Nov 19th Session 1A

Presentation 1: From Drawing School to Liberal Arts Community College: Change through the 20th Century, Diane Wilkin

This paper documents the growth and impact of leadership, philosophy, and educational climate on the School of Industrial Arts (SIA) in Trenton, New Jersey.  It will introduce the people and describe the events that had major impacts on the evolution of the school programs and structure.  The school began as the Evening Drawing School (EDS), an evening mechanical drawing class to train industrial pottery workers in the arts in order to enhance the aesthetic qualities of American products. The school evolved through the 20th century into the School of Industrial Arts (SIA) and ultimately the Mercer County Community College of today.  

The SIA proved to be a professional ‘stepping stone’ for arts education leaders and its course and mission was influenced by each.   Charles F. Binns was the first Superintendent/Principal and left for the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred, New York.  Henry McBride became the “Dean of Art Critics” in New York after five years in Trenton, and Dana P. Vaughan moved on after four years to become the dean of Cooper Union’s School of Art and Architecture.  The longest directorship tenure was by Frank Forrest Frederick who opened the school to broader community access, developed collaborations with the Normal School and local High Schools, wrote educational art instruction manuals recently re-published.  He also guided the school through two World Wars and many debates surrounding vocational education.    Each leader brought their own expertise and interest to the School of Industrial Arts and left a legacy behind.   

The SIA philosophy was based on an alliance between art and vocation. In an effort to maintain the strength of the arts in the face of mechanization and specialization in the early twentieth century, the school curriculum was continually changing and adjusting.  Legislative and funding decisions had huge impacts and were instrumental in steering the course of the School of Industrial Arts into a Junior College model and finally, its present structure as the Mercer County Community College.

This paper weaves the story of the School of Industrial Art’s growth spurts, struggles, and leadership changes through the early 1900’s, while focusing on the debates surrounding art and vocational education, the relationships with local industrial leaders, and the influence of the local commerce on the school growth.    Primary artifacts including SIA school records, course brochures, Trenton School Board minutes, published newspaper articles, and personal letters were reviewed in conjunction with academic literature on the industrial revolution, visual arts education and the training of workers.

The story of the School of Industrial Arts mirrors the twentieth century shifts and changes in educational policy and the view of the benefits of arts education by industrial leaders.  In hearing the voices of the SIA leaders, we can find role models to help us articulate the need for integrated art education and continue the work of those early advocates.  

Presentation 2: Listening as Research: The Whitney Museum of American Art and an Evolving History of Community-Based Arts Outreach, Hannah Heller

As the Whitney Museum of American Art settles in to its new home in the downtown Meatpacking District in New York City, it is now an opportune time to reflect on the contemporary and historical significance of place and local community for the museum. Indeed, the Whitney’s history is one of several historic moves; first from a downtown gallery space in Greenwich Village in 1931, to land donated by MoMA in 1954, to its iconic building designed by Marcel Breuer near Museum Mile on the Upper East Side in 1966, and now back downtown again. By comparing and contrasting the significant 1966 move to current efforts around community outreach, this paper addresses the question: What are the sensitivities around place making and community development when integrating an institution into an existing community? The author situates both moves in a historical context, looking specifically through the lens of the history of community-based arts education and outreach. Primary resources examined come from the Whitney archives, including Director’s files, building records, and records kept by the Education Department. Results indicate that while contemporary efforts emerged as soon as the 2015 move was announced, museum administrators in the 1960’s only started to become audience focused after the Breuer building opened its doors, and experienced only a moderate initial degree of success. Through “listening as research” and initiating dialogue as an integral part of the outreach process, the current Whitney represents a much different, modernized tradition of responsible and responsive institutionalized community activism.

Presentation 3: Beyond Pratt’s Gates: The Historical Context for Campus/Community Partnerships, Heather Lewis

This essay highlights specific historical moments when structural inequalities shaped the physical, cultural and economic contours of the local communities located beyond Pratt’s gates and the ways in which local residents as well as Pratt faculty, students and administrators responded. These examples illustrate how history can, and should, inform the challenges of developing and maintaining a reciprocal campus/community partnership between a school of art and design and its local community.  

Pratt is currently part of a changing urban landscape that embodies new inequalities as gentrification displaces historically significant African American and Latino communities. As part of this contested urban future, Pratt faculty and students wrestle with the role of the arts and design in ameliorating or exacerbating urban inequality.  The new creative class may be a transient solution to the deep historical inequities in income and opportunity discussed in the essay.  However, Pratt’s presence, as a predominantly white institution in a historically Black and Latino community suggests that a greater historical awareness can inform Pratt’s complex relationship to local communities amidst the challenges of gentrification. Such awareness on the part of those inside the gates, erected by the undemocratic forces of urban renewal in the 1960s, might contribute to a more reciprocal campus/community partnership.