Three Questions for Sam Durant

School of Art faculty member Sam Durant was recently named to the Robert Fitzpatrick Chair in Art.

Artizen had a quick chat with Durant and asked him for an example of some of his recent work, which you can see below–

Artizen. Is holding the chair an honorary position, or do you have new duties/responsibilities? 

Sam Durant. It’s honorary. 

Artizen.  Do you think faculty and staff service and accomplishments are adequately recognized by the school?  Who would you nominate for a chair? 

Durant. I don’t really know much about how staff handles this- something I should rectify and will try to in the future.  As for faculty- I think we have work to do in terms of our compensation.  I’m optimistic about our chances if we work together as a collective body, otherwise history shows that we won’t make much progress in this direction. 

Artizen. You know CalArts both as a professor and as a student.  Has much changed between being a student in the ’90s and a faculty member now?  If so, what?  And if not, why do you think things have stayed the same? 

Durant. This would be a good question for some of our faculty who knew  CalArts when I was a student (c. 1989-91)- they might have a clearer perspective.  I don’t think CalArts itself has changed very much in terms of its educational emphasis and the structure by which that emphasis is conveyed to students.  Having said that, we are in a very different historical moment, in that sense things have changed quite a lot.