campus visit at austin peay(pronounced pee) state

It is hard to process everything that is happening but i have definitely enjoyed myself. There is so much un-tapped potential here with both their gallery and their visiting artist program. In a strange break with the typical atmosphere of an art department, everyone here seems to get along with no one else stepping on anyone elses toes. I am particularly nervous about waking up from this fantasy since the environment actually seems supportive of creative pursuits. Unlike most art departments there is no sense of anxiety permeating every corner of the department. I am really comforted by the fact that all 12 art faculty seemed settled and several have confessed that they planned on leaving after their first couple of years and couldn’t find a better offer and just stayed. i keep asking them what the catch is, because so far everything seems on the level, unless it is like a stepford wives sort of thing only they are the stepford professors. I would have total freedom to design a gallery schedule, develop fundraising, work with and expand a permanent collection, i would get to teach and they pay enough so that first year professors can afford to own a house. After I gave my lecture people seemed really responsive and asked very interesting questions. I finally refined my talk down to about 85 slides with three of them being videos, I will try to compress the powerpoint down to a quicktime movie and put it here, although it is not the same without my witty delivery and hysterical one liners. During the formal interview when i was sitting around the conference table with the faculty i was amazed at how congenial everyone was. I can’t imagine a more painless interview process i hope the rest are this easy.