2014年，紐約著名的私立大學Cooper Union結束了一百五十多年提供免費教育的歷史。由於財務危機，學校決定向學生收取學費。這導致的結果是，大學屬下的藝術學院再也無法為所有學生提供獎學金了。在私立學校學費高昂的美國，沒有獎學金意味着要完成一個藝術學士的學位，四年一共要交付約十五萬美元的學費，還不包括住宿和生活的費用，這就是美國私立藝術學院的收費標準。
不少人可能會懷疑，如此昂貴的課程有誰會去讀？可事實是，美國藝術學院的畢業生自上世紀六十年代起一直不斷增長，金融危機、公共資助削減等種種問題都沒有讓學生數量下降。藝術市場的發展、文化產業的興起，讓不少人相信，藝術家可以取得商業上的成功，但事實卻是，商業市場更青睞那些已經成名的藝術家，無數的年輕藝術家只能在食物鏈的底層掙扎，甚至因為支付學費而背負巨額債務。
高昂的收費標準無形中向藝術家灌輸着一種觀念，世上沒有免費的午餐，藝術也不例外。今天人們會說，做一個貧窮的藝術家是可恥的，我不予置評；但一個人如果因為貧窮而無法接受藝術教育，那至少是令人遺憾的。為了抨擊那些收費高昂的藝術學位課程，2009年，一批從Cooper Union畢業的藝術家成立了一所號稱是紐約最自由的藝術學院，名為Bruce High Qualityoundation University，他們在春、秋兩學期各開設不同的課程，邀請藝術家、策展人、藝評人來開課，和藝術學院不同的是，學生不用支付學費，學校也不向學生提供證書和學位。說起來，藝術學院本來不就是一個教室，幾把椅子，學生老師坐到一起談談關於藝術的事嗎？
學校從2009年開辦以來，去年已經發展到一學期八百多人報讀的規模；學校開始與非洲的非牟利機構合作，在當地開辦課程，又在邁亞密開展藝術駐留項目。可正是在這個時候，創辦人卻決定把學校關閉了。對他們來說，這是一所學校，但也是一場藝術實驗，藉以想像美國藝術教育的另一種可能。從規模來看，它可能是相當成功了，可是它也開始固化，開始跟隨體制，開始偏離宗旨，開始讓人失去想像力。
學校的關閉縱然使人惋惜，可是也讓那些藝術學校和資源管理者得以反思。諷刺的是，當年培養了這些敢想敢作的藝術家的那所大學，如今卻反過來開始收取學費，據說原因還是因為蓋了一座極為昂貴的教學大樓，卻又無法支付債務的關係，多少有點本末倒置。
回過頭來，我會覺得前些年在澳門參與文化藝術活動都是件挺幸福的事。去牛房倉庫看看展覽，在边度有書聽聽講座，大街小巷處欣賞藝穗節的演出，很多不用怎麼花錢的活動，卻足以讓我接觸到藝術世界裡許多有意思的人和事。原來那已經是藝術的全部，只是少了市場兩個字而已。只可惜近年這些空間卻相繼因為各種原因或關閉、或搬遷，我不知道我們是否也在發展的過程中，不小心丟失了一些本來屬於我們的美好的東西。
原載於 C2文創誌 第二十六期
There is no free lunch in this world. That’s what we believed.
2014, the famous private university Cooper Union ended the history of providing free education, which continued for more than one hundred and fifty years. Because of financial crisis, school decided to collect tuition fees from students, which results that the academy of arts was not able to provide scholarship for students any more. In America, where the tuition fees of private school are expensive, to finish an art bachelor degree without scholarship means that the total tuition fees of four years will reached 150,000 dollars, which not includes housing and living fees. That’s the fee standard of private academy of arts in America.
Many people may doubt who will enroll in such an expensive course? But in fact, since 1960s, the graduates from the academy of arts in America have gradually increased. Financial crisis, the reduction of public funding and other issues have not decreased the number of students. The development of art market and the rise of cultural industry make people believe that artists will succeed in business. But the reality is that the business market tends to favour those artists who have been famous. Numerous young artists could only struggle at the bottom of the food chain and even had great debts because of paying tuition fees.
The artists were virtually instilled a notion by the high fee standard that there is no free lunch in this world, including art. Today, people will say that being a poor artist is shameful, which I will not comment on. Because if one could not receive art education on account of poverty, it will at least be regretful. As to criticise the art degree with expensive tuition fee, in 2009, some artists graduated from the Cooper Union set up an art school which was proclaimed to be the freest art school in New York and named as Bruce High Quality Foundation University. They offer different courses in spring and fall semesters and invite artists, curators and art critics to lecture. Different from academy of arts, students don’t need to pay tuition fees. The school will not provide certificates and qualifications either. In fact, isn’t academy of arts a classroom with a few chairs where students and teachers sit together to talk about arts?
From 2009, since the school was set up, it has been in a large scale with more than eight hundred students per semester. Then the school began to cooperate with the non-profit organisation in Africa to offer courses in local. It also set up residency programme in Miami. But in the same time, the founder decided to close the school. For them, this is a school and also an artistic experiment, which leads to another possibility of American art education. From the scale, it might be extremely successful. But it began to solidify. It began to follow the system, began to deviate from the purpose, which makes people lose imagination.
Even though the close of school makes people regret, it could be a sharp warning for those art school and resource manager to rethink. Ironically, the university Cooper Union cultivates bold and risk-loving artists in those years began to charge tuition fees nowadays. It is said that charging tuition fees is for building an extremely expensive teaching building, but the university could not afford the debts. It is like putting the cart before the horse.
Briefly looking back, I feel that previous year, joining the cultural and art activities in Macao is happy. To visit the exhibition in Ox Warehouse, to attend lecture in Pin-to Livros, to appreciate the Macao City Fringe performance on the street and so many activities that wouldn’t cost a lot are enough to make me get in touch with many interesting people and things in the art world. I realised that these are arts, merely without the word “market”. Unfortunately, because of different reasons, these spaces are closed or moved. I don’t know whether we accidentally lost the beautiful things that originally belong to us in the process of development.
Source: C2 Issue 26