What popes, kings, and dukes once financed, what guilds once practiced, and what fine art academies once honed, is now in the hands of Universities. In the last half-century, undergraduate art departments have proliferated on campuses across the country. But now that university professors are charged with grooming artistic talent and seeing to it that future captains of science, industry and finance know their Rubens from their Rembrandt, art's place in academia is up for debate.
Some hard-core intellectuals prefer to banish art instruction to the after-hours realm of choir practice and mime workshops. Others consider it essential to a solid liberal arts education. Some artists think it's nonsense, others think it necessary.
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Marjorie Garber, Chair of the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard
Robert Reed, Director of Undergraduate Studies at Yale
