art/vision/voice - Maryland Institute College of Art

Peter Cooper, in founding Cooper Union, emphasized the need to provide
access to education for the underprivileged. The Saturday Program and
later the Outreach Program were able to address some issues of access
to Cooper programs by urban youth; however, these programs were
perceived as add-ons.
marina [At Cooper, there had been] an internal contradiction for more
than twenty years. In the past we’ve had students go through the
program, and go into the field on their own. But we never had the
platform from which we could launch a project [in the community].
We couldn’t support the process. In this case, three people came
together—all three trained with us—and created programming.
The cap funding made that possible. This is an example of success.
One of the most important issues is one of instability in this
kind of programming. Look around the table. Our partners change,
people move on. Your partners’ budgets are cut to the bone. Instability
in the community and lack of institutional memory at our
universities is a big issue. We are so dependent on individuals—
Augusta Savage, Peter Cooper, the individuals on our staff—people
who will fight the fight as long as they can.
When the cap funds were available, we had [institutional] buy-in,
and got a payoff from this in seeing our students and faculty go on
to do this work—seeing the energy move through the program into
the community, and then the next generation. Funding provides
stability. That’s an institutional solution, but it’s often temporary
because the funding is often temporary.
We had to find ways to not imagine limitations or to imagine
beyond limitations. Since the Saturday Outreach Program started
1968, it has changed the institution. There are kids who come
through these programs who are in there getting their education.
If nothing else it’s a transfer of wealth, access, and empowerment
to the community.
pedagogies and practices
for successful partnerships
conclusion: la resolana 107
The cases reveal how particular pedagogies have an impact on the readiness
of students to work with community as artists and arts educators.
Successful pedagogical models include service learning models that help
students to serve and to reflect on that service with compassion, analysis,
and a sense of social justice. To serve without this reflection and analysis
is ineffective in the development of lifelong skills in this area. Integral
to the social justice and service model has been community research or