Coolidge Hits Art Committee Suggestions

The Director of the Fogg Museum--a key unit in the proposed Visual Arts Center--yesterday criticized the recent Visual Arts Committee recommendations for a reorganization of the art facilities of the University.

John P. Coolidge '35, professor of Fine Arts, specifically attacked suggestions 1) to establish a cross-departmental Division of the Visual Arts; 2) to change the name and limit the scope of the Department of Fine Arts, while removing studio work to a new "Design Center"; and 3) to orient the teaching of art toward undergraduate distribution, possibly at the expense of concentration.

Coolidge said that he accepted the general aims of the Report--"to expand the arts all along the line"--but he felt that "a successful improvement can certainly be accomplished substantially within the existing framework." The specific recommendations of the Report, Coolidge predicted, will merely serve as a basis for a final formulation made with the consultation of the faculties involved.

The administration of the Visual Arts Center, as a group partly composed of two department chairmen and the directors of the Harvard Theatre and the University's teaching collections, would either be "just another committee agreeing on decisions made by the separate faculties," or a policy-making group that would be ineffectual without the complete cooperation of the subordinate faculties.

Couldn't Enforce Decisions

"I don't see how such a group could impose unpopular decisions," he added. "An integrated administration would be such a fundamental revision of academic procedure that it wouldn't work, even if it were desirable. And it wouldn't be desirable because it would remove decisions from the men who would have to carry them out," he said.

Further, Coolidge attacked suggestions to change the Department of Fine Arts to the Department of the History of Art. Removing studio work from direct contact with art appreciation, "would be like separating writing courses from English or composition from the study of music," he maintained.

In addition, Coolidge continued, Report recommendations set up an artificial conflict between concentration and distribution. While it would be "irresponsible to ignore" general student interest in basic art courses, "we feel that distribution is fine, but we should offer a stronger concentration curriculum.