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SF Elite Wakes Up to Loss of Art Institute by Doniphan Blair
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The steep hill, striking views and interesting gate welcomed all comers both to the San Francisco Art Institute's magnificent Moorish building and it’s ambitious art endeavors. photo: courtesy SFAI
SINCE THEY REFUSE TO TAKE CINE-
SOURCE’s calls, we have to take the word of Sam Whiting of the SF Chronicle who reported on July 22, 2020 that “In a dramatic reversal, the San Francisco Art Institute announced Tuesday, July 21, that it has invited all students within a year of their degrees to re-enroll,” albeit online classes only.
That is because, in March, they had been required to quit or transfer due to the fact the esteemed art school was closing its doors just shy of its 150th birthday, a catastrophic combination of Covid 19 and long and short term mismanagement (see cineSOURCE's April article here)
One egregious error was investing $14 million in a satellite campus in Fort Mason, which was used only three years before closing last semester.
According to Whitings, this, “was made possible by a combination of government pandemic aid, a successful fundraiser, cuts to staff and operations, and an agreement between the Board of Trustees and tenured faculty.”
While the agreement saves 15 full-time faculty, it throws under the bus 69 adjunct faculty who had already been fired in June.
“There has been an outpouring of support from around the world,” said Faculty Union president Robin Balliger, also Whitings's reportage. “We are all working toward keeping the Art Institute open.”
One can only hope that "all of those working" included some of the Bay Area's dot com trillionaires who finally awoke from their scientific slumber to realize that humanity's great achievements in language, community and culture were powered first by art, even though fire and arrow technology were there since the pre-Paleolithic era.
To cover the in-arrears institution’s existing and ongoing costs, obviously at least some dot-commers stepped forward and cineSOURCE, for one, applauds them, given the obvious fact that, "Industry without art is brutality."
Apparently SFAI authorities apologized profusely for what they forced the students, often foreign (and often Chinese), to endure: Please come home, no hard feelings.
Putting their money where their mouth is, the school—which has suffered endemic enrollment hemorrhaging, from 700 undergraduates five years ago to 280 or so last semester—reduced tuition by half, to $25,000!
“People realized that something very precious and unique was in serious jeopardy,” noted Pam Rorke Levy, SFAI Board Chair (again according to Whitings). “This time everyone realized that they had to step forward now or there would not be another opportunity.”
Of course, there are all sorts of kinks, confusions and still-impending catastrophes, but this is great news for one of the Bay Area’s most elevated art scenes and we wish them luck (and putting our money where our mouth is offer them a free ad for six months).
Doniphan Blair is a writer, film magazine publisher, designer, musician and filmmaker ('Our Holocaust Vacation'), who can be reached Posted on Aug 04, 2020 - 12:00 AM