hurt you?

i'm bored stuck at work with nothing to do because everything's mostly shut down due to the virus... would anyone be interested in making/joining a discord server or something for artists/mfa students? i kinda looked around for one but found nothing.

I'm thinking this will have passed by August/September.... or at least hoping... China more or less got it under control in two months, but I feel like North America is not being as organized...