"The Boston Design School" and the Power of Names

Progress is inevitable, or so we are told. Perhaps it's better to say that change is inevitable and whether or not that represents progress is up for debate. Currently, there is such a debate at the Massachusetts Bay School of Picture Drawing (henceforth "The Boston School") regarding names. Names have power and meaning. What we call a thing, pace Shakespeare, says a lot about the way that we view it, the regard that we hold it and the way we wish it to be perceived by society at large. In fact, when it comes to social institutions such as schools, the way that we name a thing has the power to change it. Although were we to call a rose by any other name, it would retain its intrinsic qualities—the rose exists outside our ability to alter it by naming—the same does not hold true for our school. Give it a name more suited to marketing and to web sites than to education and it is perceived as shallow, both within and without its walls. Perceived as unserious, the quality of applicants to the school declines. The quality of applicants declines and the student body declines. Poorer students do not attract the excellent faculty applicants we are accustomed to: neither in attracting new applicants nor in keeping the interest of the faculty we already have in place.

The Massachusetts Bay School of Picture Drawing is a name rich in history and tradition, a "brand" if you will, synonymous with excellence in the visual arts and has been for centuries. The Boston Design School is a name fit for a web site where dabblers post "tips" and insipid Internet videos claiming to help one draw in ten minutes or less. The very idea of it is contrary to everything that we know about the hard work and dedication necessary to mastery in the fine arts.

As indeed seems to be the case, that this new name will be used with increasing frequency—on the Internet and in our marketing materials—it seems to me that our duty as stewards of Our School's name is clear. That we must hold the line. Here—and no farther.

—JHC