The situation at U.S.C. is a small scene in a much larger drama, one concerning the place of art in the new, more corporate university order. Traditionally, art education has been a little too vocational to fit in with the rest of the humanities. But lately it seems that art education isn’t vocational enough. Or, at least, it’s out of step with the pedagogical model to which universities are turning in an effort to make their arts offerings both more alluring and more lucrative. Last fall, the Roski School of Art and Design inaugurated the U.S.C. Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation, a four-year undergraduate program designed to “empower the next generation of disruptive inventors and professional thought leaders across a multitude of global industries.” (Muhl serves as both the dean of Roski and the director of Iovine and Young.) The ultra-hip academy, where students learn about visual and audio design rather than art or music, and where coursework culminates at a mysterious experimental facility known as The Garage, was made possible by a seventy-million-dollar gift from its eponymous donors—both of whom recently sold their headphone company to Apple for $3.2 billion, and one of whom is also known as Dr. Dre.
A Few Good Reasons to Drop Out of Art School – The New Yorker
full disclosures: 1, my child is an undegraduate at USC, although in a different program; 2, I am faculty in an MFA program that combines design, technology and art in interesting ways, although at a different university; 3, I hesitate to use the word disruptive to describe what we do, although we have made our cherished colleagues uncomfortable at times; 4, I have attempted to add boldface emphasis to two lines above, but Tumblr may have foiled me; 5, our program is not underwitten by an endowment, we are open to offers ;).