November Not Fiction Book Discussions

We continue our theme of education with Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over by Nell Painter. Following her retirement from her career as a historian at Princeton University, Dr. Nell Painter surprised everyone in her life by returning to school in her sixties to earn a BFA and MFA in painting. An interviewer with her publisher, Counterpoint, asked Painter, “How did you come to write this book? What’s the story of this story?” She replied, “The notion of writing about my experience(s) in art school came very early on, even before I enrolled at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, for my friends voiced curiosity as soon as they discovered my musings. At first it was the novelty of a chaired professor at Princeton climbing down from what seemed like the pinnacle of scholarly achievement—the strangeness of that turning away intrigued people. Then it was asking about what was new. In either case, people I knew wanted me to send back reports from my new life. Old in Art School is that report. Old in Art School speaks a tiny bit about the leaving, but mainly it’s about what the title says: being old in a world obsessed with youth, with what one of my teachers called right-nowness. That’s a challenge when you’re starting out at sixty-four with twentieth-century eyes.” Painter's story asks us to consider how artists, and women artists in particular, are seen and judged by their age, looks, and race. 

What do you think? Have you "started over" or dreamed of "starting over" in your career or general life path? Have you experienced any discouragement, either stated or implied? How did that affect you? What influence did Painter's mother's example have on her own decision to leave her academic career at its pinnacle and start over in art school? Painter titles Chapter 11 "A Bad Decision." Why did Painter decide to leave Mason Gross School of the Arts before completing a full four years there? Why does she think going to graduate school at Rhode Island School of Design before completing her time at Mason and maybe even taking a few years off was a bad decision? Do you think it was a bad decision, or did it perversely have a positive effect on Painter's trajectory as an artist? Of the various "-isms" Painter experienced, which do you think were the most damaging to her confidence in her own vision and execution of her art? How did her own cohort's opinion of her art contrast with that of her art teachers and peers? How did Painter's summer alone with her work in the Adirondacks influence her work and sense of herself as an artist? What is art? Who is an artist? Who gets to decide? 

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, November 5, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library or Thursday, November 21, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library.