Handling The Press.

If you are at an art school within a large university, you have an uphill battle to fight. You likely have poor funding, and are the object of much ridicule from more “serious” schools of thought or vocation. Engineers love to jeer at art students, saying they’ll never get real jobs. (They’re mostly right.) English majors are sympathetic to artistic temperaments, but are smug in their writing skills (lacking in most visual arts students). Math majors would rather be left alone. Business majors wonder why art kids are so unprofessional and seemingly anarchistic.

There’s no better way to reinforce these stereotypes than by acting like an idiot when newspaper reporters come around to stir up “controversy.”

Circumstances change, but these controversies always encompass the same principles.

• The desire to be taken seriously.
• The desire to remain true to a spirit of whimsy.
• The desire for attention.
• The hope that controversy works for them like it did for Banksy.

Usually what happens is, some ornery instigator decides to call attention to something that pisses them off. It’s always one of the following:

• not being selected for a juried exhibit
• needing to “have a voice” or “take a stand” or “defy expectations”
• bad review from juror THEY invited
  
• interpreting bad juror review as “censorship” or “ignorance of greatness”
• wanting to “begin a dialogue” about something taboo (usually vaginas)
•  deciding to be an asshole to see if it gets people to notice their work
• Thorazine wore off

If they garner enough attention, it usually results a dry, boring article depicting the art department in a neutral light. Most people skip through those articles anyway. This, of course, insults the art department. No one can understand why the newspaper won’t “write about anything controversial for once” and they will complain about the injustice in class. The professor will support the students who “shook things up” and encourage them to fight the power.