Teacher Appreciation Week: An Interview With UAlbany Professor and Chair Danny Goodwin
**A condensed version of this interview appeared as part of our May print issue**
Photos by Kiki Vassilakis
“[Civilizations are] largely remembered for the things they make, their expressions, their words, their music, their artworks.”
As we wrap up Teacher Appreciation Week, we hope you’ll take a moment to reflect on what impact arts education – or education in general! – has had on your life. We would love to hear your stories on social media as well! My final interview for the week is set in higher education. As you know by now, each day this week, we’ve been highlighting interviews from our most recent cover story, offering the additional space for these conversations that print could not allow. Consider these the Extended Cut versions, and thank you for reading!
To all our educators – thank you for instilling a love of the arts into the next generation.
Near the end of high school, students face a crucial choice in their upbringing. Pursue higher education with a degree in a specific field, enter the workforce directly or, in some cases, take a gap year and prolong figuring it all out. If there’s anything we’ve learned in recent years, it’s that higher education is not a one-size-fits-all solution, so it’s wonderful to have a diversity of options available to us.
Speaking with Danny Goodwin, Chair of the Department of Art and Art History at University of Albany, it’s immediately evident he still believes in higher education. His role as chair is primarily in supervising undergraduate teaching assistants and adjuncts, while also teaching graduate students in the Master of Fine Arts program. It was an unlikely career choice, as he tells it.
“Growing up in Texas, I did not see that art was particularly important or valuable or serious. But news flash: art is connected to everything. People talk about the art world like it's a separate kind of hermetic world. But art is the world. And it took falling ass backwards into it in undergrad for me to figure out that this is a job, and it's important, because everyone, everyone, everyone consumes art.”
A photographer himself, he raves about UAlbany’s encouragement of the arts, from both a faculty and student perspective. The school is one of 187 R1 Research Institutions, a designation that signifies the highest commitment to research among American universities. It’s something Danny takes a lot of pride in.
“I like that research is a big deal here; making my artwork is not a side hustle,” he tells me. “It's expected that you're producing and publishing and having exhibitions. I needed that kind of nurturing because there was a conspicuous absence of it in my growing up.”
But higher education is increasingly viewed with a negative lens in the current socio political landscape. Federal funding for universities is being frozen unless they comply with demands for changes to programs and overall culture promoting diversity, equity and inclusion. Just recently, Harvard University made headlines by refusing to comply, setting off an inevitable war (that has since escalated since publishing this interview). It’s something that Danny reflects on with vigor.
“I take it really seriously when folks start talking about cutting any kind of humanities or arts. It's a big deal on this campus. If you start going after our indirect cost returns from giant federal grants that are in the millions of dollars… we do a lot with that. We pay people salaries, and we run labs and stuff that’s serious. But there's no funding for art anyway. Am I hurt by the fact that the federal government is not going to fund art? They already don't.
“Trump wants to get rid of us and keep everybody uneducated, because that works for them. Expertise is not just undervalued; large swaths of the public are openly antagonistic to it. That's really troubling to me.”
Perhaps it’s why Danny is so passionate about his job leading the university’s art department. He’s offering students not just an education, but a chance to make a mark on a divisive world in a way that only artists can.
“My friend Bob Griffin (Dean of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity) says we could have a perfectly secure country, and no one would want to live here, because if you take away all the reasons that it's fun to be in the world, what's left is all that practical stuff that nobody really cares that much about. I mean, yeah, we can cure diseases and stuff – that's important. But civilizations are remembered for more than that. They're largely remembered for the things they make, their expressions, their words, their music, their artworks.”
This intersection of security and art is particularly interesting given that he recently published a book of exquisite photographs called Job/Security: A Composite Portrait of the Expanding American Security Industry. Alongside the photographs are interviews with folks who work in the security industry, conducted by fellow professor, Ed Schwarzschild. If that wasn’t enough, the two also perform together in the local alt/rock band, Doctor Baker.
Being not only able but encouraged to have artistic pursuits like this is just one of many reasons Danny is thrilled to go to work every day. He raves about UAlbany’s support of the arts, including the launch of a new Game Design major he is particularly excited about. But most of all, he values the opportunity to connect with his colleagues and students through the medium of art, helping them to share the most genuine, vulnerable pieces of themselves with the world.
“On a good day, I'm having really high level conversations with people about their ideas and their most deeply held convictions and fears—all the stuff that really matters. I just feel so lucky that I get to do that; I go home every day energized.”
Thank you, Danny, for your dedication to higher education, and ensuring our students are set to create things our civilization will be remembered for.
For some great ideas and materials you can use to thank a teacher this week, visit https://www.pta.org/home/events/PTA-Teacher-Appreciation-Week
