I recently read an article in the wall street journal about the appeal of liberal arts colleges and their quirks. For Margaret Ritten, the appeal of Oberlin was that they allow their students to rent famous paintings for $5. Students have these paintings in their dorms or hanging on their walls. Personally, when I think of paintings by artists as famous as Picasso, I would expect them to be hanging in an enclosed frame in a museum. Definitely not in a college student's dorm. While Picasso created around 13,500 paintings, it still surprises me that the Allen Memorial Art Museum trusts these students so much to let them have possession of the works.
While not one of these paintings have been destroyed, and all have been returned; I start to question the amount of responsibility that the students are taking on. I think that showing so much trust is really appealing to students and kids applying to colleges and for the most part I think that they are responsible enough. There is always that one kid that messes things up. Whether you're in kindergarten, high school, or college. It may be on accident or not their fault but what happens if one of these works gets ruined? Is the trust for all the student body ruined?
I also started to wonder to what extent should students be trusted? As students reach college, they near adulthood where they should be taking on more responsibility but what is too much? Is placing these priceless works in the hands of students for $5 placing too much responsibility in their hands?
1 comment:
I visited Oberlin and during the short info session, I thought it was interesting that they brought up this topic of them loaning out paintings. It didn't seem to me to be important enough to talk about an an info session. I think the reason they brought it up is because the college wants students to feel like they're being treated like adults. College students are physically able to take care of a painting, but normally colleges wouldn't let them because they don't trust them enough. Trust is a big appeal to students because they feel like they are being treated as responsible adults. I think that is why Oberlin chose to talk about this topic in its info session.
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