Skip to main content

Search form

Shopping cart 0 items
Subscribe
Donate
Login
Share
Login
Home
  • Become a Member
  • Journal
    • Current Articles
      • Interviews
      • Narrative
      • History
      • Technology
      • Criticism
      • Other
    • Print Archive
  • Announcements
    • General
    • Classified
    • Events
    • Newsletter
  • Calendar
  • Participate
    • Write for SP
    • Internships
    • Donate
      • Partners
      • Underwriting
  • About
    • Mission
    • History
    • Masthead
    • Board of Directors
    • Contact
    • Privacy Notice
    • FAQ
  • Grants
  • L&L Kilns
Co-work Space.

A Holistic, Interdisciplinary Approach to Arts Degrees

Brian Kakas

The impetus behind this article came as our program evolved and grew stronger after a three-year evaluation of the academic programs throughout the entirety of the institution (we are now entering year three of the new programs in place). This form of massive restructuring from administrations comes under the auspices of maintaining quality within curriculum, and providing adequate resources/infrastructure for our faculty, students, and staff members. Those of us who have been in academia long enough have been part of this process more than once, and we have negative feelings towards the administrators and their numbers game, which often uses strictly budgetary restraints and quantitative reasoning/assessment to determine the value or the fate of programs over that of qualitative results. Regardless of our differences and/or similarities in our respective institutions, we are fighting to maintain our identities within today’s university system, which is seemingly under fire as trends in demographics are foreboding of harder times to come due to sheer declining numbers of available students, and significantly reduced federal and state funding for the arts.  

Many of the challenges we are facing are not that different than those our mentors dealt with in academia. The next generation is becoming responsible for continued reshaping of the field, as they strive to uphold the standards and beliefs of our predecessors, while also trying to adapt to an ever-changing culture. Technology has been increasing at such rapid rates that it can be daunting and a struggle to maintain this growth, while concurrently having seemingly endless possibilities to find interdisciplinary connections to expand not only the scope of our field for our students, but to also engage the broader community at large. Along with are the constant revaluation and alterations to programs before the administration has even had chance to recognize success (which takes time).

...
Read more

Author Bio

Brian Kakas

Brian Kakas is an Associate Professor and Head of the Ceramics Program at Northern Michigan University. Successes through teaching include international partnerships with Erasmus+Mobilities to facilitate fully funded undergraduate study abroad opportunities throughout Europe and partnerships with national residency centers for internships and apprenticeships. Personal work involves exploring large scale architectural sculpture and atmospheric firing processes.

Brian Kakas

CONTACT  |  NEWSLETTER SIGNUP  |  COPYRIGHT © 2020 STUDIO POTTER  |  SITE DESIGN

Design by Adaptive Theme

Member Log in

Enter your Studio Potter username.
Enter the password that accompanies your username.
Forgot your password?
Continue as Guest
Become a Member
Library IP Login