For most students on the cusp of graduation, spring quarter
means frantically searching Craigslist for job openings, e-mailing
resumes, and hopefully landing interviews.
For MFA design and costume graduates, it means a party.
Well, a showcase to be more specific. This past weekend was the
third annual Design Showcase West, a final weekend of art displays
and schmoozing before new MFA graduates go out into the real
world.
The event is modeled after “Ming’s Clambake,”
a design portfolio review started by Ming Cho Lee, a design
professor at Yale. The “Clambake,” invites graduating
students from colleges on the East Coast to present their work to
professionals in the industry.
“(“˜Clambake’) is on the East Coast, so (Design
Showcase West) was started three years ago so we can meet Los
Angeles-based people,” said Michele Miatello, a graduating
MFA set design student. “It verges more on the film industry,
so if you’re showing your work here, you probably want to
work here.”
The event invited entertainment producers, designers and
directors to come explore student works from UCLA, USC, Cal Arts
and NYU. At best, some graduates land jobs. If not, they still
agree it is an effective networking weekend.
“I’m not really expecting a job out of this,
it’s just good to hear feedback and see what people from
other schools are doing,” said Miatello before the event.
Miatello compares the showcase to a science fair exhibit, where
each graduate student has a booth to display sketches, designs and
models of their best work.
Samantha Kluster, an MFA costume design student, showed attire
from the current show “Hot Mikado,” as well as a dress
from “Fashion” ““ two UCLA theater performances
for which she designed costumes.
For Design West showcasers, art and design have been enduring
interests for them throughout their lives, though not necessarily
through their education. Kluster, who majored in political science
as an undergraduate, decided to return to her passion for costume
design while in graduate school.
“That’s what I love about this program ““ it
gives you the opportunity to be yourself. It’s not molded or
stylized; they encourage us to be different,” said
Kluster.
Although many of the industry representatives at Design Showcase
West were from the film and television side of design, Miatello
maintains that theater design is her preferred outlet for artistic
expression.
“It’s a little more cerebral, and you have more
artistic freedom. You have the ability to say a lot more as far as
content.
“It becomes an artistic vehicle for personal statements
and concepts,” she said.
As someone who recently completed the rigorous three-year MFA
design requirements, Miatello has words of advice for recent
graduates.
“Take a break from school,” she said.
“Get some life experience before you go back to school.
You’re only 20, 21 years old and you pretty much live until
you’re 80, so don’t feel like you have to be locked
down and know exactly what you are going to do.”