Inventing a New Approach

The Master Craftsman Program

Who we are:

The Master Craftsman Studio at Florida State University is a unique department. Now in our ninth year, we are experiencing major growth and support from the University. There are many reasons for our prosperity, most of which deal with the nature of our program. We are a service to the university and a unique opportunity for students who seek apprenticeship. We teach techniques, both traditional and state of the art, in producing various kinds of moldings, architectural elements in a variety of materials, wide ranging forms of cold cast materials, stained glass, business practices, project management and we’re expanding into hot glass, foundry, and fabrication of statuary. We utilize the university’s steady need for specialized skills to fund our program and provide experience for students, through apprenticeship, in a wide variety of academic disciplines.

What we do:

The original purpose of the Master Craftsman program was to enhance the Florida State campus. Throughout many of the building restorations, the Master Craftsman program has been commissioned to take molds of original stone carvings off buildings, produce innovative reinforced plaster moldings, create dedications in granite and bronze for honored faculty, design and produce several large scale stained glass windows, refurbish campus fountains, create and cast bronze busts of our Noble Honorees, and cast concrete benches for the campus.
It is a well-known figure to college admissions staffs that up to 60% of high school students choose which college to attend based upon the ambiance of the university grounds. By looking at the potential for growth through enriching the campus compared with the costs of contracting many independent specialist artists, it’s easy to see why Florida State University has been the first university to create this unique in-house department.
Symbiotically, the Master Craftsman benefits by being employed by the university to produce materials that enrich and beautify the campus. Thus the MCS generates its own funding. Now, more than ever, visual arts programs are subject to a "bottom line" rationale. Our program exists under the same rational and in doing so exemplifies the confluence of creativity and entrepreneurship. This practice helps students “learn in context” all projects from beginning to end (and all aspects in between.)

How we do:

The Master Craftsman Program offers apprenticeship opportunities to all students in good standing with the university. We do not offer course credit, but rather exchange knowledge for labor. We do not charge any fees for students who are willing to work. Any student wishing to apprentice can do so by consistently keeping a weekly volunteer schedule. As students contribute to studio projects they benefit by seeing a wide variety of skills utilized every day. University projects provide a job, or opportunity, for students. They contribute their skills in a tangible and productive manner while experiencing a real project environment.

The instructors benefit from having apprentices to teach and solve problems in context. This hybridizes the role of teacher with responsibilities of project manager, giving them multiple modes of educating. We have identified tremendous efficiency in a “learning in context” approach to entrepreneurship training which represents a substantial paradigm shift in arts education.
The university finds beneficial the economic advantages of having a department of specialized campus projects, the enrichment of the campus by students, and the cross-disciplinary nature of the Master Craftsman Studio. We have found that our abilities are in demand across the scope of the university system. Collaborative student and faculty projects have currently been achieved in education, engineering, film, theater, art, design, anthropology, the medical school, and athletics.

Why we do:

The Master Craftsman Studio aims to answer the question of “How?” This makes the foundation of our educational approach quite simple. We focus on the two primary questions of “How do I do this?” and “How do I make a living doing this?” These are truly primary questions for all university students when deciding what area to study. We recognize the volume of knowledge and experience necessary to become a successful professional artist. Rather than completely transform the existing educational experience, the studio seeks to supplement that experience for qualified applicants.
As an institution of higher learning we're committed to exploration and research, while continuing to preserve and pass on traditional knowledge. Throughout history there has always been a repository of all the skills and knowledge that fall into the realm of the arts. In the last hundred years or so, that repository has begun to vanish as the specialized skills of the artist/craftsman have been lost, only to be replaced by inexpensive, ready-made substitutes. Highly refined skills once available almost everywhere have disappeared. The attrition of these skilled artist/craftsmen has made valuable their knowledge. Florida State recognizes this valued wisdom and identifies many opportunities for the students, faculty, and institution. We have come to recognize that craftsmanship is a skill worth repeating. Students have amazing ideas and ambition, but those go only as far as one's ability to bring them into existence and proliferate the knowledge accrued through doing so. The Master Craftsman Studio provides not only skills to reach one's goals, but also experiences that make a lifetime of continued creativity possible.