Fine Arts students forced to fundraise

After a full year of charcoal-smudged faces, paint-caked clothing and clay beneath their finger nails, senior Fine Arts majors can finally roll their years of study into their thesis exhibition, the culmination of collegiate careers.

But without a catalog to document the art show, there is nothing to remember their work by after it is disassembled a few weeks later.

While in the past the University has provided the several thousand dollars needed to publish the book, this year's budget crunch meant that the catalog was cut out of the Fine Arts Department budget.

But the 25 senior majors are not prepared to let that stop them. The tight-knit group is implementing fundraising efforts to publish the catalog, from seeking aid from other University departments to running their own art show and party.

"It's been all their idea," Undergraduate Fine Arts Department Chairwoman Julie Schneider said. "They've been absolutely remarkable. When the dean gave us the bad news that he wasn't going to allocate a budget for the senior catalog this year... and it was back in their court, they took the initiative and ran with it."

The fundraiser, which will be held tonight at the TPDS club on 12th Street, will include a show of the seniors' work and a dance party with music from a local DJ and recent Penn graduate.

Students said they hope that the proceeds from the event, along with a $1,000 grant from the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life, will bring them near their goal of raising the funds to publish what they see as a valuable documentation of their academic experience.

"Any time you have any sort of exhibition, you would want to make a catalog," said College senior Anne Hankey, one of the students running the event. "We all want to see an actual book, something physical that we can show people."

In addition to serving as an important portfolio piece, the catalog is also the culmination of their work at Penn, students said.

"It's going to commemorate our senior thesis exhibition," said College senior Adam Rich, who is also working on the fundraiser. "It's a culmination of our studies here... and it's a tradition that we want to continue."

Rich said that the fundraising event was also an opportunity to heighten awareness of the Fine Arts Department. But some said they are frustrated with the situation and would prefer that the University foot a larger portion of the bill.

"Art is an extremely expensive field to pursue," said Hankey, who is also chairwoman of the Nominations and Elections Committee. "If you spend so much time and money, and you're required to do that, the people who are requiring it should pay for it. We have an extremely high-caliber art department. This is something that a school of our caliber should do."

But according to Schneider, the reasons for the budget cut were understandable, especially after last year's more than $5 million renovation of Addams Hall, the new undergraduate fine arts building. Since each school at Penn is funded separately, the Graduate School of Fine Arts, which allocates funds to the undergraduate department as well, was particularly impacted.

Lack of general funds is not the only reason for the cutbacks, however. The School of Fine Arts is following a trend seen across many art schools, where administrators are slashing funds for publications because the advertising and publicity functions of such catalogs have been usurped by increased use of the Internet.

There is "a general perception that our best advertising is done electronically, that paper products are not the way that we disseminate information about the program," Schneider said. "But that's part of a larger shift in finding support for anything in what we used to call publication.

"In fact, we weren't the only ones who got their catalog cut," Schneider said. "A lot of universities now have invested in wonderful Web sites, and we see many fewer publications."

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