Ballpark Incident

Art's Validity Interrogated! Help Needed!

With what I assume to be unintentionally ironic timing, given the presence of the College Art Association's annual conference in L.A. at this very moment (and the "BLACK MATTERS at West" exhibit currently on view in the FA gallery), West LA College has decided that it's time to perform a "viability study" on its once-stellar Fine Art program -- which could result in the elimination of studio art classes for the school's student population -- which consists primarily of economically disadvantaged African-Americans and Latinos.

The remaining FA faculty have been invited to present data on the viability of art education in general, specific to the creative economy of Southern California, and specific to community colleges and their clientele. Any links to relevant research would be greatly appreciated. Comments below, or dghrvy at gmail.

Chertkow in Context

An Advanced Painting reference material assignment from MA Peers' UCLA class completed by Jimmy Chertkow, then subjected to several years of dampness and mold. Notice how Time no longer applies. UPDATE: The actual assignment was to curate a show based on your work.

Weird Connections #374

System of Subterranean Fires from Mundus Subterraneus (1678 edn.) vol. 1, p. 194

Just want to make note of this before I forget - so last Monday, during the first class of my Intro Art History Survey class, I was explaining how Art History is mostly made up, and often within a generation or two the speculative interpretations of respected experts become ridiculous embarrassments, and I gave the first example that came to mind -- Athanasius Kircher's wildly inaccurate attempt at translating Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Robert Smithson After Athanasius Kircher, 1971, 12% x 15%", ink.

All well and good, moving right along, but when I attempted to get online during the break to access my roster and give out some secret codes for students who wanted to add the class, West's server was having one of its too-regular cognitive collapses, and refused to let me surf. So I was looking for options, and my wifi detector gave me the following options: wlacstudent; wlacfaculty, wlac_us (the art computer lab, which saved my ass); and... athanasiuskircher. 

Ed Asner and Billy Dee Williams examining System of Subterranean 

Fires diorama (M.A. Peers) at the Museum of Jurassic Technology, 2001

I was a little spooked by this, a little paranoid, a little everything, and I actually asked the class towards the end - "Um... do any of you have a device named Athanasius Kircher?" They all laughed, but no one fessed up. I remain mystified. The end.

A Finding Aid to the Jancar Gallery Records, 1972-2015

I am tickled that the 2 pieces of ephemera that show up (so far) are the invite to the Supernatural show in which I was flattered to be included, and Lee Lynch's punk map for "Perform Chinatown: CHAOS RAINS" (aka REIGNS), above.

https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/jancar-gallery-records-17458