Carol Friscia K’77

By Jay Carhart ’21

I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to New York City. Speaking with so many people in the art industry opened new avenues for me that I had not considered before. Talking especially with Carol Friscia of the class of 1977 really opened my eyes to what is possible in the arts world. 

    I liked how she talked about her start. Versus other people we interviewed in New York, she actually could not find a job in New York City. This set back meant she went upstate to Putnam, and found work at the Putnam County Arts Council. The other stories we heard made it seem like they all found a job right away and were set on a path from there. I especially enjoyed Carol’s story because of how it did not work for her at the start. This helped relieve the pressure of not finding a job immediately after school and understanding that you can get your start somewhere not as developed as New York City. I found that Carol’s story and views on the art world differed from others that we spoke to in more than one regard. 

    Her view on where to give her art offered a different viewpoint on whether a museum or private collector was the better way to distribute your art posthumously. Carol thought that a museum would better serve the people, seeing an institution as better able to display and conserve works. I happen to agree with this notion, though Karen Kennedy did bring up a good point in that a museum may just store the work away in their vault. This then, brings into further questions about who does more to serve the art they own, museums or private collectors. I think that studying the pros and cons of both systems of ownership may be an interesting route for us to look into for the class.  

    Overall, I really enjoyed our brunch with Carol and Tony Friscia, I think that it gave all of us new ideas for how to break into the art world, as well as raised questions to further examine in our class. Before taking this course, I had not thought of working in the art world, but after seeing the passion of others, and the possibility of actually being successful in a field like this, I can definitely see myself leaning into art related jobs.