The mission of the Sculpture/Fiber Arts program is to cultivate the creativity and develop the skills of those who have the aptitude and the desire to communicate through visual language. The program supports students to formulate, create, exhibit, and market a body of work informed by a wide variety of media. The program emphasizes knowledge of historical and contemporary sculptors and fiber artists and encourages students to think critically. The program is committed to Student Equity, and currency in the fields of Fiber Arts and Sculpture. The Sculpture/Fiber Arts program strives to develop creativity, confidence, and art-entrepreneurial abilities in students in preparation for art-business and professional careers and/or transfer to an Art/Design school or university.
Courses in Sculpture and Fiber Arts are in great demand. We currently have three full classes of 18-30 students in both Fall and Spring semesters. Courses are taught by one full-time faculty member and two part-time faculty members and supported by a part-time lab technician. The Sculpture/Fiber Arts program maintains an Advisory Board whose longtime community members include successful, internationally known business people such as David Hopper(Orient & Flume, Paradise Pictures) Sandy Fisher (Sandy Fisher Woven), and Majbritte Mobrand (Glimakra Weaving Studio), and successful entrepreneurs such as Mick and Aaron Needham (Needham Glass Studio), CSU, Chico Professor of Glass Art, Robert Herhusky, and Sculptor Dave Barda, and Butte College Business Education Chair, Laree Hartman. The Advisory Board offers guidance on program direction and art-business curriculum. Sculpture and Fiber Arts courses are offered in a spacious classroom (ARTS 145), which allows for seven floor looms, eighteen table-top looms, and nine large work spaces. The program also utilizes outdoor lab spaces equipped with state-of-the-art equipment for firing ceramic sculpture, glass fusing, slumping and casting, loom construction, welding and bronze casting equipment, and a wide array of wood and metal shop tools for the construction of student projects. Through intensive program area teamwork, and with the technical assistance of CSU, Chico Professor Robert Herhusky and CSU, Chico Sculpture Tech, Dave Barda, Intermediate level sculpture students were casting in metal and glass every other semester. Courses in the existing program allow beginning level students the acquisition of skills in 3-dimensional design, glass fusing and slumping, mold-making, casting of glass and metal, welding, weaving, felting, papermaking, and textile dyeing, along with creative problem-solving skills.
Validation Team recommendation: As the Background Statement of the Art Department’s 2014 Program Review rightly states, “Art has been an integral part of human culture for over 30,000 years” (p. 1) and it remains essential by reinforcing our “shared beliefs and values” (p. 2), increasing our “empathy” (p. 3)and reinforcing our “social bonds” (p. 3). Because of the Arts’ central importance in human development and behavior, it is extremely disheartening to see the cuts and restrictions Butte’s Art Department has suffered in recent years. Therefore, it is the Validation Team’s recommendation that the Art Department be allowed to expand its course offerings (which are also profitable for the college). It is also the team’s recommendation that creative solutions be sought to somehow address students’ needs for skills development in Studio Arts classes given current, inappropriate state-mandated limits on repeatability of classes.
The Sculpture/Fiber Arts program has been allowed to add Art 81 Intro to Fiber Arts into its schedule of course offerings. This course has filled to capacity, brought students from the community who would not have taken any other art class, and generated interest (student petition) for additional higher level courses in Fiber.
Student interest in expanded course offerings in glass art and art entrepreneurship has spurred the ART-S program to develop additional courses, certificates and degrees, which will better serve students in their lives as artists.
Validation Team Recommendation: Instill departmental planning with entrepreneurial vision. The Validation Team recommends that the Art Department devise and implement strategies to showcase and maximize the use of Arts facilities, resources and talents, creating a community Arts venue. With District support, leverage the capabilities of other campus programs such as Drama, Music, Recording Arts and Digital Art and Design programs (and others), with events management staff, as necessary. Consider the collaboration with programs such as Child Development and the Child Development Center, generating revenues for Art Foundation accounts and adding value to the communities we serve by offering art-oriented children’s camp opportunities. Enhance Butte’s culture of inclusiveness to encompass the campus and local communities by supporting and showcasing faculty, staff and student success in our wonderful Arts venue.
The Sculpture/Fiber Arts program continues to maintain it entrepreneurial vision and has worked diligently to develop a Guided Pathway in the Arts - an Art Entrepreneurship Degree/Certificate that would assist art students in developing their professional and entrepreneurial goals. It has:
Strategy 1 - Develop a Guided Pathway in the Arts - Art Entrepreneurship Program
Design and implement a Guided Pathway in the Arts – an Art Entrepreneurship Program. The Art Entrepreneurship Program is a comprehensive course of study that addresses the need to prepare students to enter the art market as entrepreneurs and art-professionals, and offers a solid foundation in the technical and aesthetic aspects of their selected art medium. It is designed to meet the needs of students who desire to create, manufacture, and market aesthetically pleasing and functional objects in local, regional, and global art markets. The program develops student knowledge and understanding of the unique art business context with which they will be negotiating upon leaving school. The program prepares students to become successful wealth generators who will make significant contributions to both community economic development and the cultural advancement of global society.
The Art Entrepreneurship Certificate is designed to support students’ creativity and develop skill in students’ chosen art medium, while also developing entrepreneurial and professional skills and habits of mind. The program offers students the opportunity to:
1) to develop their entrepreneurial skills in marketing art products; 2) and, to develop as professional artists by creating high quality portfolios that will provide access to art galleries, commercial venues, and artist in residency programs.
This strategy is currently underway. Thus far we have:
What remains to be accomplished:
–The Art Entrepreneurship Program addresses the needs of Arts students who desire to be self-employed or to develop their arts business in tandem with other employment. The literature on arts economic development indicates that, “artists are self-employed at much higher rates than others in the workforce. About 34 percent of artists in the U.S. are self-employed, 3.5 times the national workforce average, according to a paper released today by small-business organization the Kauffman Foundation that cited research from the Census Bureau's 2011 American Community Survey.” “[Artists'] innovative challenges differ greatly from those faced by scientists and engineers. Artists and related cultural workers tend to fall through the cracks in traditional workforce and small business development programs,” Markusen says in her report. The Arts Entrepreneurship Program is designed to assist these arts entrepreneurs in successful professional and business practice.
According to many arts entrepreneurs the New Jobs are the jobs people are creating on their own/for themselves. In a recent interview with Meredith Kelley, artist and owner of Drifter Vintage she remarked that a lot of young people are reaching to entrepreneurship because jobs are not available. “Everyone I know who’s an Arts major or who recently graduated with an Arts degree, myself included, is creating their own employment. There’s a whole new wave of people living on their own creations.” Kelley explained that “ARTS training helps you to think outside the box, because to invent your own job you have to think creatively, you have to be able to identify a need, and then create a product or develop a service. So many of us are in this situation, we help each other and compare notes. Kelley went on to explain that there is an important correlation between this new wave of entrepreneurs and the technology they have at their disposal. Everyone communicates and promotes their businesses through internet sites such as Artfire, Etsy, and Pinterest, and social networking sites like Twitter, and facebook, she explained. The technology makes it more possible to be in business for yourself because it tremendously expands your market possibilities. However, she says, “it is vital to promote your business through a creative look on the web. If you don’t have these skills, or have someone on your team who has them, you won’t survive.” In a recent survey 42% of Butte College arts students responded with a resounding “yes” to a question asking for interest in earning an Arts Entrepreneurship certificate or degree.
Extensive economic data "points to an appealing argument in favor of arts entrepreneurship: The arts attract the educated, and the educated make more money. That means many arts-related businesses should profit, and so should municipalities, through higher tax receipts; developers, through more expensive homes; and all sorts of higher-end shops and restaurants, by locating near the cultural amenities that better educated people enjoy. Public officials and private-sector businesspeople might then stop looking at arts projects as charity and see them more as smart investments that attract the most appealing residents. Arts entrepreneurs are likely to find far more sympathetic ears among community leaders, who are more likely to offer tax incentives, lower rent for arts-related businesses in new developments or other mutually rewarding partnerships.”
Arts businesses not only revitalize dying downtowns in cities across the nation, they address the rise of robots as an economic force. According to Marguerite McNeal of Wired.com, “The robots haven’t just landed in the workplace—they’re expanding skills, moving up the corporate ladder, showing awesome productivity and retention rates, and increasingly shoving aside their human counterparts. One multi-tasker bot, from Momentum Machines, can make (and flip) a gourmet hamburger in 10 seconds and could soon replace an entire McDonalds crew. A manufacturing device from Universal Robots doesn’t just solder, paint, screw, glue, and grasp—it builds new parts for itself on the fly when they wear out or bust. As intelligent machines begin their march on labor” what are our young people to do when their entry-level jobs are taken by machines? It is not only entry-level jobs that are threatened. Some sources believe that by 2045 “robots will likely automate 50 percent of the global workforce”. While a small percentage of students will build the bots, the majority of them need alternatives. Self-employment in the arts is one answer. The handmade, human quality of their art products will offer a valuable counter-point to cold, machine-made objects.
The program finds its antecedents in the Arts and Crafts Movement in Great Britain and the United States from the 1850’s through the 1920’s. It will focus, like this movement, on the value of the well-made, handcrafted objects. Those who collect art and antiques can testify to their increasing value over time. Entire industries, such as appraisal and conservation studios, and auction houses are built/find sustenance in quality hand-made aesthetic objects. The program will promote the development of self-sufficiency and entrepreneurial abilities. This strategy is whole-heartedly supported by our Advisory Board who view this new program as the best way to insure that students who do not plan to transfer to university, have a fighting chance in the art-business world.
Strategy 2 - Create opportunity through variety in course offerings
Add Glass Arts courses to our course offerings, and expand the variety of courses we offer in Fiber Arts and Sculpture.
There is robust demand for aesthetically pleasing handmade textiles and art glass. These are media that meet consumer demand for both utilitarian and aesthetically pleasing objects. These media form the core of our Art Entrepreneurship program pathways.
In terms of textiles, students need and want to gain the technical skills and aesthetic abilities in weaving and working with fiber. Weaving and Fiber Arts courses develop students' technical abilities and critical thinking and problem solving skills. These courses prepare students for more advanced level textile courses offered at universities, such as Cornell University, University of California, Davis, University of Oregon, Kent State, and Idaho State, art schools, such as California Collage of Art, and Oregon College of Art and Craft, and community colleges with Fiber Arts programs. Students who wish to gain work experience at one of the local or regional weaving studios need foundational knowledge and experience.
The Chico Cloth project, a collaboration between CSU,Chico and ART-S Associate faculty member and professional weaver, Sandy Fisher, is experimenting with growing flax in Butte County. Linen is the product of the flax plant. Currently, the only place where flax is commercially grown is Belgium. She says the value of raising flax and producing linen locally is that it is a low water use plant, and developing a textile industry in the area would provide jobs to the local economy.
Local and regional Textile studios desire workers with knowledge and technical ability in working with fiber and weaving. Gallery owners, museum curators, art institutions, and the art world in general seek artists/students who are knowledgeable in studio art practices and historical and contemporary art. The Textile Arts courses prepare students for advanced level Textile Arts courses offered at various universities, art schools and community colleges, such as those listed above.
Likewise, students are extremely interested in gaining experience working with the medium of glass, which has become a popular material in which to create salable artwork. Glass Arts courses develop students' technical ability and critical thinking and problem solving skills. These courses prepare students for advanced level glass courses offered at California State University, Chico, art schools, such as Pilchuck Glass School, and community colleges. Students who wish to gain work experience at one of the local art glass studios need foundational knowledge and experience. Local art glass studios, such as Satava Glass Studio, Orient & Flume, and Paradise Pictures desire workers with knowledge and technical ability working with glass. Gallery owners, museum curators, art institutions, and the art world in general seek artists/students who are knowledgeable in studio art practices and historical and contemporary art. The Art 40 Introduction to Glass is a transfer course, which prepares students for intermediate level glass courses offered at California State University, Chico, art schools and community colleges.
The program Advisory Board supports the development of Glass and Textile Arts courses. Illustrious members include Robert Herhusky, Professor of Glass Art, CSU, Chico, Sandy Fisher, of Sandy Fisher Woven, Martha Hope, Fashion Instructor and former technician of Costume Design, CSU, Chico, David Hopper, founder of Orient & Flume Art Glass, and Mick and Aaron Needham of Needham Stained Glass Studio.
Strategy 3 - Equipment to enhance student learning
Acquire equipment to enhance student learning and skill building, and insure that students are safe, and obtain currency in the technological developments of their disciplines.
Students need a variety of up to date equipment to insure skill building, technological currency, quality craftsmanship, preparation for the outside art world and transfer to university and Art Schools. Equipment, such as a new Bench Top Drill Press address the need for safety, andan Oscillating Sander, or reeds for the Ashford Table Looms, is also needed for skill building, craftsmanship and to give student artwork a more professional appearance. These equipment requests are the result of Assessment discussions about Program and course Learning Outcomes.
Strategy 4 - Equity and Arts
Raise faculty members’ awareness and knowledge of Equity issues, revise teaching methods and practices as needed, and develop equitable programs.
According to a recent report by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU), Step Up and Lead for Equity, What Higher Education Can Do to Reverse Our Deepening Divides, American democratic ideals and economic vitality depend on expanding educational opportunity, “yet at all levels of U.S. education, there are entrenched practices that reinforce inequities – and lead to vastly different outcomes for low-income students and for students of color.”
Equity is about fairness and social justice. It is clear when analyzing college demographic data that a much higher percentage of art students (50.0%) are low income than the college average (34.3%). It is possible, then, to view art students as a group where an equity gap exists. Even more striking is the comparison between art students who have mental disabilities/illness (22.5%) and the control group of G.E. students (7.7%). This data was self-reported on a Fall 2016 anonymous student survey, the results represent 427 student responses.
Faculty members in Sculpture and Fiber Arts have made efforts to become equity-minded leaders. (The full-time sculpture instructor has participated in the FAIR Classrooms program and the Cultural Awareness Community of Practice, and shared information with the Associate faculty.) This requires developing an awareness of the historical context of exclusionary practices in higher education and recognizing the impact on students, particularly those in the arts. Art students have a great deal to offer society, yet so many do not complete a course of study because they fail the required General Education courses. They often fail those courses because GE courses predominately measure logical-mathematical and linguistic intelligence. Many art students’ intelligence capabilities lie beyond this narrow intelligence construct.
To address entrenched institutional bias for only two (logical-mathematical, linguistic) of the eight or nine intelligences faculty members have undertaken research in Multiple Intelligence Theory. We developed an Art Entrepreneurship Certificate as a pathway of success for art students, particularly those who cannot pass the G.E. courses required for a degree. We see this only as an intermediate solution. Ultimately, we believe art students’ success lies in reframing institutional concepts of intelligence, which will insure equitable treatment for all students’ intelligence types. Humans would not have survived without individuals who had a wide variety of intelligence capabilities. We believe that Student Achievement and Student Learning Outcomes would greatly improve if educational institutions were to reevaluate concepts of intelligence and student evaluation accordingly.
Advertising assistance.
We have developed a marketing campaign - Unleash Your Creative Side. We need help marketing this to local communities who are unaware of what we offer in Art, Design, and Performing Arts, or were put off by the lack of opportunities the college offered during the last deep budget cut and the repeatability changes.
Revenue is raised by the Sculpture/Fiber Arts program through donations of materials and funds, and the sales of artwork and merchandise.
| Original Priority | Program, Unit, Area | Resource Type | Account Number | Object Code | One Time Augment | Ongoing Augment |
| Description | Supporting Rationale | Potential Alternative Funding Sources | Prioritization Criteria | |||
| 1 | Sculpture/Fiber Arts | Operating Expenses | 11-000-512-1-100220 | $0.00 | $500.00 | |
| Budget augmentation | During the last budget crisis the ART-S budget was cut. Since that time we have expanded the Fiber Arts and there has been an increase in the cost of living, making materials and equipment more expensive. While we are raising our student materials fees from $30 to $40 (from a student population that is 55.% Economically Disadvantaged), we could do much more to support student success and completion with a slight increase to our budget. This ongoing budget increase addresses faculty Assessment discussion on all ART-S PLO's, Goals, and Strategies. |
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| 2 | Sculpture/Fiber Arts | Equipment | 11-000-512-1-100220 | 56410 | $529.00 | $0.00 |
| Baileigh Bench Top Drill Press DP - 1512B-HD | This equipment is needed because our existing 1940's drill press continues to break down creating a safety hazard. This equipment request addresses faculty Assessment discussion on PLO A, PLO C, and PLO D. |
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| 3 | Sculpture/Fiber Arts - Sculpture | Equipment | 11-000-512-1-100220 | 56410 | $1,088.00 | $0.00 |
| Paragon BlueBird Digital Kiln 120 volt W:20" | This equipment is intimately tied to student success in the Arts Entrepreneurship Program. To properly prepare and to set up a working glass studio business, students need to be familiar with lampworking processes and techniques. This is also true if a student wants to transfer to CSU, Chico's glass program. This equipment request addresses faculty Assessment discussion on PLO A and PLO D. |
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| 4 | Sculpture/Fiber Arts - Fiber Arts | Equipment | 11-000-512-1-100220 | 56410 | $22,345.00 | $0.00 |
| 11 Julia Countermarche 8-harness looms from Glimarkra USA | These standing looms are the best for student learning. They can accommodate both beginning and more advanced weavers. They are the type of looms most often used in the fiber industry today. Once the Chico Cloth project, a collaboration between CSU,Chico and weaving instructor Sandy Fisher, are satisfied with their flax production, the next stage will be the development of a weaving industry in Butte County that will need trained weavers, which provides our student-weavers with an employment opportunity. This equipment request addresses faculty Assessment discussion on PLO A and PLO D. |
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| 5 | Sculpture/Fiber Arts | Equipment | 11-000-512-1-100220 | 56410 | $358.00 | $0.00 |
| Bobbin Winder-Thin Shaft -2 Umbrella Swift - 1 | Both items are necessary pieces of equipment used to wind thread onto a bobbin. The bobbin holds the weft threads placed into a shuttle. Umbrella Swift holds skeins of yarns for winding onto bobbin winder |
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| 6 | Scullpture/Fiber Arts | Equipment | 11-000-512-1-100220 | 56410 | $800.00 | $0.00 |
| Wide Drum Carder -1 | A drum carder is a useful tool used by Spinners and Felt makers to blend wool fibers both natural and colors separately or together to prepare roving. Roving is the textile term for combed wool where all the fibers are lined up in the same direction for ease of spinning and felt making. This tool allows the students to pursue professional mixing of textures and colors that is necessary for a career in textile arts. |
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| 7 | Sculpture/Fiber Arts - Sculpture | Equipment | 11-000-512-1-100220 | 56410 | $599.00 | $0.00 |
| Delta 31-483 1/2HP HD Bench Oscillating Spindle Sander W/Tilt Table | The Oscillating Spindle Sander will allow students greater latitude in expressing their ideas in three-dimensions. It will allow students to. This equipment request addresses faculty Assessment discussion on PLO A, PLO C, and PLO D. |
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