Although these committees aren’t too exciting to work on, it’s a good in- sight into hearing how the college is working and to get to know who con- trols what. Lately, I’ve had about one meeting a day. L. — What improvements would you like to see in the college? G. — Mm. There’s a number. I’d like to see, um, what I call ‘The Tourist Brochure Mentality’ ease up a bit, and for students to be allowed to explore their creativity as adults. I’m a little concerned that the student body as a whole is treated as somewhat a malleable object for someone else’s concern .. . for the government’s . . . for the public’s. I think the school’s a little bit too pristine. The attitude at times is to see how the curriculum and students could be altered to fit the college, in- stead of the college being altered to fit the patterns of what the students need. It’s a pretty big problem. L. — Can you expand on ‘The tourist Brochure Mentality’? G. — Well, obviously it’s important for our image. It’s a two-sided coin. This is an expensive school to run, costing 4 million a year, that’s double the budget from a few years ago, and in order to get the money from a society that considers art frivolous, we have to, unfortunately be answerable to people who don’t have art as their concern at all. So to please the government we end up as something like the defenders of culture for our society ... Like Langara is completely losing it’s art department. So if we think that socie- ty is behind us all the way, we’re mistaken, they’re not. People would rather see their dollars spent on highways, or taken home for themselves to buy a cadillac or whatever. They’re not too interested in what we’re doing. So we’re answerable when the public comes through here; we’re showing off in order to keep their interest up in art, and to keep them convinced we’re valuable. But that really runs the risk of manipulating what we’re trying to do as students here. It’s the same thing if you were out in the street do- ing your art work and you considered the saleability of your art work before you did it, anybody knows that’s go- ing to have a real influence over what you do. You’re not going to free- form explore. And in some ways it’s the same with the school. For students to be allowed to do things which may be considered radical, like explorations in public just to see what would happen, can’t be done because considerations in respect to the building or Granville Island around us have: to.-be taken: -.=—-_It- just wouldn’t look good in the public’s eye, It’s two sided. I don’t know what the answer is. L. — Is there anything you’d especially like to tell students? G. — Id like students to realise that people who run this school, the ad- ministration, the faculty, people in student society etc. although there are egos involved and personal view points, that most have the school and art education best at heart. I think most people are quite sincere in what they’re doing. They may be a bit misguided or misdirected sometimes, but it’s up to us to show them, to tell them when they’re off the track . . . to help them get back to the proper frame of mind and create an art school that we need. We are adults, and not children who don’t know what we need or want. Our opinions are going to change between Foundation and Fourth Year, but at the same time we’ll know when we’re being misdirected. Possibly since we’re younger than most of the people who usually run things, we see things and the world as a different place. The older people may not realise that some views are out dated or no longer relevant. Not everything we want is valid, but neither is everything we may be get- ting told. It should be negotiable. L. — Things change. . . G. — Things are changing, and although we may not be good at the ‘art’, the fabrication or the develop- ment of our art, nevertheless, we still know the world we live in, possibly more than the directors. L. — One last question, have you heard anything about the ECCAD degrees? G. — At present, all I know is that the degree program is still in mind. It’s still being considered. With the budget cut backs and financial pro- blems it does look further into the future. It would cost money to get the degree program in the school. Though we are still striving for it, it may be alittle further than we hoped. Friday 13th November, 1981 * * * YOU'D BETTER MUSTER A COMPULSION ! SEND SOMETHING TO: POST COMPULSIONICN c/o J. GOERTZ 3016 MORLEY TR. NW. CALGARY, ALBERTA TOM AH2 BEFORE THE CHRISTMAS RUSH no refunds VICE VERSA KRY AUG ° ALL GCNTRIBUTIONS POSTED IN THE ALBERTA COLLEGE OF ART CUT CUT AND SENG?