Word: ves
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...focus is not on technical aspects of art, but on training students to see more inclusively," he says. "The aim of the VES department is to expand and deepen the vision of people taking the courses, not to just lecture to them...
...senior concentrator James Wolf calls VES "the bastard child of an art school and an architecture school," and some students dislike the concentration's breadth, saying they would like to see it's subject matter broken down into smaller, more intensive departments. This breadth can lead to disillusionment among concentrators. "VES is a real Harvard invention," says concentrator Sergio Huidor '88. "They want to make sure that everything interlocks, and this results in careful but not thorough teaching. There are only two painting courses, introduction and intermediate, and then you have to do everything through independent study...
...VES receives nearly 50 applications for the 35 openings in its sophomopre class, but Bakanowsky says the department has no plans for expansion. Instead, Bakanowsky, who teaches the two Core Curriculum courses offered by the department and believes that "the arts belong to everyone, not a select few," says that the department goes out of its way to reach out to non-concentrators. Consequently, some 1300 of the 1600 annual spots in the department's courses are filled by non-concentrators...
...relatively large number of concentrators--seven percent--join the department as part of a combined major. Students and faculty agree that such a combination of disciplines allows for greater flexibility, giving students more freedom to be creative. "VES is good because it lets you break [conventional artistic] rules and get away with it," Huidor says. Rebecca D.T. Abrams '86, who is working on a photographic study of the role of beauty parlors in American culture agrees. "There is a lot of leniency and support in the department," she says. "It strongly encourages creativity and diversity of ideas...
...close-knit structure of the VES department may cause it to suffer more than most departments from the University's strict tenure policy. There are six tenured professors in the department--none of whom are women--and two have joint appointments with the Graduate School of Design. Since students in the department tend to work very closely with one particular faculty member, if he or she is denied tenure and leaves it is particularly disruptive. "Freshman and sophomore year I studied intensely with one film teacher who then had to leave," says Abrams. "After that I completely changed my course...