--- Mark Pascale <mpascale@artic.edu wrote:
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2000 14:57:50 -0500
To: swearerr@newschool.edu
From: Mark Pascale <mpascale@artic.edu
Subject: Parsons's Print Shop
Dear Dean,
I apologize for not having your correct name, as I am responding to a message with incomplete information. For the last two weeks I have been following closely the dialog over the internet about your decision to close the print shop and curriculum at Parsons School of Design. As someone who works both as a curator of a major collection of prints, and teaches in the print department of a major art school, I wanted to say a few words to you about your short-term solution--as publicized on a list-serve--versus the long-term implications.
I think it's very reasonable of you to postpone your decision to close the shop for a year. I hope you use the year to carefully poll all major art schools in the country to find out what they are doing about their print programs. If you do, I think you will find that the vast majority of them are not giving everything over to a "digital center". Digital imaging is but one aspect of our program, and it was instituted over ten years ago. It now holds a prominent place within our overall print curriculum, but the vast majority of prints generated by students continues to be autographic, assembled and printed by hand (i.e. woodcuts, lithographs, etching, screenprints).
Without boring you with too much detail, I hope you will reconsider your plan to phase out traditional printmaking. Very few curators in the U.S. believe that digital imaging is or will be the major source of fine printed matter over the next decades. In fact, many of us believe that the output of digital imaging will be served best by methods other than those involving paper. We don't see this as a reason to stop progress, but I hope this thought helps you to reconsider the future of your print program. It will be very difficult to set it back up if, in the future, your decision to end it now is carried out.
With my thanks for your consideration,
Mark Pascale
Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings, The Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60603 312-857-7168