“The MFA is the new MBA,” is what a professor of graphic design said to me at Thanksgiving dinner. Considering that her graduate class has grown from 15 to 45 in one year, she might be right.
The comment makes sense in the context of Virginia Postrel’s book: The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness. Postrel argues that design and style are the major driving forces in commerce these days. Think iPod, mountain bike and Swatch.
That being the case, it would make sense to seek a high-level management job with a Masters of Fine Arts.
I want to know how young students learn about this change in direction. How did they know that an MFA was now the propitious training?
Ultimately commerce is driven by whims, taste and fads. It will be wonderful when we start getting managers who have refined the appropriate skills involved.