Blog Post #3

Courtney Costello

Thompson's categories of task-time and labor-time are interesting to consider in relation to art school and CCA. I feel that the lines are not as clear cut as they are at other types of university. The time I spend doing homework I feel is completely task time. We often get anywhere from a week to a month to work on a single assignment. Within that month we get to choose when to work on it, how long to work on it, and ultimately we decide when it is done. There of course are also areas of CCA that resemble labor-time. Such as when we have to sit in classes for X amount of hours and someone else decides when we get to take time for idleness and leisure. But even the labor-time at CCA is often fun. For example last week in one of my classes our teacher had us all clap and laughing before starting class - just for the fun of it. Once I am no longer at CCA I think my experience of work-time will change but I don't know how much. There are ways to be an artist and make money on the side without constantly selling your art. For example this weekend I worked at OpenWater, an event hosted by Openrestaurant and SFMoma, The time I spent there should have been labor-time but to me it felt more like leisure with a hint of task-time. I was getting paid the hours I was there but since I was taking photo's the whole time and talking to interesting people who were mainly artists and gallery folk from the area it was really enjoyable.


When I think of how much money we pay to go to CCA, not only in terms of tuition but in the costs of a single project it used to make me angry. The dilemma of going to art school is that you know its really expensive and you also know that artsits dont make any money. Its kind of like your giving away all your money, plus money you don't have yet, just so that you won't have it later in life. I no longer think of CCA as a place for "job-training" really. When I think about the schools my friends are going to for art and their experiences, I am grateful that I do go to such an expensive school. One of the main and most important aspects we get from CCA is the community. There are so many amazing artists that we have access to that alot of other schools don't. CCA gives us the opportunity to build a strong base of working artists, gallery owners, and curators so that when we do get out of school we already have made some of the connections we will need in order to get our career to really take off.


Both the British and the French are indignant and enraged about the lack of control they seem to have over those who are in charge of their wage/tuition. With the tuition rise from the British it means that fewer people will have access to education and job-training. People who have a school degree have a better chance of getting a well paying job and thus being able to support their family and have leisure time.