University performing arts presenters across the nation are reinventing their roles within their institutions and within the profession. More and more campuses are transforming their programs from the traditional, and often sidelined, “college concert series” presenter into dynamic, relevant and integrated programs woven through the campus fabric. Carolina has a unique opportunity to take advantage of this momentum and place itself at the vanguard of this national movement.
Richard Herman, Provost at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign has said, “A student who leaves the university without having encountered art as a form of inquiry and understanding is a student whose education and preparation for life are not fully complete. A university that does not invite its own community and the wider public to experience what art has to teach is a university that fails to meet its full obligations to society.”
I recently returned from a conference on “The Creative Campus,” hosted by Vanderbilt University in conjunction with University of Texas at Austin. The conference addressed the lack of research and knowledge about the interconnections between the academy and the arts. Specific areas of inquiry included the creative experiences of students, the creative climate of campuses, the quality of educational offerings in the arts, the roles of both resident and visiting artists, and the connections between campus-based arts and the economy, the local community, and other disciplines on campus.
Through exchanges with social scientists on the research panels and side conversations with other university colleagues, it became clear that more dialogue on our own campus is needed. Answering the following questions would allow us to chart a deliberate course toward integrating the arts across our campus.
1. How does Carolina define “creativity,” and do our stakeholders believe they are part of a creative institution?
2. How do we define “Creative Campus,” and what evidence would indicate to us how far along the path we are at any given time? How does this differ from a “cosmopolitan campus?” How do we integrate the arts into a “creative campus?”
3. What is cultural competence? Would a culturally competent population make a measurable contribution to the social good (quality of life, citizenship, economic impact)?
4. What is Carolina's Arts Initiative? What is the Arts Common? We have an opportunity to address these issues by bringing together all arts constituents to develop a broader arts plan that outlines the development and attainment of curricular, resource, and capital needs.
5. What would be the return on investment in campus-wide creativity from a financial investment in the arts?
6. How do we measure the arts participation of all students and its effect on overall student achievement, both on campus and beyond?
7. What kind of arts curriculum offers our students the competitive advantage needed today? What more, if anything, do we need to add to our own highly respected arts programs?
8. What specific artistic mechanisms can be used to bridge cultural and social interactions?
9. Should we initiate research on the relationship between creativity and student enrollment, student achievement, student career choice, and faculty recruitment and retention?
10. Should we initiate research on the impact of arts involvement on alumni who have chosen non-artistic careers?
In related research, we might also ask students to identify where they encounter “creativity” on campus. The answers might surprise us. We shouldn't assume that students consume creativity in the traditional locations on stage and in galleries. These surveys would allow us to strategically expand our creative programs aimed at locations already identified as loci of creativity.
The Departments of Art, Music, Dramatic Art, and Communication Studies along with the Ackland Art Museum, Playmakers Repertory Company, the Stone Center for Black Culture and History, and Carolina Performing Arts, among others, are engaged in a dialogue regarding the future of our University's arts programs.
Reviewing the existing program and discussing the creation of a new, comprehensive and genuinely multi-disciplinary arts program will aid in fulfilling the mission of the new Arts Common. The new Arts Common has a singular promise: to become more than a place, but rather a way to bring the arts together. Carolina is uniquely positioned to become a national leader in the arts and arts education among public research universities. It is our belief that art is one of the great legacies of human accomplishment, essential to interdisciplinary learning.
Participating in this conversation re-affirms that Carolina is on the right track. However, as Carolina continues to develop its own artistic identity, others are doing the same. Carolina needs to build upon recent successes with the Carolina Performing Arts Series by ensuring that the arts, and more importantly, creativity, remain at the top of the University's agenda. Creativity, in all its forms, unites our diverse intellectual pursuits. From our quest to attract $1 billion in research funding to the impending completion of the Global Education Center, Carolina is poised to serve as a model campus for innovative cross-campus collaboration. And most importantly, perhaps, the future development of Carolina North and the potential for incorporating the study of creativity at the intersection of art, technology and commerce might turn out to become the calling card of Carolina's future.
March 2007