A Beautiful Deep Dive Into Our Worldwide Arts + Culture
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A Beautiful Deep Dive Into Our Worldwide Arts + Culture |
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A HOLE IN THE HEART: |
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by Jeffrey Vallance
We were taught the strategic importance of working in series and producing large-scale, ambitious pieces that would appeal to galleries and collectors. This model, however, was deeply entrenched in capitalist ideology: it assumed a linear trajectory of growth, production, and marketability, with success defined by one's ability to penetrate the upper echelons of the commercial art world. But herein lies the flaw. This system is calibrated for an elite minority — perhaps 0.01% of art students, often those with financial safety nets or social capital, who can afford the risks and volatility of the high-end art market. The rest — those without trust funds or institutional support — are left navigating a system that offers little infrastructure for sustainability. In truth, very few art graduates will continue to make work consistently over the course of their lives, not for lack of talent, but due to the lack of viable models for cultivating long-term creativity. This disconnect calls for a paradigm shift. Instead of preparing students solely for market success, art schools need to emphasize how to sustain a practice over a lifetime — how to build a studio routine that is nourishing and self-reflective, rather than externally validated. We need to teach how to develop an art practice that is adaptable, rooted in curiosity, and resilient to economic pressures. Rather than catering to the whims of an often inaccessible market, artists must be equipped with the tools to cultivate lifelong creativity.
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