I think their biggest problem is that $33,000 a year.
I certainly counsel young artists all the time not to waste their money on a degree, especially from a place like Cornish.

We need State and Federal funded higher education for every american.

I graduated in 2008. As my class was exiting, we accurately predicted the downfall of Cornish related to all the above elements. I paid $20,000 my first year there, $24,000 by my fourth year. It's now up to $33,000 with no added value at all.

@10

spot on. graduated in 2006. I'd like to underline your last sentence. "it's now up to 33,000 with no added value at all"

Speaking as an art department alum -

"When I got here"—fall 2012—"I said to faculty, 'Where's the writing? Where's the criticality?'" Johnson said. "Tell me. Show me. Where's the digital literacy? There was no shared ethos about what we as a team believe students should be learning."

THIS. SO THIS. Cornish was so unbelievably lacking in ANY OTHER classes outside the arts, and upon graduating I felt wholly unprepared for the "real world" as well as the "art world." Humanities & Sciences was a joke.
I'm glad they're restructuring - my personal experience with the school was disappointing, and when kids thinking about going there have asked me about it I'm honest.

Wow, one year is more then my entire undergrad degree...who the hell can afford that?

There was no question that Cornish has been becoming a ship without sails for the past several years. Even as students we could see that. But if you really want to be an artist, you should probably build yourself a raft and start paddling.

For every wasted moment of my time there, I had an invaluable experience that shaped me. For every person (faculty, staff or fellow student) that made me want roll my eyes so far into the back of my head that they would get stuck, there were people that pushed me, bonded with me, and taught me important lessons. For every dollar that I (and my gracious family) invested in this college I can either list off all my complaints and the reasons why Cornish is dead and wasted my time and money, or I can accept the reality that I'm in a lot of debt, but it's just money. And even though I'm part of a culture that lives and breathes dollar bills, I can say fuck it I can't put a price tag on my experience and I met some amazing people that I will never forget.

I would never say Cornish screwed me over. Maybe it didn't meet or exceed my expectations because the school didn't really have their shit together while I attended. But it wasn't a complete waste. You can only get out of it as much as you are willing to put into it... that's life.

Really good article. Thanks for taking the time to write it, Jen. And good luck to all current and future Cornish staff, faculty and students.

I think Karina's statement above is well written and reflected. My son graduated in 2013 and there were definitely as many pro's as con's. The Art department needs significant help and I am pleased that Christy is ready to shake things up....it's likely needed across most disciplines. I personally was disappointed in the lack of innovation and the unbalanced commitment across the school. However, my son still had a terrific experience and grew enormously by having some amazing teachers. The school is not perfect and I could ramble off a number of issues. However, the kids that succeed at Cornish are committed to their craft and will learn and grow, even if they are not in an ideal environment and friends are made for life.

I'm a graduate of Cornish in 2007 from the Performance Production department. I had a job straight out as a full time ATD for a regional theater. I have only gotten better jobs every two years since.

I would say that perhaps some departments have professors that are out of date and no longer actively working in their field, but last I checked this year all of the PPR faculty and staff are still actively working in the field. I'm sure that carries to other departments as well.

The base of the problem is yes Cornish is behind the art scene rather than leading it. I would also say that I never would have gone if the price was the absurd 34k it is today. I thought it was over priced at 19K and I got the krailsheimer scholarship which is Cornish largest scholarship, a whopping 10k for one year. It was once a full ride scholarship (what happen to investment Cornish?). I don't know what the CFO is doing, but it’s not managing the finances and proposing a solution to the money troubles. Cornish is 100 years old this year and the smallest endowment I’ve ever seen for a company of half their size. And if you look at the annual reports since Jeff the CFO took over 16 years ago NOTHING has changed, in the way of the endowment. Yeah it went up, but I spend more in a year working in theater then Cornish raises.

The expense of the school will only go up if they are to hold any prestige. The only answer was to build a strong foundation in their endowments 80 years ago.

So I disagree that the Professors are the only issue, in the end it seems to me that it all boils down to money. Without money you can’t buy good tools that attract good student or professors, nor can you afford to hire the good artist away from their successful jobs if you pay less. In the end I side with the teachers union as it will force Cornish to make a choice shut down or get their head out of their ass. Please choose the removal from the rectum.

One last thing if anyone from Cornish reads this, remember you have a building full of artist we don’t just talk we express and act. I suggest you look into one of your sister school NCSA (now UNCSA) they had a full strike including students to get rid of the administration mainly the Chancellor. It worked.

Soooo my background: I graduated from Cornish in 2006 and now i'm working there for what's soon to be Seattle's minimum wage. I'm out of work for four months of the year (summer and winter break), but so long as I don't apply for unemployment I can keep my benefits package. For the year 2013 Cornish paid me around 17,000. I work roughly 40 hours a week, but that's not counting the time I spend after my work day using the studio space for my own art practice. This is a huge benefit and the major reason I stay working at the school. There's been months long stretches were i'm on campus from 8am to 12pm trying to cobble together an art career. Also I haven't seen a raise in 3 years and most likely won't have a position next year... but with that said...

I see a lot of students with potential. I also see the few that just shouldn't be there. But because Cornish is trying to run 90-95% of its operating cost off tuition we're stuck keeping students who serve no other function than keeping the lights on. It drags down everyone. Walking through past BFA shows I would think to myself "why the hell is this person allowed to graduate, let alone show their work" Research centered learning will be a boon for the program so long as we actually make the students do the work, and stop shuffling them from year to year. BUT WE CAN'T because we need their MONEY!

The article hits it on the head with "cognitive dissidence" raising money (mainly by tuition) but cutting operating costs (mainly by a hiring/wage freezes, and moving toward an adjunct only system). The school needs to invest in the future but the ways administration has gone about this haven't been entirely fruitful. I think the new program Christy is trying to implement is going to be amazing, but are students directly out of high school going to know what to do with it? And if they don't how much hand holding is everyone (teachers included) going to need to get the system running and effective.

When I was going to Cornish, tuition was about 80,000 for 4 years, currently students are looking at 132,000, plus a forced meal plan and $800ish a month in dorm room fees which all freshmen are required to live in. The article is mainly centered around the art department and honestly that's where most of the trouble is. I can't speak directly to theater, dance, or music, but I know Design has around a 90% retention rate. That's an amazing number and I believe what's driving this retention is students can see a job in the design field post BFA. Art students on the other hand, or at least the ones with any ounce of sense know they're studying a field with very very little revenue opportunities.

Wow. Bad times at the ol' alma mater. I am a theater grad and while Cornish did equip me well in many areas, I too can vouch for a faculty that was often disinterested in anything going on outside of the halls. I started a theater company with three other Cornish grads in the mid 90's and our work soon became noticed by the greater Seattle theater community. We did shows for several years, successfully. Our reviews were great and houses full. During that time, only 2 faculty members ever could be bothered to come check us out, along with the previous president, who was a gem. I was frankly amazed that these instructors who had spent three or four years helping us hone our skills totally ignored our work after releasing us into the wild. Could it be because so few of them had anything going on in their own artistic lives?

Really, Cornish? Even an outside observer can see past a lot of this rhetoric. Why blame the artists/teachers, who many observers can see are active professionals, visible and viable in the art community here and around the country? Why blame the programs, when it is the administration and board who appear to be the parties at fault for the current financial dilemma, the culture of poverty, the escalating tuition, and the failure to raise a decent endowment for operating expenses beyond those funded by tuition alone? It is classic One Percent-101. Blame the employees. Point fingers at and punish everyone else but the higher-ups who failed to avert the crisis due to years of financing on tuition alone, who institute austerity while collecting large salaries and building expensive buildings, who may lay off employees who have worked devotedly for the college, and who seem to encourage overt age discrimination by vilifying people who stuck it out. Nice work. Nellie Cornish would not be proud. She would be outside picketing.

I think it's very telling that the endowment is so piddly, on both sides of the coin. No resources to draw on for growth and substance, and few alums donating(?) or no development(?)

@23 If you say there's little hope, I believe you unfortunately. You're one of the few people that probably knows best.

I became the one-man Cornish English Department when Alan Furst quit to write bestsellers a la le Carre and passed the gig to me. I made $1,000 a year.

I graduated in 2008 from the theatre dept. I was attracted to the Idea that Cornish was a small boutique school where I would get serious training and time with my teachers. I expected my class to be around 20 people... it was 64 at the start "The largest class yet" (they have gotten bigger every year). The tuition started at $25K and leapt every year by at least a thousand dollars. There are too many students that being charged too much, not getting the intense training that produces quality graduates. The teachers are spread too thin and as a result are not able to give the care I am sure they want to give. I asked very specific questions before choosing the school - Do you set your students up in the community to help insure their success? ( they said yes... the answer is really no... ) (Are there continuing programs and access for Alumni to the schools resources /community? They said yes... the answer is really no). I loved my teachers (still do) and my classmates and I learned a great amount. The teachers you would think would get paid well being that the students are charged such absurd amounts, but they aren't, where does the money go? Mainly the high up Admin and to buildings they wouldn't need if they didn't accept/keep so many students that don't necessarily have the skill/drive/dedication to be there. They have been so focused on expansion and raking in the money they have lost track of producing good quality artists. Of the 32 that graduated from my class maybe 10 that I'm aware of are working with any real regularity in acting. Most are slaving away trying to pay off our student loans and doing a show on occasion and many have given up completely. If instead they went back to focusing on a small amount of students, charging a reasonable rate for tuition, in a smaller space, producing skilled quality artists who were passionate about their craft and grateful for the schooling they would have alumni more likely to give back and stay involved in the school. I think most of us are so embittered by the crippling amount of debt and lack of fruition Cornish has left a bitter taste in our mouths. It would be a sad thing if the school failed with such history, It does need change, but the change is not to get bigger, it is I think to go back to its roots as a small intense conservatory

so I'm struggling a lot with this article (and its comments on/off SLOG) about Cornish College of the Arts. first off, I think it's too ambitious in regards to the broad range of subjects it attacks. are things at Cornish really that dire? arts organizations everywhere are having a hard time right now. and yeah the art department really needs a lot of work, but given the new change in leadership at the school, do we really expect things to turn around overnight?

I chose to get as much out of my education as I could while I was there because it was a privilege I never thought I'd have. I fought for it. If you want to talk about the cost of education in the US, that's a bigger conversation than the particulars of this local institution.

Cornish has quite a few instructors and staff in every department who are inspiring, active, well-known, and engaged members of the art community and from what I understand they are trying to get more. it does each of those artists a disservice to slam the entire school with broad strokes about mediocrity. and suggesting the school might shut down? come on. sensationalism is not journalism, I'm sorry. I'm just going to say it out loud. let the crucifixion begin.

I don't regret my art school education one bit. I went back at 27 with my eyes wide open. that said, between Pratt and Cornish, I graduated in 2006 with about $110K in debt. I've got it down to $75K. this struggle is the single most frustrating thing in my life as a professional artist. it hinders every possible move I could make. I would be able to do more, take higher risks, and have a lot more fun if I just didn't have this $1000/month commitment. but again. this is a choice I made. to those of you still in, stay in. it's the only way you will make it worth the debt - it's worse to be in debt and not have that degree. again, push hard for what you want out of your school and it will be rewarding.

I am sad, frustrated, and angry that in the US this choice is so fucking expensive. but can I blame Cornish or Pratt Institute for that? not at all. I blame the system that forces institution to make the wrong choices, the wrong cuts, the wrong administrative hires/fires, and the wrong revenue-building strategies. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sour about the state of non-profit arts education as a whole, but it's particularly heartbreaking when people are counting on a future through them. as long as we have our national leadership verifying what "everyone" thinks is true, that art or art history shouldn't be pursued because they aren't "economically viable", that the only jobs worth getting are the ones that make money (for both employees and corporations), as long as we think the only subjects worth investing in are those which are on the test; we're going to continue to have a problem in higher education.

@SharonArnold: I shan't crucify you for your blunt yet balanced remarks. I've followed discourse in various forums re Cornish since 2005. While the school had made many mistakes, the ongoing critique is, by and large, circular and fragmented. Well-considered, useful observations get weakened or buried under snark, cynicism, and really cloudy personal agendas. Over and over again.

Like you, I returned to school as an adult, and made the most of my time in undergrad. When I considered UW, having been a working artist for over a decade, I found their range of disciplines meager, cramped, and compartmentalized. At Cornish I worked hard and engaged my instructors and classmates on a grown-up level, unafraid to question teaching or evaluation methodology, debate cultural, political, and artistic history/theory, and make diplomatic but pointed comments in critique. I was in several situations where debates reached fighting & just shy of shouting stage. I was taking an enormous personal risk on several fronts - the financial, of course, being a biggie. I don't pretend to be free of worry, frustration, even fear. But what's done is done. No one can take my education from me.

It took a bit more study to develop my interdisciplinary practice and criticality to the point where I can actually call them by those names. The primary objective in undergrad was acquiring/honing aesthetic language. Being self-motivated probably made me demand the best from my teachers. Several people - who shall remain anonymous here - really stand out in my memory, but I derived benefit from every professor I worked with, and several I just knew. Sure, they had flaws and limitations - so did/do I. I don't blame Cornish for the incompleteness of my own vision - it took the time it did to gel. Having turned a harsh light on how much I didn't know, at what time, and why, I know my share of the responsibility for that. Earlier remarks about continually debating, questioning, and fighting should put to rest any rumors that I'm shilling for my alma mater.

I disagree with many decisions, mainly administrative, made by the school: ill-advised real-estate purchases, admissions policies, and favoring amorphous "expansion" over creating contexts for actual creativity and inquiry, to name three. Yet It never ceases to amaze me how blame for nearly everything is constantly put on the faculty. I'm on record as thinking them far from perfect. But if anyone believes that firing many of them isn't a harbinger of more reliance on adjuncts, instead of a revitalized, justly treated and paid core faculty, not so fast.

A close friend with a PhD in physics is still, in his mid-50s, running from school to school to make ends meet (barely), with almost no benefits. One of my MFA professors, an incredible artist, writer, thinker, and activist, with a distinguished, decades-long record of teaching, publishing, international residencies, collaborations, and awards, received tenure less than 2 years ago. If anyone ever earned it, she did, but it's a rarity for even the most deserving to be so relatively secure in their jobs. Sure, more instructors with serious technical/media chops would be fabulous. How they'll be attracted and retained if higher education continues to cannibalize adjuncts in its hiring practices is a mystery. And as far at artists go, younger is not always better. Every now and again one must restate the obvious.

You're spot on in mentioning the larger economic and cultural forces at play here - including their effect on all arts organizations. Cornish's misjudgments hurt the school, but factors beyond its control not only worsen the consequences, but support chronic bad and desperate decision-making. It seems people have no clue about the steady drop in government support for education over the last 30 years, persistent American anti-art, anti-intellectual sentiment, and more recent divisive political strategies designed to kill any sense of shared citizenship or civic obligation. It's a damn shame, not least in light of the surge in inquiry and debate about opening up the canons and expanding art discourse into a more egalitarian and world-encompassing model.

By the way, in case anyone out there was wondering, masturbating one's erudition and education for effect isn't truly intellectual, just egotistical, boring and stupid. I'm totally anti-that.

@34: Your assessment is sharp and carries much truth. Beyond that, I'll just say that having, to all intents and purposes, only one paid critical voice in this town makes for very serious imbalance.

Good article. But what is missing is larger context: These same issues are plaguing most colleges, perhaps especially art colleges, in the United States. This type of broken culture of academia is not specific to Cornish, though theirs may be especially acute.

Consider this: I graduated from a respected art college in Philadelphia 20-plus years ago, and these same issues occurred (disinterested and uneducated instructors, "artist" faculty who haven't shown in decades, staff/faculty unwilling to change, etc.) I currently work in a local college art department and see many of the same issues named in this article. A colleague at UW tells me there are professors there who refuse to email, let alone adapt forward-thinking instructional techniques to their pedagogy. NO one has any money. Everyone is strapped thin. Ball-busting department heads are being brought in everywhere to work miracles. My own job is threatened, and I'm certainly not happy about it. But this is the state of higher education in the U.S. in 2014. Obama loves to talk about fixing education, but all he does is lecture for more accountability and transparency. Systematic changes need to be made to the entire post-secondary structure.

"Art isn't separate from history, philosophy, science, humanities. Skills matter, but they're meaningless in isolation. "We get them into these rooms with easels," Johnson said, "but we don't actually talk about what they're doing."

I started out at The Academy of Art College looking to get formal skills honed as an illustration student. I finished my higher education at The Evergreen
State College (a bargain tuition wise!) where they offered a full year course called Science, Art and Ideology with faculty from the Art Department, Science, History and English all teaching as a group and separately within the context of the course. It was brilliant. As an artist it changed everything for me.

"Art isn't separate from history, philosophy, science, humanities. Skills matter, but they're meaningless in isolation. "We get them into these rooms with easels," Johnson said, "but we don't actually talk about what they're doing."

I started out at The Academy of Art College looking to get formal skills honed as an illustration student. I finished my higher education at The Evergreen
State College (a bargain tuition wise!) where they offered a full year course called Science, Art and Ideology with faculty from the Art Department, Science, History and English all teaching as a group and separately within the context of the course. It was brilliant. As an artist it changed everything for me.

Too many errors and biases. The age discrimination in this article saddens and angers me. Twenty years experience should be regarded as a strength, something to boast over, not evidence of irrelevancy. Also, the average faculty at Cornish make no where near this amount. Most are adjunct, paid pitifully, and eligible to live at the YMCA. These are also active, working artists. My criticism of the new administration -- Payne--is not her enthusiasm for redesign. Most of us would love an opportunity to work together on program design. My complaint is her top down over night get it done mean and bullying spirit. She hasn't even taken time to know the faculty and what they can do, let alone consider the students' voices. Changes need to be made collaboratively and thoughtfully. Payne's lack of respect for faculty has been evident from the day she arrived. Too bad. Cornish may have financial troubles, but there is no shortage of creative, progressive, talented people teaching and studying there.

I'm not a student or faculty of Cornish, so I can't speak to the quality of the program. However, I will say that quality buildings are an important part of attracting good students and faculty, and real estate is a good investment for a college. But plenty of schools manage to maintain quality facilities and programs at the same time, so the buildings are not necessarily the problem.

@42 & @43. Your devaluation of art as a profession is wholly ridiculous. And the fact that you commented anonymously speak volumes. Do you really think that the arts have no social impact? Do you think your own life would be the same without them? If you do, your ignorant, bottom line. And yes, the 70% of Americans that do not to go to college should have to pay, just like those of us who walk pay for the roads the cars destroy. I'm sick of hearing the Ayn Rand-ian argument about how government funding and taxes are the root of evil.

Keep thinking about this passage in Nellie Cornish's Autobiography (for those who don't know, she founded the "institute" in 1914). In it she describes how she built an endowment set for the school and was about to throw the gala event to launch it. This was at the very beginning of the great depression. The day before this event the Seattle Times owner (one of the Blethen boys, I believe) wrote an article saying art was essentially a waste of money and the endowment as frivolous, essentially. The day of the event those providing the endowment all backed down, such was the social politics of the day.

Interestingly I see this event as pivotal for the provincial attitude towards art amongst Seattle's nouveau riche for the remainder of it's history, up until the present day. Just consider what Gates/Allen/Bezos attitude is toward the value of new art in society is. Any one of them could endow any of the art institutions or museums in this town, like, forever. And they have not (sorry Paul, your star trek and guitar collection doesn't count, though I do dig it. oh wait, you didn't even give EMP an endowment).

But then again, maybe they tried, and the anti-corporatism in the art world destroyed any sort of possible benevolence there.

Just remember folks, art is a measurement of leisure time. Evidenced by the fact that almost the only folks who can afford a formal art education these days are either trust fund kids, or retired.

I nearly forgot about this gem:

"She [Payne] swears she was popular with the unionized faculty at the art college of the University of Dundee, which is rated among the best art schools in the UK and number one in Scotland."

"Swears she was popular" is now a credible component of a "relatively [interesting word choice] formidable academic résumé"? Please.

@42 - Dude, welders get laid off too. Let folks pay for all kinds of shit they don't have, believe in, or personally benefit from - like kids, wars, etc. Oh, wait, we already do.

@43, so, by the logic of your ID, no black artist ever sweated and suffered trying to get his/her work out, with much, much less chance of success, than white folks? Good to know.

Oh my - My take as a former employee in the administration and faculty at CCA is as follows:
Cornish has a mix of faculty that is passionate and effective, demoralized and ineffective or entrenched in an outdated method and ready for retirement
Cornish is in a situation where they have a financial need to accept some students who have neither the talent, perseverance or prior education to successfully travel thru to graduation and then toward future employment or success in their field of choice
This of course affects the experience of those students who do have a realistic future in their chosen field of study and this colors their educational experience and it affects the public view of the school.
One might argue that Cornish has not made a mistake with the purchase of real estate – time will tell.
What has been a mistake is that the administration was not proactive in addressing the need to address the challenge of addressing the need to address building an endowment for student tuition needs, facility needs and programing needs. The stress on faculty, staff and department heads to keep the school afloat despite this void has been tremendous.
This stress has been added to by not being able to address the needs of students towards success in today’s arts environment. Departments are not able to offer a menu of classes or rigor that addresses the competencies needed for employment of graduates. Cornish graduates are lacking in writing, critical thinking and arts administration education. As well in some departments they lack necessary technical training and often do not have the innate talent required to succeed in their field.
There has been a shortsightedness of the administrators of the college that is not acceptable. And honestly no one was minding the ship for some years.
I am in awe of the faculty – and staff - who have held the school together for so many years – I would not give all of them kudos – some are in need of finding a more comfortable pasture to retire too, some are cruel, some are arrogant and have nothing to teach, but there are some incredible, generous, talented teachers at Cornish who share their passion, history, respect and talent with the students. They have carried the school forward despite the flaws of the administration, its lack of support and current economic challenges.
Somehow over time Nellie Cornish’s vision still lives – it inspires faculty and give hopes to students who see the potential of an education there.
It is good to shake things up – it is needed.
And it is good to remember that the beauty of art is that it has no caste or social strata – it is for all to make. When I was there (and frustrated with a lack of institutional scholarship aid) I told an administrator that I had no interest in teaching only the rich. To me that wasn’t what arts education or civil society was about. It was about offering opportunity to everyone with an interest and sensibility towards art.
So – Identify those who still have the passion, who are honest about what they are doing and who see the value of an arts education – and do the right thing for arts education. Put some art studios on the seventh floor – or maybe some dance studios! Get the students out of the basement and put them in the light.
Do the right thing for the students – it is as simple as that.

It appears from the article and above comments that the author may have a bias against the art department due to having lost her job there. She concentrated on a few negative examples, sliming by association the rest of the faculty at Cornish. I suspect that this does them a great disservice. These are people who appear to have taken a huge financial hit by staying at Cornish, and they likely don’t deserve guilt by association. They, like many others in the US these past six years, also do not deserve sudden unemployment or being forced into poverty-level retirements, which it appears may be the result of the threatened layoffs.

Change is often healthy and welcome, and it sounds like many faculty at Cornish do want change. It will be unfortunate if it is achieved by forcing out artist-teachers. Apparently the new provost “commissioned 100 women in a traditional fishing town on the east coast of Scotland to make paintings and tell their own stories about the collapse of their traditional industry and identities.” What about the collapse of laid-off faculty members’ jobs and identities? Even if the ideas for change are excellent, if the manner in which a swift and desperate change takes place is sudden and inhumane, then Cornish may be saved financially, but what about its heart and soul? What kind of example does this set regarding their chosen careers for students in the arts? It teaches them this - that artists are expendable.

Ms Graves has written an unbalanced article which
gives great credence to the administration's side of the issues, while presenting the faculty as out of touch, divided and responsible for the college's debt.

The faculty are committed to being current, cutting edge and active in our fields. Our jobs are, and have been, to teach and mentor the students to find their artistic voices. The administration's job is to run the college in a forward looking, financially responsible manner; the board's job is to raise money for scholarships, an endowment and infrastructure.

It's pretty evident to us faculty where to point the finger. Hopefully the readers of The Stranger will do a little 'critical thinking' of their own and see where the truth lies.

I must say that I (we) are a bit disappointed in The Stranger. I've always seen this paper as questioning the 'corporate viewpoint' in all things, and supporting the workers - it appears they have done quite the opposite here.

-Longtime Core faculty member, CCA

If people who love the arts had any guts they’d find people to start a new school—a hybrid hands-on and online art school suited to these times. Near the end of her career, Miss Aunt Nellie tells how Mrs. Fuller got her to get into electronic media; with the help of Edward R. Murrow and KOMO, they started the first radio school for the arts—comparable, maybe, to Campbell and Powell’s new program. Please, everybody, stop viewing today’s problems in education through the frames of the last century and work on solving them with new frames. Start with the kids. If you don’t make sure tomorrow’s wage earners can balance their art careers with the world economy, you won’t get much of a social security check. Hug a millennial art aspirant, and be honest with them. Make post-MFA continuing ed the norm. Teach. Research. Practice. Produce. Serve. Really and virtually. Hurry.

Hi Stranger readers, Tom Varner here. I am a composer and jazz/improvising French horn player, was in NYC 26 years, have been in Seattle about 8 years, was a part-time adjunct at Cornish for around 3 years, and have been a core faculty member (Music Dpt) for about 18 months. Separate from the money issues and the 'new big changes' issues--all points valid for debate--I just wanted to add that my Music Dpt colleagues, whether adjunct or core, are in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s, and in my opinion, ALL are engaged, passionate, active, and work very very hard. Between my jazz-playing fellow teachers we must have about 40 collective cd's out as composer/leaders, and all play on at least 150 others. We are active and play with our our groups, and also play with our students, and with Cornish alumni, all other the world, and at local places like Tula's, Royal Room, Chapel Center, Gallery 1412, Egan's, Bake's Place, Boxley's, etc. etc. We have recently had many cutting edge artists like Marty Ehrlich, Darcy James Argue, Nicole Mitchell, Rudresh Mahanthappa, and Butch Morris (RIP) play in residencies with the students. No one I know in the Music faculty is "old or out of date or unengaged." I love collaborating with the dance teachers also. They seem very engaged as well. The art teachers that I have met also seem very passionate and smart and care deeply about the students. Ok, that's all, best to all --tom v

The only truth in this article are the statements in regards to the financial situation that Cornish is in. It is a tuition driven school and the endowment is embarrassing. I am Junior in the art department who has received merit based scholarships for the last three years I've spent at Cornish, and as a student, I am beyond offended by your comments in regards to the faculty. Yes, some of them have not had a show in the last decade, but for every one faculty that does not have work hanging in a show, there are three more who do, MANY of whom have received praise from Jen Graves in the last year. Jen, how exactly can you review work that supposedly is not being made? Also, just because someone is not currently making work it doesn't mean that they don't have the brain capacity to teach students and stay up to date with the current happenings in the art world. How dare you place such a broad umbrella over the faculty. I wont deny it, there are students in every department that are at Cornish simply because they can fill a financial gap, but that is in no way a reflection on the faculty.

I am also offended by that fact that there are no interviews with CURRENT students. Someone who graduated 15 years ago is the least valid source. The entire institution has gone through several changes in the last 15 years, programs are different, faculty has changed, admin has come and gone. I know I do not speak for myself when I say that there are many of us who would love to tell Jen Graves exactly how it is. We experience Cornish and interact with the faculty on a daily basis, Graves on the other hand was laid off and truly comes off as a spiteful ex-employee. Seattle needs more than one person writing about art. I refuse to refer to Jen as a journalist at this time, for she has displayed herself as anything but that.

Addressing only the issue of student satisfaction with an arts degree:

Most of my professional life has involved skills learned well past my days at Cornish over 30 years ago. In those days, I actually did a few semesters where the larger ensembles were relegated to rehearsing in a renovated tool shed in the back parking lot of 710 East Roy, no heat by the way. To cut down a few steps we crawled through a window in what was used as the green room behind the theater carefully handing our instruments, to many the only possession of any value, to one another through the same window before literally jumping 3 feet to the ground. The ensemble was redundant and I had played in much more prolific bands at the community college I had attended scant years before enrolling at Cornish to "get my degree on". However, I will say learning to save a few steps and make a doorway out of an elevated window has become very useful over the years.

It isn't the degree but the permission you give yourself to create in this unreceptive world we now live in. I entered Cornish as a middling music student and somehow left a slightly better music student that continues to study hoping for improvement. It is understandable that people spending so much money expect the moon when they leave the hallowed halls and Cornish promises that to get their hands on the money. Still, the larger responsibility will always reside with the individual. You pay a price to be called a student of art, one the world mostly refuses to acknowledge except as causality of magical thinking. Until you come terms with this, you will always be quantifying profit margins in dollars. If you live in the real world, you make money, you lose money, you owe money. Interlaced amongst the passing days of this never ending cycle is the rhythm of your existence. Your life experience is invaluable but only to you. The trick of selling that same perspective for a profit is something Cornish or any art school can't really teach. I do think it starts with recognizing that sometimes a window is a door.

Addressing only the issue of student satisfaction with an arts degree:

Most of my professional life has involved skills learned well past my days at Cornish over 30 years ago. In those days, I actually did a few semesters where the larger ensembles were relegated to rehearsing in a renovated tool shed in the back parking lot of 710 East Roy, no heat by the way. To cut down a few steps we crawled through a window in what was used as the green room behind the theater carefully handing our instruments, to many the only possession of any value, to one another through the same window before literally jumping 3 feet to the ground. The ensemble was redundant and I had played in much more prolific bands at the community college I had attended scant years before enrolling at Cornish to "get my degree on". However, I will say learning to save a few steps and make a doorway out of an elevated window has become very useful over the years.

It isn't the degree but the permission you give yourself to create in this unreceptive world we now live in. I entered Cornish as a middling music student and somehow left a slightly better music student that continues to study hoping for improvement. It is understandable that people spending so much money expect the moon when they leave the hallowed halls and Cornish promises that to get their hands on the money. Still, the larger responsibility will always reside with the individual. You pay a price to be called a student of art, one the world mostly refuses to acknowledge except as causality of magical thinking. Until you come terms with this, you will always be quantifying profit margins in dollars. If you live in the real world, you make money, you lose money, you owe money. Interlaced amongst the passing days of this never ending cycle is the rhythm of your existence. Your life experience is invaluable but only to you. The trick of selling that same perspective for a profit is something Cornish or any art school can't really teach. I do think it starts with recognizing that sometimes a window is a door.

And obviously I am a Luddite given I didn't trust the process of registering and ending up posting the same comment twice. Surprising an old fool like me makes his living and executes totally within the modern world of cottage industries connected by the Internet.

Window becomes a door - nice! - Bill Ritchie

Correction to my comment (#46) - turns out it was a speech, not an Op-Ed piece. From Miss Aunt Nellie:

"When Joseph Blethen took the floor, there was a great stir of anticipation in the audience. He began by speaking about the great depression after the war. He said that people were not anxious to spend their money on unnecessary things...the audience looked at him wide-eyed and shocked. He went on to declare that building a new home for the Cornish School was untimely and unfeasible. Those on the stage looked breathless. Mr. Ames turned pale and quickly closed the meeting in a voice that was almost a whisper: 'We do not all agree with Mr. Blethen; if anyone wishes to give money for the building, it can be left with the treasurer of the realty company.'

So the meeting ended like a wet firecracker" - Nellie Cornish

@48 (MF Artist...) - too bad you have to hide behind anonymity, perhaps we could have have a meaningful discussion. Though, agreed, The Gates Foundation is doing fabulous work, not only around disease, but also in bringing banking systems to poor rural areas around the globe via mobile phones. Unfortunately you then blindside yourself (or just have low reading comprehension), the point is about the perceived value of the arts. The mention of Van Gogh is interesting in this context: you essentially back up my point by exhibiting the provincial attitude that creative production should not be rewarded. I'm curious what your opinion is about those who profit from Van Gogh's work to this day? Was Van Gogh simply a bad businessman?

Perhaps I should reiterate though, a second point, that the perception that art is a valueless burden on society might have something to do with the art worlds elitist snobbery, particularly towards those who have the fortune to become monetarily successful.

God, I had to comment on this! Cornish is a ridiculously overpriced institution who uses their affiliation to only a handful of relatively obscure artists to promote themselves. The staff is mostly awful, bored underpaid, and largely incompetent. When the chairman of the board gave his speech at my graduation in 2006, we all booed him! Why, because we were all sitting their feeling that 1. we had been ripped off 2. been sitting around for four years waiting for the enlightening art school experience, and it just never did. One look at the productions that come out of Cornish and you will notice that there are very few and, the quality is actually embarrassing for everyone involved. They, in short, deserve to fail.

God, I had to comment on this! Cornish is a ridiculously overpriced institution who uses their affiliation to only a handful of relatively obscure artists to promote themselves. The staff is mostly awful, bored underpaid, and largely incompetent. When the chairman of the board gave his speech at my graduation in 2006, we all booed him! Why, because we were all sitting their feeling that 1. we had been ripped off 2. been sitting around for four years waiting for the enlightening art school experience which would prepare us by building upon our talents, and it just never did. One look at the productions that come out of Cornish and you will notice that there are very few and, the quality is actually consistently embarrassing for everyone involved. They, in short, deserve to fail.

#62 perhaps your problem was that you were, as you say "sitting around for four years waiting for the enlightening art school experience...)

It's been my personal experience that you actually have to WORK to have an enlightening experience, and that extends past time spent at Cornish. IF you expect everything to be handed to you, prepare for a long wait.

Well, I actually was only there for two years, but I guess you can make broad baseless opinions on someone you know literally nothing about, but I maintain; Cornish is a half-assed school, with everything from pathetic facilities, to almost no resources for students, and absolutely none for alumnus, a really sloppy sub-standard curriculum, and a very lax entrance requirements which basically packs the place with people with almost no experience or ability, which creates an overall low standard. They cannot in anyway be compared to most schools abroad, or even major institutions in the US. The vast majority of the students their wouldn't have a prayer to be allowed into an actual world-class institution. Unfortunately, the price for tuition is within a world-class one. The graduates from Cornish tend to defend the school out of a sense of pride, but as you can see from the interview with Sarah Bergmann, I'm not alone in my assessment, as someone else who has been successful in spite of going to such a ridiculous school.

Yes, I totally made a broad baseless opinion on someone based on a direct quote from them.

I am FULLY aware of the situation at Cornish as I live it on a daily basis. The School has had two different presidents, a handful of department chairs, who have all made changes to the curriculum, two provost, and the faculty has changed quite a bit, The program is in a major transition and its obviously not going to happen over night. Im sorry you're so spiteful about your brief experience at Cornish but perhaps you should educate yourself about the current state of the school, current being the operative word.

I gave an honest answer about my experience at Cornish, but I want to be clear I hope the school succeeds, and that it does so while supporting faculty who have long been placed into a difficult position of keeping the school running despite an unsustainable business model- an added burden on the faculty that no doubt contributes to the culture of poverty that Bob Campbell described in the article.

I hope Cornish is able to simultaneously strengthen their endowment, since sending students into the world with a financial burden upwards of $100K is a disservice to the artistic community, with far-reaching effects. It sounds like Cornish is attempting something extraordinary in the history of the college. Flaws or no flaws, it is a school we want to value and support. I sincerely root for the larger cultural community to support the school.

Thanks, Jen, for tackling this subject. I know it must have been challenging to cover so many facets of this institution in one, limited-word-count article.

-Sarah Bergmann

The problem with this article is that the main source is the writer herself.

You put forth a piece that is astonishingly without context and do a great disservice to all parties by printing something based on a few conversations in the hallway, a misunderstanding of adjunct work, and perhaps a press release.

Over reliance on adjuncts is a national epidemic, not a Cornish phenomenon. Unless you are a tenured Yale professor, you've probably heard of it, yet here you absurdly rely on your own brief experience as an adjunct for information.

Cornish has the same endowment problem as every other independent art school in the country. Lack of endowment forces tuitions high, eliminates most aid, makes it hard to attract students and keep standards high at the same time. Ditto faculty.

How does a school build a healthy endowment? The first thing an institution has to do is become established in 1845 or be within walking distance of the Walton family in Arkansas.

That Cornish remains an independent degree granting institution at all is a large accomplishment. Many small art schools have been bought up by for-profit corporations because they could not survive the tension between delivering quality, attracting good students and paying the bills. These schools are now reduced to exploiting the GI bill and student loan program to churn out techno-design degrees that have long ago given up the pretense of offering "art".

Perhaps, as a journalist, you might read about who else is still afloat? How are they doing it? Check out the website for the art school association at http://www.aicad.org/about/? It lists Tyler School of Art but we know they have become part of the state system and the Boston Museum School became a part of Tufts in 1945.

Did you talk to anyone outside the Cornish community for perspective? It doesn't appear that you did, because you evidently do not see how silly it is to cite a a few isolated grumpy faculty and students as some kind of "outing" of perceived incompetence by the art department.

If there are a few people in the art department who are not working in media that light up and spin around after 25 underpaid years in the saddle, I cannot believe that they deserve to be publicly savaged by these histrionics.

The Cornish administration can thin out what they perceive to be "dead wood" the usual way–with retirement buyouts–without your help. If you, as a journalist, want to mix in, you oowe it to us all to do your homework.

UGH, FIX THE LINK IN http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…

It links to the slog post about the article, which then links to the article. LINK DIRECTLY TO THE ARTICLE.

Also, in regards to http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…

1) you should've allowed comments on it, now everyone needs to know people are commenting on, your story, or your response to the story.

2) You wrote a sensational headline. Own it.

So, looks like demonizing a population (the Art Department) and turning populations against one another (adjunct and core, young and older, in a larger culture rampant with marginalization based on age) are the first steps toward attempts to divide, conquer, and balance the budget. This appears to largely be about money, piling on as many attempted (and perhaps dubious?) justifications as possible. Who knows if they are true or not?

Are there more full time faculty in the Art Dept? If so, that may be why the "change" is starting there, to save on salaries. If it is about student-faculty ratios, which departments might have the worst ratios? Might that be performance departments? If so, they may not be immune - they may be next. Do faculty have contracts? If so, isn't Cornish planning to honor those, and if not, might that not be the most telling sign yet of who is really behaving badly and why?

So are you saying you never saw the cover headline before it went to print? If you did see it, did you raise any objections?

Isn't thinking outside of the box and the concept of a sprawling campus with multiple buildings a diametric opposition?

In the late 80's through to the early 2000's I had a small rotating staff of people that handled details I had neither inclination nor desire to learn. Today I handle all of those tasks while making a much smaller paycheck. The arts BUSINESS like all things is becoming leaner and meaner with an entire industry of cottage contractors that stay within micro budgets to earn their keep. In the interim, those same small entrepreneurs are waiting for the opportunity to occupy a niche that might prove more then marginally provisional. The solace comes only in doing the craft long enough to become better.

The path not taken for Cornish could have been to become even smaller, more elite and catering to an even more rarefied emerging student/ artist. The financial result would have been most likely net even for teachers and adjunct but net negative for administrators. Obviously conjecture....

If a student well versed in rock, pop music, EDM or rap enters the music program at Cornish, they study classical and jazz theory because it is something both teachers and student agree will strengthen their craft. If that same student says they want to make a living in music, it would be horribly misled to advise that student to ply trade as a crappy jazz musician when they are so much better at the skills they already present. Likewise, the path forward for Cornish as a school is to identify the strengths they have and emphasize those, not dwell upon the fact that other schools have a thriving widget department (a hypothetical nonsense term) and then throw minimal money at it trying to scavenge for unqualified students that have no idea what they truly want.

Lastly, in the 80's while other music departments were entering national competitions in downbeat magazine and winning, I and my fellow Cornish students were playing the Cool jazz festival in front of 10,000 people. While other college students were performing gradis for annual college recognition, we Cornish students were at the negotiation table with George Wein striking a deal to open for McCoy Tyner, Randy Brecker, Ron Carter, Tony Williams and Spyro Gyra. If the administration had spent the minimal money to send us to any of the many educational jazz festivals we would have secured a national reputation for the Cornish music department for decades. The problem with Cornish has never been foresight, it's been the inability to recognize the opportunity in hand.