Louisville Magazine

NOV 2017

Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.

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LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 11.17 63 grades and learning outcomes,'" McClure says. "You have to prove why you gave that student a particular grade, not that you liked their work. e naiveté was so frustrating sometimes about — 'Oh, accreditation's just a little piece of paper.' No, it's not! It's millions and millions of dollars in federal financial aid your stu- dents have now that they wouldn't have access to. Every once in a while one of their board members will say something casual like, 'We don't need Spalding.' It's like, good luck without federal financial aid. Good luck without general studies." Talking to the crowd at the soirée, Mc- Clure called Payne the "whole package: someone who can take KyCAD from the dream that has somehow succeeded in staying alive to something that really will pass with gravitas and grow into some- thing the city can be very proud of. "I was trying to explain to my hus- band the difference between Churchill and Moira," McClure said, "and I said I would never give Churchill Davenport my car keys." e room laughed. "Moira can have the car." Born in India and raised in Scotland (her accent could tell you that), Payne was most recently vice president of academic affairs at Cornish College of Arts in Seattle, a century-old AICAD-ac- credited institution. KyCAD found her through a national search firm. e fledgling art school is, for lack of a better metaphor, her blank canvas. She and Davenport are planning to visit art schools that could model how KyCAD is structured in the future. Two of them are Kansas City Art Institute, which is its own four-year college and is not affiliated with any university, and Tyler School of Art at Temple Universi- ty, which has a separate art community while facilities and general curriculum at Temple are shared. e freedom to mark itself with a specialized program gets Payne excited. She mentions a school in California that recently received a $70 million endowment from a tech company to combine art with politics. "Everybody associates artists as having active political agendas, so to actually finance a school that looks at activism and politics in art is genius," she says. Researching what others colleges have done is something she'll be tackling this year. "Or," she says, "we might do some- thing that people won't recognize. at's the excitement of the potential for it." In the meantime, the school is real-es- tate hungry. "We can't afford to be pro- ducing studio after studio for them and making it only for art," McClure says. e students have individual studios inside the residence hall and dotted about campus, but Payne says, "We desperately, desperately need our own art spaces so we can have gorgeous facilities. I couldn't believe it — when I came in they were painting on a carpeted floor. I thought, no!" ey won't go into detail, but Payne and Davenport have been seeking out po- tential campuses in other parts of town. e first week of classes for the 2017-2018 school year, KyCAD students, faculty and staff met in the 849 Gallery for pizza and a welcome address. e place smelled like a school cafeteria — unlike on the soirée night. It was easy to spot the students, who made up the majority of the 150 or so people. Body piercings were prevalent, dyed hair and unconventional cuts the norm. Payne spoke to the group, warning them of her Scottish humor and saying that she plans to host tea gatherings. She encouraged the students to go out and take advantage of visual- and performing-art shows. "ere's a lot happening in this city and it's one of the reasons that I came from Seattle. It's on the up, and I think as this art college develops this city will be growing with us and we will be part of that regeneration. "I love to tell everyone that the arts President and dean Moira Scott Payne

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