Tuesday, February 24, 2009

A Note on "Quality Service," Staff Show on the 6th and 7th Floors

What struck me about "Quality Service," tonight on the sixth and seventh floors—a show that someone told me felt like it was staging a place for a "sense of community"—was how necessary the institutional problems at Cooper have been to any sense of community. That is, the last few years have been strange for Cooper, and maybe strangest for the art school, which felt the impact of the decision to demolish Hewitt tangibly and reacted with the most anger. Several staff members chose not to be part of this show because, I think, that the tight Spring exhibition schedule has made it hard for some seniors (and non-seniors) to schedule shows, and that the staff show makes it tighter. And shows organized by the administration, really anything done by the administration, seem always to bring on (an unfortunately quiet) resigned protest.

Considering the crunch on exhibition space, a sprawling two-floor staff show may strike some as ostentatious. It may be ostentatious. And shows with the face of the administration behind it (with, like, a title and subtitle) and here I'm thinking of the Middle States show last Spring, tend to feel clumsy and pretentious, especially at a time when the administration and the art-student body have such a tepid relationship.

Still, it was hard not to feel some sense of community—a strange one, fractured by the studios in LIC, and in apprehension of this big, new endeavor where Hewitt used to be—but  a community.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

First, I would like to say that I am very happy that this forum exists, and that it is used at least sometimes by people other than the mysterious evangelical poster who showed up over the summer.

And second, I am thrilled that the members of the Cooper community with whom I have spoken enjoyed Quality Service, both for the work itself as well as for the opportunity to become more familiar with these people -- these artists -- who make the institution tick. Much of the value of this show, in my estimation, lies in this broadening and deepening of understanding amongst the technical and support staff, and between that group and the students and faculty. I can't help but feel that it will make a difference in our interactions in the School of Art when we remember that nearly all of us are working artists, and it is my hope that that undercurrent of camaraderie -- or at least of shared experience -- will allow for richer interactions on some level between students, staff, and faculty.

To clarify the question of scheduling: The staff show was put on the exhibition schedule only after all seniors were given their show spaces, and after all other non-senior exhibition proposals that had been handed in were placed. Furthermore, the show was scheduled early in the semester so that it would not take the tech staff's attention and energies away from assisting the seniors with the preparations for their shows.

As someone who is still relatively new to Cooper -- next week is my one-year anniversary, in fact -- this space crunch is all that I know. I arrived after the demolition of the Hewitt and the move to Long Island City. When I got here, the 5th floor lobby had already become studio space, and the 1st floor colonnade had been turned over to the construction company that is building the New Academic Building -- or, as it is apparently "officially" called, 41 Cooper Square. And this semester, we lost the Lubalin Gallery as well. I hope that we will all be able to breathe a big sigh of spatial expansion relief next year, whan we will have the colonnade and 5th floor lobby returned to us as exhibition / critique / installation spaces, and when the Lubalin Center will open its new gallery adjacent to the main (yet-to-be-officially-named) gallery in the new building. The School of Art is also looking to identify additional spaces in the new building that, although not programmed as exhibition space, might be used to show work. Stay tuned.

All of that said, thanks again to all who attended the opening for Quality Service, as well as the openings for Caitlin Everett's show on the 2nd floor, and Clara Carter & Kelly Zutrau's show in the Great Hall Gallery. I hope to see as many of you as can make it for the rest of the exhibitions, opening every Tuesday for the rest of the semester, and I look forward to working with those artists whose shows are coming up.

Best,
David William
Exhibitions & Special Projects Coordinator
Cooper Union School of Art

joshua caleb weibley said...

preach!

both of you!

E said...

This site is cool. Please do a belated 422 review of my show, the movie MOTORCYDE. I had a show with Nik and Keegan on 4-22-08 in the Great Hall. I guess the best thing would be to review the whole show, as it would be impossible to seperate any one thing.