Joe Cariati in an undated photo from his bio page of his website.
There are well-loved teachers, and then there’s Joe Cariati, whose expert skills as a glassblower are apparently matched only by his prowess as a glass instructor. Regularly invited to teach at Pilchuck, Penland, and UrbanGlass, Cariati has been in-demand for a while. But when Cal State Fullerton canceled his spring glassblowing course because of massive state-wide budget cuts, Cariati’s students refused to accept the situation.
According to an article in the Fullerton Observer newspaper (see p. 8), a student named John Grace challenged his fellow students to raise money to pay half of Cariati’s salary so that his course would not be canceled. The fundraising effort caught on and the money has been flowing to keep his adjunct professorship alive for spring. Attention is now shifting to the fall semester.
Says John Leighton, an associate professor in the Cal State Fullerton art department, in an email to the Hot Sheet: “We are now engaged in an effort to raise the private funds necessary to keep Joe’s position next year and to maintain our studio and program in the face of further state cuts.”
Hopefully this is not the future of art education at public universities, with students paying not just tuition but the salaries of their instructors. But California has been one of the worst-affected states during the current economic downturn, and Cal State Fullerton has taken such drastic measures as temporarily halting new student enrollments for Spring 2010 to try to make up for the dramatic funding shortfall.
For Leighton, this outpouring of support for Cariati is a rare bit of good news in a bleak time. “Endowed chairs and sponsored faculty positions exist in many universities,” he writes. “But I am aware of no other example of this kind of grass-roots, student-organized private fund raising to pay their instructor’s salary!”
Leighton asks that anyone interested to learn more about what’s been going on at Cal State Fullerton, or who might want to help keep the glass program going, get in touch. His contact information is below.
Professor John Leighton Art Department California State University, Fullerton Office: (657) 278-2771 jleighton@fullerton.edu