Hello.
Welcome Spring 20 graduates from all of us in the Department of Art, Art History and Design.
Graduation is usually held at the university level and split into the diverse colleges
for the various majors offered within the
university.
In the Art, Art History and Design department our degree offerings are a Bachelors of Arts
in Art History, and Bachelors of Fine Arts
in Fine Art, with concentrations in Ceramics,
Graphic Design and Digital Media, Painting, Drawing and Printmaking, Photography and Sculpture.
This year is our 16th year of being a department, but this year we officially changed our name
and added Art History to the Department of Art and Design.
I think this shows our commitment to being a well-rounded program for the North Florida
region and beyond.
I became chair of the art, art history and
design program this year
so I could help serve the community
of up coming arts, art historians and designers, and, would not have to deliver graduation
speeches - especially in my first year, I thought that was the job for the provost.
I guess the Coronavirus gets the last laugh again.
And what an interesting year this has been for all of us, with the serious Coronavirus,
a down turned economy, and let’s not forget the “almost hurricane” to start off the Fall.
As usual, during all of these abnormal occurrences is your persistent hard work and accomplishments
within the semesters you’ve faced. Even when semesters keep getting cut short.
Pretty soon, we will have 6 week sessions. Ah, yes, that’s already happening with summer.
So, I’ve been doing my research on commencement
speeches from the past, trying to find interesting
bits of wisdom to drop into this recording.
The one thing that they all have in common, is this: first they try and make the graduating
seniors laugh, often with a small joke to
soften them up a bit.
Then they scare them to death with facts of facing the “real” world, how hard it would be,
talking about a poor economy, or worse
a passage from a long forgotten text which
the guest reads with agonizing monotone detail.
Finally, they get to a point of how you
are the future, so don’t screw it up!
Some of these speeches have used techniques like a top 10 lists, some use point/counterpoint,
some like Bono in 2004 use irreverence
to make their points.
In the end there are a few truths which I
would like to try and summarize for you moving forward.
Luckily for me, these are summarized
nicely in the titles of the speeches, after
having read a half-dozen or so, before realizing
this.
J.K. Rowling gave a speech at Harvard in 2008 entitled
“Failure and Imagination." Her greatest
fear out of college was failure, and as humans
we have this amazing ability to imagine things
we have never experienced before.
“Find What You Love” was the title of
Steve Jobs’ speech in Stanford in 2005.
He goes on to explain how to grow in life
despite all of the obstacles thrown your way.
He says, “you can’t connect the dots of
life experiences looking forward; you can
only connect them looking backwards.”
“Real Freedom?” is another example of
a commencement speech from author David Wallace
at Kenyon College in 2005.
Here the list of Real Freedoms comes with the old adage that the purpose of college
is to learn how to learn.
He goes on to clarify that quote, learning
how to think really means learning how to
exercise some control over how and what you think.
Finally, “Make Good Art” by award winning
graphic novelist Neil Gaiman, in a speech
to the University of Arts in 2012 summarizes in 5 easy to understand points read as followed:
First, when you start out on a career in the
arts you have no idea what you are doing.
Next, if you have an idea of what you want to make, just go and do it.
Number three. When you start off, you have to deal with  the problems of failure.
Four, he says, I quote, "I hope you make mistakes
and While you’re at it, make your art, do
the stuff that only you can do."
If I could echo many of these sentiments and make my own advice, graduating college can
be a scary proposition, but is outweighed
much more by the opportunities of what’s to come.
You will employ all of the techniques discussed
in your classes towards starting in your career,
just remember, there is still so much more
to learn.
I’d like to congratulate you all for
your hard work and vision.
Go out knowing that you can make mistakes, fail at times, and do the stuff only you can do.
On behalf of all of your professors in Art,
Art History and Design, thank you for your
commitment to your coursework which has taken you to next phase of life.
Good luck. Keep in touch.
And thank you.
