Time & Perspective Quote by Julie Taymor

Taymor’s little Oberlin reminiscence is doing a lot of quiet credentialing without sounding like a resume. She opens with the campus detail that signals a particular cultural moment: the late-60s/early-70s faith that traditional metrics were suspect, that “achievement” could be a kind of conformity. By noting that grades were optional, she sketches an anti-institutional ethos and then immediately punctures any assumption that she coasted on vibe alone: “But I did very well.” It’s a nimble move, reclaiming rigor on her own terms while keeping a sly distance from the whole grading apparatus.

The real pivot is the distinction between “study” and “practice.” “Study the arts” evokes the museum label version of culture: analysis, canon, taste-making, the academic gaze. “Practiced the arts” is bodily, repetitive, craft-driven; it frames artistry as discipline rather than inspiration. Coming from a director known for visually audacious, labor-intensive worlds, the line reads like a mission statement disguised as small talk: she’s not interested in being the smartest person in the seminar; she wants to make something, fail at it, remake it.

There’s also a subtle rebuke to the way institutions validate artists. Taymor’s subtext: if the system won’t measure what matters, fine. She’ll build a different metric - the work itself. In an era still obsessed with credentials, it’s an argument for apprenticeship over approval, performance over proof.