I'd like to offer a mild objection to James Linza's statements about artists
and teaching.  I'm not especially knowledgeable about painting and sculpture,
but I know that the situation in photography does not coincide with his
description.  There is a strong tradition in photographic art that artists
teach.  When they work on their BFA and MFA degrees, they expect to have a
dual career as artists and teachers, and many become successful following
this route.  At first it's a practical consideration, to have a regular
salary while building one's reputation as an artist--but many find that
interaction with students forms a significant, vital adjunct to their art.
Some of the most highly regarded and honored photographers of the last 30 or
40 years always taught at art schools and universities--people like Minor
White, Aaron Siskind, Harry Callahan, Jerry Uelsmann, Walker Evans, etc.  One
of the most impotant artists in the Washington area, who is a sculptor,
painter, and photographer--William Christenberry--has long been a teacher.

And don't forget that some of the most ubiquitous and respected modernist
painters also taught--people like Josef Albers, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and Hans
Hoffmann.

For that matter, important figures in a wide variety of fields are based at
universities.  Look at Nobel prize winners in fields like economics, physics,
chemistry, etc.--a significant percentage are professors.  It goes without
saying that some of the most influential  and successful thinkers in a wide
variety of intellectual disciplines, such as history, philosophy, sociology,
etc., hone their ideas in academic settings.

Professors are supposed to be people who "profess" their fields--both doing
and teaching.  It's a classic approach that has worked since the Middle Ages.
 They can't all be superstars, of course, and many superstars forsake
teaching when they find they can make more money by not teaching.  But not
all.  I'm sorry Mr. Linza's university career was disappointing, but maybe he
didn't select his school carefully enough.  I always thought it was a good
idea to select a graduate school on the basis of the quality and reputation
of the professors rather than the reputation or cache of the university
itself--it seems to me that you can't go too far wrong that way.  That old
saw that those who can't do, teach, sounds good, and yes, sometimes it's
true, but it ain't necessarily so.

David Haberstich

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