On Saturday, April 12, students, alumni and a professor gathered around Red Square to protest the University’s decision to phase out the Studio Arts major. Students made signs, brought artwork, and even a mock coffin. An English professor also brought a skeleton and propped it against the coffin.
Plans for this mock funeral began on March 23, with an email sent to students who had filled out an interest form that was shared by Frida Jackson with the union organizers group chat. This began after an Open Forum on March 19 for Studio Art Majors and faculty led by interim Dean Laurie Ross.
The funeral was planned initially for Destination: Clark on Sunday, April 6. However, due to rain, the organizers rescheduled for the following Saturday.
At 10 a.m., students gathered at Red Square to set up the coffin and art behind the Sigmund Freud Statue in the snow. Students attached photos, paintings, posters, and a letterpress print sign that read “Death Doula Comes for the Arts.” Other signs read, “Art matters,” “Art is culture” and “Art is essential.”
Around 10:30 a.m., the group began a “funeral procession,” carrying the coffin and skeleton around campus, passing prospective students and families on campus for Destination: Clark. Organizers also handed out flyers inviting students and families to join.
“Join us in mourning the loss of studio arts, tragically taken from us too soon,” the flyers read.
The procession ended at Red Square, where students and an alumnus shared “eulogies” in memory of the Studio Arts major.
“Genuinely, art has changed my life,” student Sophia Waldman said during her “eulogy.” “I’ve been doing art, taking myself seriously since I was like, 15. When I’m not doing art, I feel like I’m missing a part of myself. It’s such a big part of my life. It’s part of my identity. I think that art is one of the main tools we have for connection with one another.”
“I have never felt more supported by professors and students, I’ve never felt more collaborative in an educational environment than in my art classes,” event organizer Jackson said. “Arts at Clark are what keep people coming back, and that’s something that administration and the Board of Trustees are not seeing.”
“In 1978, in Art History class, I shaved my head as part of an art project,” Clark alumnus Mitchel Ahern ‘84 said.“It was supposed to be a report on an artist, but instead, I just did art. Since then, that’s ruled my life, and it’s a shame that Clark can’t support that as a part of their curriculum. It’s wrong.”
The Studio Arts major is not the only major in danger of being phased out. Other such programs include Philosophy, Chemistry, Finance, Theater Arts, Education and the Center for Gender, Race, and Area Studies, according to The Scarlet and an email sent on Dec. 6, 2024.
“My major is also under threat, and to me, you got to band together to fight against cutbacks that don’t make sense for our school, and that our student body says we don’t want,” A Community, Youth, and Education Studies (CYES) major and Theater minor said at the event.
When thanking everyone for coming, an organizer said they will plan similar events more events like this when the weather improves. The coffin and art pieces were left behind the statue of Sigmund Freud for people to look at, and to showcase the silent protest against the major being phased out until Tuesday, April 15.
