Carl(a)

To whom it may concern:

It is not often that I am compelled to write letters of support for 
people and situations that I am not intimately involved with.  I am 
an artist with a developing media practice that is looking for 
opportunities to nurture and focus my work further. Naturally, this 
has made me consider applying to graduate schools not just within my 
own country but in the United States.  Essentially, I am looking for 
an open, nurturing yet rigorous and challenging environment to expand 
my practice. Syracuse as a community is known for fostering new and 
distinct talent and bridging it with artists whose work that is 
renowned the world over.  Syracuse University is able to attract an 
eminent faculty that teach with the same passion that they put into 
their own work.  This is quite a rare situation, and it seems as if 
the surging arts community in Syracuse is at a high point.  
Personally, the Transmedia program at SU seems like a perfect fit.   
From what I can tell, it is an innovative program with a healthy 
balance of international students that are nurtured by a renowned 
faculty and buttressed by a wealth of curators, galleries and open 
minds.

This perception has been undermined by the overtly autocratic removal 
of Astria Suparak.  News of her dismissal has traveled fast and far, 
and its effect has resonated beyond the immediate Syracuse arts 
community.  The negative publicity surrounding this action and the 
subsequent publication of the emails between Suparak and Jeffery 
Hoone are eye opening to say the least.  I am not presuming that I 
know what it takes to run a space like the Warehouse, nor would i 
dare say that I know anything about the political machinations 
necessary to support potentially offensive material.  I can only 
assume that it must be difficult and time consuming to balance the 
needs of various special interests in order to support challenging 
work within the framework of a large American university.  However, I 
do know the adverse effect of  a bureaucratic infrastructure that is  
completely at odds with the artistic community that it claims to 
support.  To make matters worse, the email chain exposes Mr. Hoone's 
critical blind-spots, his lack of interest in young and developing 
practices and worst of all a thinly disguised and wholly destructive 
ego that refuses to let one of SU's brightest people share her gift 
for innovative curation.

This shameless display of ego, the tyrannical nature of this disposal 
of a great asset and the insular protection of Mr. Hoone by the 
undemocratic structure of the CMAC have made me seriously reconsider 
if it is worth submitting any application to your school.

respectfully yours,

Carl(a)

Vancouver, Canada