Crisis in Higher Education

Art and architecture schools are experiencing profound strain. Tuition and student debt continue to rise. Humanities programs contract. Public institutions face political pressures. Private institutions face financial precarity. The result is a learning environment that often feels unstable, overstretched, and increasingly disconnected from the social and economic realities that students and faculty face. This session brings together educators and cultural leaders who have spent years thinking about what art and architecture education is becoming and how these pressures shape students, teachers, and communities.

Moderated by co-curator of Future Schools, Nato Thompson, former Dean of Columbia University School of the Arts, Carol Becker, and artist, writer, and faculty member of The Cooper Union, Doug Ashford will ask what must be protected, what must be reimagined, and what must be allowed to change. Rather than describing the crisis as a single story, the panel will surface multiple perspectives and lived experiences, creating a clearer picture of the forces reshaping higher education today. The aim is not to mourn the university but to understand the moment with clarity and to consider what a more humane, equitable, and sustainable educational future might require.

will host a two-part gathering that examines how artists and architects learn today. The first panel looks directly at the conditions shaping higher education and the mounting pressures placed on art and architecture schools. The second panel turns toward the vibrant ecosystem of alternative art and architecture schools that have emerged in response. Together they create a space for reflection, critique, and imagination, bringing institutional leaders, cultural workers, and artist-organizers into the same conversation.

RESERVATIONS: Admission is free but reservations are required.

ACCESSIBILITY: This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs. To request free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) captioning service, email your request at least three weeks in advance of the event to [email protected].

About the Speakers

Doug Ashford has been teaching studio and theory at The Cooper Union in New York since 1987. His principle artistic production from 1982 to 1996 was the multiform collaborative practice of Group Material. His current painting installations were shown most recently at dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel (2012), The Henie Onstad Center, Norway (2013) and Vienna Biennial at The MAK Center this year. Ashford’s book, Writings and Conversation, (Mousse Publishing), was published on the occasion of his retrospective exhibition at the Grazer Kunstverein in 2013. Since that time he has worked primarily towards the reform of the training of artists at The Cooper Union.

Carol Becker is Professor of the Arts and Dean Emerita of Columbia University School of the Arts. She received her PhD in English and American Literature from the University of California, San Diego. She is the author of numerous articles and several books including: The Invisible Drama: Women and the Anxiety of Change; The Subversive Imagination: Artists, Society and Social Responsibility*; The Artist in Society: Rights, Roles and Responsibilities; Zones of Contention: Essays on Art, Institutions, Gender, and Anxiety; Surpassing the Spectacle: Global Transformations and the Changing Politics of Art; Thinking in Place: Art, Action, and Cultural Production; the long essay/memoir, Losing Helen, and the recently published memoir George’s Daughter.

Before arriving at Columbia University, Carol Becker served as Dean of Faculty and Senior Vice-President for Academic Affairs at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She travels widely, lectures on issues of art and society. For many years, she has served on the World Arts Forum Foundation Board that each year programs art and culture events for the World Economic Forum. With honorary doctorates from the University of Ireland and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she was recently appointed Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Georgetown, Qatar.

Nato Thompson is a curator, writer, and cultural organizer whose work explores how art intersects with politics, education, and everyday life. He is the founder of The Alternative Art School, a global membership based platform supporting working artists through collective learning, critique, and shared resources. He also leads Dreaming in Public, a consultancy that supports artists, institutions, and cultural projects navigating questions of ethics, power, and sustainability.

His writing has appeared in publications such as Artforum, Frieze, and e flux, and he is the author of several books including Seeing Power and Culture as Weapon.

He is currently completing a new book, Making a Life of Art.

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