A-school, B-school
As the semester draws to a close, I’ve been inspired by the many similarities between business school and the fine arts college where I received my undergraduate degree. Like Loyola, the end of the school year at MICA is a time filled with excitement, activity and celebration. Both colleges go the extra mile to honor and support students and take pride in their accomplishments.
A big distinction between a visual arts college and business school is the way that student talent and work is shared. At MICA’s senior exhibition every graduating student is given a space on campus to display her work. A special preview event provides the opportunity for the general public to tour the studios and meet the artists. I can’t think of a better way to showcase talent and provide students with an opportunity to share the culmination of their learning.
In b-school, this opportunity for sharing our knowledge and experience in the program is more private. Our semester ended with a series of team presentations which brought together much of the learning from the last module. What could b-school learn from an art school about making the learning experience more transparent and accessible to other students, family and community members? And what can business learn from the art traditions of critique and feedback?
As John Maeda wrote in this post, individuals and organizations that are open to models of critique indicate that “…you are open to asking bigger questions about your work and its validity within your organization.” Some colleges in Finland are bringing the worlds of business and design together and I am very interested to follow their progress.
Critique @MICA (www.mica.edu)
