Terminal degree | George Smith launches a first-of-its-kinddoctoral program for visual artists in Portland
George Smith has always had a thing for Portland's art scene. It helped lure Smith and his family north from the Boston area in the mid 80s, and he embraced it as a long-time administrator at the Maine College of Art in Portland, where he helped set up the school's Master of Fine Arts program.
But in recent years, he says, the city has developed its own style, and one that's refreshingly free from the big-market influences that pervade other cities' art communities. "Portland has no self-esteem issues whatsoever," says Smith. "It's not trying to copy what's going on in New York, or L.A. or Paris."
It's a trait Smith says is behind Portland's emergence as a nationally recognized arts center — a center he believes in 10 years will be seen as a "model" by other cities. And it's for those reasons that Smith sees Portland as the perfect home for the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, a graduate program he is launching out of his West End house. After three year of planning, Smith, 58, expects the program to welcome its inaugural class of roughly 15 doctoral students this May.
Smith, the institute's president, sees the program as a new option for visual artists whose degree options have largely been limited to a master's degree in fine arts. This degree, notes Smith, will help blur the line between the studio artists with practical experience and the teachers more schooled in the theory and philosophy of art. "This addresses the missing link in the higher-education chain for visual artists," he says.
As of late March, the program was well beyond the planning stage. The IDSVA cleared a significant hurdle in early March when the Maine Legislature awarded it the authority to grant doctorate degrees — a requirement for any higher education institution in the state. And though it's optional, Smith says he's pursuing accreditation through the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, a process he expects to take at least five years.
With legislative approval in hand, Smith has begun the admissions process in earnest. At this point, he has as many as 15 students lined up for the program, but says some of the students are waiting on financial aid decisions to defray the cost of the $20,000-a-year tuition.
Smith expects the three-year program, once enrollment is filled, to bring in $1 million in tuition, which will fund the school's operations. It's still a relatively small number for the nonprofit, he says, adding that he's had to find creative ways to make the school's financials work. "There's always risk," he says. "This is no different than any startup business."
One way the IDSVA is trimming overhead is by giving up the most traditional of facilities: its campus. In fact, there's no guarantee that the program's students will ever set foot inside Maine. Most of the tutelage between students and faculty will be streamed over a specially designed online program designed by Learning Networks, a division of Portland-based WhatIf Networks. In-person lessons are scheduled a number of times a year in locales like Venice, Italy and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. "It's a very different business model," he says.
Still, Smith acknowledges that some have questioned how the IDSVA will lend credibility to Portland and the state if students only visit via an Internet connection. His response is to consider the Percy & Small shipyard, which built world-renowned schooners in Bath during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. "Those ships were rarely seen on the coast of Maine," he says. "They were seen all over the world, though. And we'll have students all over the world, and they'll be representing Maine all over the world."
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