The state of the arts

By Logan Beck     11/13/08 6:00pm

For the first time in decades the Rice Gallery will not be hosting the Visual and Dramatic Arts student art show this year during graduation. Many students and faculty are upset and taking action.Rice Gallery Director Kimberly Davenport, who took her post in 1994, said she decided not to host the VADA senior show after several years of dwindling attendance and interest.

"Last spring's annual student show had the lowest attendance of any show since I've been here," Davenport said.

Since the founding of the VADA department in the late 1960s, the Rice Gallery has been showing student art. In 1996, the gallery separated from the VADA department with the caveat that it would continue to hold the show.

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In July, VADA Department Chair Karin Broker, who had served for five years, was replaced by Associate Professor of Film Brian Huberman. Huberman said Broker had been contacted by the gallery concerning problems with the student show but she decided the decision was one the new Chair should make. Huberman said by the time the issue was brought to him, the gallery had already booked an artist for the time that the student show was usually held.

Davenport said when she did not receive notification from the VADA department, she booked Henrique Oliveira in place of the senior art show.

"I waited for a response from the department until I felt like I had to move on," Davenport said. "We had this amazing Brazilian artist whom you had to book way in advance to get the visa and he could only really come in that time that would have overlapped with the student show. So I thought, I'm just going to wait and if I don't hear anything I'm going to book him."

Huberman said he disagrees with the way this decision was made.

"There should have at least been a proper hearing," Huberman said. "I feel a certain disappointment that the department has been excluded from the gallery after all these years because the gallery provided such a wonderful showcase for the senior students. Its location at the heart of the campus was really important in terms of reminding the people of the university that we are here."

Dean of Humanities Gary Wihl, who approved the decision of the gallery, declined to be interviewed for this article.

Huberman said the gallery has a responsibility to showcase student art.

"I don't see why it's such a problem for such a small period of time for a gallery, which after all, is on a university campus, to provide some sort of service to the student population," he said.

VADA Lecturer Paul Hester said Davenport's expectations of the students for the show were unrealistic.

"From what I've heard, [Davenport's] frustration is with the lack of professionalism with the students and faculty," he said. "I think her expectations of the students are very high. I don't think that's a bad thing; but it is unfair that she is comparing the way it is to work with students and the way it is to work with the artists that she pays a lot of money to have work for her."

Davenport said she considered several factors in making her decision, notably the decline of the quality of student art in recent years.

"Over the past several years, a decrease in the quality of the work seemed to come about," she said. "Students seemed to lose interest in it. It didn't seem to be that big a deal to be in the gallery. Getting work from the students on time was increasingly difficult - it was like pulling teeth. I don't know whether it wasn't being communicated as a big deal or if they didn't like the format. I really don't know."

Senior VADA major and VADA Student Advisory Board member Haley Ray agreed that she heard about the problems with last year's senior show.

"I've heard professors say that the student work was very sloppy. People were coming in without their artwork matted or framed, expecting the gallery to do all that work, which is unfair; you wouldn't walk into a professional gallery anywhere else with unfinished work," Ray, a Jones College senior, said.

Davenport said the gallery's prestige has grown and the costs of bringing in quality art has increased.

"The gallery has now grown to a point where it costs a lot of money to hold all the shows we do," Davenport said. "We look at the student show the same way. I just couldn't justify taking a whole spot devoted to a show that nobody seemed to want. There are artists that would love to have a show here."

Huberman said this event emphasizes the need for student interest in the betterment of the program.

"This is one of those moments that we have to remind people that the arts are important," he said.

Ray underlined the fact that the students need to play a central role in healing the relationship between the gallery and the VADA.

"We've got to prove that our artwork is deserving of a professional space," she said. "Our work has to be just as good as anybody else's in the art world. We can't be allowed to slack off just because we're students."

Ray said the VADA Student Advisory Board is working on finding an alternative space for this year's show.

"We're looking at other galleries around Houston to see if we can find an opening," she said. "The problem is the School of Humanities has not given us any funding to replace what we lost with the Rice Gallery. There's not much we can do without any money and since the Dean of Humanities approved the decision of the Gallery, it seems like it should also be [his] responsibility to help us fund a new show."

Many feel like the decision made by the School of Humanities and the Rice Gallery is indicative of a larger trend at Rice.

"I think this move is part of a larger problem: an overall marginalization of the arts at Rice," Huberman said.

He estimated the VADA has not been given a new tenure-track position in at least 20 years.

"We have approximately 70 majors or double majors," Huberman said. "That puts us at third largest in the humanities. Yet we're not treated in a way that rewards us for carrying our share of the load."

Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman said he did not have information about faculty appointments. He said Rice is supportive of its art programs, however.

"I think there's a general sense that there's just not enough art at Rice, and I haven't spoken to anyone who disagrees," he said. "It's just a matter of finding the right venues. There's interest in providing more art for the campus at every level of the university, from students to faculty to the Board of Trustees."

Hanszen College sophomore and VADA major Delphine Zimmern said she got the feeling the arts are not a major university priority after meeting President David Leebron.

"President Leebron sat down next to me at lunch one day during last year's Parents Weekend," Zimmern said. "At the time, I didn't know who he was; I thought he was just another parent. We started talking and I told him I was an art major. He assumed I was talking about History of Art and after I corrected him I found out that he really didn't know where the Art Department was. He kept confusing the Media Center and the Rice Gallery. After I found out I was talking to the president of the university I was shocked. Leebron doesn't seem to be a proponent of the arts."

Huberman said university support of the arts at Rice is lackluster at best.

"We seemed to have succeeded in achieving a degree of anonymity that surprises me sometimes," Huberman said. "But our people are doing something. We've had Emmy-winning filmmakers. They're not just doing this 'basket weaving' and going off and become lawyers, doctors and scientists and such - there are those as well and I bet you they're better for it - a little basket weaving never hurt anyone. That's what is great about this university. If you want that broad education then coming here is the right choice because you could read the great books or do some painting or make a film if you wanted to."

Huberman said that there are many divisions within the students and faculty and he believes that this is due in large part to the fact that the VADA lacks a central building. The offices of many of the professors, as well as the photography and film sections, are located in the Media Center, near the police station. Studio arts, however, are located in Sewall Hall on the north side of campus. Theatre is in yet another section of campus - Hamman Hall.

"We've always been scattered," Huberman said. "For years we've requested a single building, but we've always been denied that. President Leebron mentioned during his State of the University address in October that a Visual Arts building was being planned. When he was asked about it he answered that they're not planning anything. The attitude towards the visual arts is that until we find an outside donor, nothing will happen. They're not going to go into debt for a Visual Arts building."

Forman said plans for a visual arts building are not the university's top priority right now.

"There is a general understanding that there would be a great value in getting a better space for visual arts but it's not the most pressing priority," he said. "There are a lot of needs on campus right now and a lot of construction going on, but if we find the money for it tomorrow, we'd begin building it. As of right now, though, it's not on the list of current projects."

Huberman said in addition to being decentralized, the facilities for the VADA department are out of date, including the Rice Media Center, which was built in 1970.

"The Media Center was designed to last five years," he said. "So when I arrived in '75 it was technically out of date."

There is also a sense of division between the tracks of the department, Huberman said. "I had a film student with whom I was talking about the gallery and they said, 'that's studio stuff and as a filmmaker it really doesn't affect me.'"

Ray agreed that the department is riddled with problems and that the Rice administration has not been very supportive of the arts.

"There has been a lot of frustration among the student body," Ray said. "A lot of people are wondering where their money is going and why the administration is not more accessible to questions that we have about certain things, like the gallery, lab fees, professional preparedness classes, just to name a few issues."

Davenport also agreed that the arts are often overlooked at Rice.

"Even though the academic seal is letters, science and art, art always gets pushed to the side," Davenport said. "It's one-third of the academic mission. Why isn't more made of it?"

Forman said he had not heard complaints from visual arts students who felt the department was overlooked.

"I'm disappointed to hear that that's the experience of some of our art students," he said. "It's the general agreement throughout the administration and Board of Trustees that it'd be wonderful to have more art on campus ... there's a lot of appreciation for art in general and the department of visual arts in particular."

Not all the problems stem from lack of administrative support, Ray said.

"In some of my classes, there's no accountability put on the students by the professors," Ray said. "There's also no accountability put on the professors by the students. One professor had people over for tea during our class. Actions like that just made us feel unimportant and unmotivated- like the professor had other, more important things than teaching her class and helping her students develop."

Huberman said the call for change has to come from both students and faculty.

"The students have to demand the education they pay for," Huberman said. "And the faculty have to fulfill their commitment to their research, their teaching and their service to the university. We need to address these problems and heal the department from within."

The senior show will likely be held in the Media Center this year. Huberman said the department will continue to work to get the Rice Gallery show back for future seniors. Davenport agreed that she believes the relationship between the gallery and the VADA department could be repaired.

"It's not to say that it won't ever be back but some stuff has to be gotten together," Davenport said.

Huberman said the VADA wants to improve the awareness of the arts at Rice.

"We've got to generate excitement about the arts," he said. "If there's a positive thing to take away from the bruising that we've taken recently, I would say that it's an opportunity to reinvent ourselves.

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