麻豆影院

Professor says high ranking reflects the high quality of the program鈥檚 inquisitive, hard-working students

The graduate ceramics program at CU 麻豆影院 is ranked fifth in the nation, up from eighth last year, in US News and World Report鈥檚 Best Graduate Schools 2017.

The ceramics program is one of eight 麻豆影院 programs to be ranked in the top 10 graduate specialty programs nationwide, but it is the only one of the CU 麻豆影院 group to hail from the arts and humanities. The .

Kim Dickey, professor of art and art history and one of three faculty members of the ceramics program听(along with Associate Professor听Jeanne Quinn and Professor Scott Chamberlin), is pleased with the ranking, released this spring, but does not take credit for it.听

The ranking, she emphasizes, reflects the 鈥渟uccess of our grads who have gone on to have great careers in the art world as well as in academia.鈥� Those alumni are also the program鈥檚 best recruiters.

鈥淚f we can claim any responsibility, it is that we choose our graduates carefully, and then support them to the best of our ability, giving them a solid foundation from which to take risks, ask tough questions, and work extremely hard in the short time they are here,鈥� Dickey says.

And the students seem to thrive here, she adds. 鈥淭hey come here to be challenged, stretch themselves as artists, and take advantage of the many resources this department and university has to offer. They are sponges, ready to soak it all in.鈥�

Dickey describes ceramics as inherently interdisciplinary, intersecting with architecture, environmental design, the domestic, the decorative, the theatrical鈥斺�渉aving applications for forms as diverse as drinking vessels to large-scale sculptural installation to architectural ornamentation to tiles for the Space Shuttle.鈥�

Additionally, she notes, almost every civilization throughout history that had access to clay developed a ceramics tradition, meaning it has both a universal quality and enduring fascination.听

鈥淎nd it's just amazing to work directly with your hands with a material that doesn't enclose a form already; it's formless鈥攑otential in a lump.鈥�

Dickey also extols the value of a graduate education in the arts, which not only requires that students develop 鈥渧isual language鈥� but also that they devote many hours in critiques with other artists and thinkers. This colloquy hones students鈥� skills in critical thinking and persuasive argument, she says.

鈥淪o our grads (and undergrads) come out of the program really conversant about the ideas that compel them and ready to engage in a meaningful exchange on the role the arts have to play in our world.鈥�

Dickey鈥檚 work will be on display at a mid-career retrospective called at the in Denver. The exhibition is scheduled from Oct. 16 through Jan. 11, 2017. Click for more information about the graduate program in ceramics and for more information about undergraduate ceramics study.

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