who will replace Stockholder, Halley, and Papageorge at Yale?

[bo 55]

With Jessica Stockholder (head of Sculpture), Peter Halley (head of Painting) and Tod Papageorge (head of Photography) leaving Yale this year who will replace them? who should replace them? Has Rob Storr gone mad with power?

Anyone from Yale got insider info?

[losemygrip]

Oh! Maybe Storr has decided to clean house. It's way overdue.

He needs to bring in some people who actually care about education and aren't just using their positions at Yale for health benefits and ego-boost.

[TheStranger]

Wow...so many heads of departments leaving at the same time...can't be coincidence. It does sound like internal politics...probably a good thing. Are they leaving by this year?

[bo 55]

Yes they are all leaving this year.

I was thinking that Storr might be merging the different programs into a single interdisciplinary MFA. But this is pure speculation.

[losemygrip]

He might be doing that, but I've not heard any gossip about it.

He should really hire Judy Pfaff. I've heard she's an awesome teacher.

[gentlebreeze]

I can't speak to every question here... In addition to Jessica Stockholder leaving sculpture, so is Daphne Fitzpatrick. I heard that one of the other existing faculty is going to be the interim head while they do a search that could take a while, but I'm unsure if that is the case. I ha e heard the same for what will happen in Painting with Peter Halley but again don't know if that is true.

In photo, Tod Papageorge is technically on sabbatical this fall and will be back in the spring. During the sabbatical, Gregory Crewdson will be the acting chair of photo - this is definite for this year. After that, I don't know. Yale might not even know yet. Richard Benson is also retiring from Yale photo. Both are very beloved by their students as critics and mentors. so I don't think the above person's comment about the current faculty only teaching for prestige is accurate.

As far as I know, there is definitely an "internal politics" issue with Storr et al. He does not get along with everyone.

[losemygrip]

He does not get along with everyone.

Haha! No kidding. That's what I love about him--he's totally above board about how he feels. He also has no patience for bullshit from what I can tell. That's why I can't figure out why he took the Yale job.

[gentlebreeze]

Stockholder, Fitzpatrick, Halley, Benson, etc. would have looked at portfolios in their respective departments of people who are starting this Fall (2011). Because all of these people except Tod Papageorge are leaving-for-good, aka not teaching this Fall and beyond, I doubt they will be looking at people's portfolios who are applying for 2012. However, Papageorge is still going to teach after his sabbatical this fall (he will be at Yale in the Spring, when applications are being reviewed) so I'd assume he'll participate in the Photo MFA admission process. Who knows though. Hopefully someone here will attend the open house and they will answer these questions in November.

None of this is definite, and who knows who may be "pulling strings" from afar. Admissions are so opaque/elusive/political.

Edited August 8, 2011 by gentlebreeze

[truthbetold]

current department heads here:

http://art.yale.edu/FacultyAndStaff

heard only good things about jim hodges

aside from dept head questions have also heard storr isn't simply acting out his whims, but has been actively listening and responding to students

[gentlebreeze]

Not in the case of Papageorge. The students pretty much love him, and they deliberately choose Yale because of the department being, for lack of a better term, "traditional." But it is rumored that he and Robert Storr are at an impasse because of pedagogical differences. Storr has a very different, more conceptual or multidisciplinary ambition for the direction of the photography department, whereas Papageorge advocates the straight photography approach. From what I understand, this is not what the students want. Maybe it's a gripe of incoming/potential students who want to do what they want to do under the Yale name, but not the ones who actually go because they want to go with Yale being as it is.

In every academic department, there are going to be flaws. Of course there are general reservations and complaints about Stockholder and Halley, but nothing out of the ordinary that you probably hear within every institution that has its share of bureaucracy (aka every institution). Most of the students in those respective departments seem to respect both.

current department heads here:

http://art.yale.edu/FacultyAndStaff

heard only good things about jim hodges

aside from dept head questions have also heard storr isn't simply acting out his whims, but has been actively listening and responding to students

[gentlebreeze]

From what I understand, this is not what the students want.

I should clarify - I mean they don't seem to want the department to change from how it is, to something more conceptual/interdisciplinary.

[losemygrip]

Storr's job is not, however, to give students what they want. His job is to make the School of Art as good as it can be. It makes no sense to have a purely "traditional" photography program in a university as prominent as Yale that prides itself on its cutting-edge research.

[gentlebreeze]

Storr's job is not, however, to give students what they want. His job is to make the School of Art as good as it can be. It makes no sense to have a purely "traditional" photography program in a university as prominent as Yale that prides itself on its cutting-edge research.

I guess I would disagree with you on multiple levels - it's a different approach to photography, and I think it's a valuable one, even if singular. Fom what I understand *all* of the other top mfa programs (versus more commercially oriented ones like SCAD, Brooks, etc.) foster the more conceptual/interdisciplinary approach. Those who want to work in that mode can go to myriad other schools, and those who want a straight photo approach with strong critics and a rigorous discursive level can try for Yale. I do think that the Yale/Papageorge pedagogy is a valid way of working in photography today, and isn't a matter of being "cutting edge" or not. Basically, there's room for all, and it would be a huge bummer to see the last top-flight straight school offering this track to disappear.

Edited August 12, 2011 by gentlebreeze

[losemygrip]

It's probably a mistake to think of them as mutually exclusive. It may be that your perception of Yale's reputation as "traditional" photography is the result of a sort of hidebound conservatism that allows no other approaches there. Perhaps Storr is trying to remedy that?

There are certainly departments that allow for a wide range of approaches, and I happen to think that's ideal. It is, however, more common for a department with a contemporary, conceptual reputation to allow for more conservative approaches than is the opposite.

[gentlebreeze]

Well, from what I understand, Yale's department does allow a variety of approaches. I am thinking about graduates like Shannon Ebner, David Benjamin Sherry, Walead Beshty, etc. (just in terms of the last decade, and who have gotten quite a lot of recognition) in addition to what (I think) the more common stereotype is, the sort of "uncanny suburbia" shot on a Mamiya 7, that a lot of people do.

Yale faculty seems a little more skeptical of conceptual or nontraditional projects, initially. It's like "guilty until proven innocent" instead of the other way around, attitude wise, if that makes sense. If you make a weak showing of "conceptual" work you will get excoriated. Whereas a weak "photographic" edit might get more of a ho-hum review, "this is pretty bleh, not much to say here, do better next time." But when a conceptual project (i don't mean one singular project, but one's "Project" as an artist) is well done, it is supported and the artist/photographer who made it is supported. It's more like - a student couldn't show up to a crit and expect the panel to automatically think the work is interesting or had merit because all there is to say about it was, "It's a performance" or "Here's my identity politics statement" or "I was referring to ArtistName's x y z" or "I'm interested in this political thing that's going on."

I do think that the program tends to attract applicants who want a more traditional approach, but when someone who deviates from that gets in the program and the work is genuinely interesting, they can do what they want to do.

It's probably a mistake to think of them as mutually exclusive. It may be that your perception of Yale's reputation as "traditional" photography is the result of a sort of hidebound conservatism that allows no other approaches there. Perhaps Storr is trying to remedy that?

There are certainly departments that allow for a wide range of approaches, and I happen to think that's ideal. It is, however, more common for a department with a contemporary, conceptual reputation to allow for more conservative approaches than is the opposite.

Edited August 14, 2011 by gentlebreeze

[losemygrip]

I guess we need an alumnus/a to comment!

[illum]

don't really like their works anyway... probably better for yale for a clean it up... the program seemed quite overrated in recent years and has produced a lot of crappy works, but if storr is wise enough and is really doing something about that, hopefully it's going to revive to its glory like in the 80s and 90s.

[Chombo]

I guess we need an alumnus/a to comment!

ask away

[TheStranger]

ask away

Why are certain faculty members leaving? What kind of people will replace them and why? Differences in art ideology? What divided the faculty? What are the divisions based upon? Thanks!

[Chombo]

Storr pushed out the old. In with the new, so it goes.

Nothing is 'clear', but some sort of new-fangled 'early-retirement' initiative basically just turned the page on all three.

[nimda]

It may come around in a couple of years.. Its a big ship, and will probably take longer than some of the smaller programs to redirect. Now that things are moving faster in the art conversation in general; it seems that the small agile programs may have an advantage.

[Onedayx3]

I was told from a Cal Arts prof. that they lost a painting instructor to Yale recently.

[sharethewealth]

I was told from a Cal Arts prof. that they lost a painting instructor to Yale recently.

yep: http://art.yale.edu/AnokaFaruqee

[kyurious]

current department heads here:

http://art.yale.edu/FacultyAndStaff

heard only good things about jim hodges

aside from dept head questions have also heard storr isn't simply acting out his whims, but has been actively listening and responding to students

Hi Truthbetold,

What are some of the good things you've heard about Jim Hodges?

Thanks!

[YaleMFA]

The inside story is that the new Dean of the School of Art is a terrible administrator and as a result most heads quit.

The old head of the photography graduate program complained about the poor treatment the sculpture head and others received; he was fired, others quit. I've heard directly from one senior person directly involved that the Dean is impossible to get along with, despite the seemingly "nice" and "bookish" appearance, and he directly caused the exodus. This is a shame since it represents complete dismanteling of one of the top art schools.