NASHVILLE, Tenn. – About 75 scholars, artists, art administrators and university leaders will meet at Vanderbilt University Nov. 10-11 to explore ways to strengthen interconnections between the arts and college campuses. The aim of the meeting is to produce a national research agenda that addresses these interconnections.
The Creative Campus research conference will be hosted by Vanderbilt‘s Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy along with the University of Texas at Austin and the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. The Teagle Foundation and Ford Foundation are supporters.
“American universities and colleges are likely the biggest arts patrons in America,” said Steven Tepper, associate director of the Curb Center. “But existing performing and visual arts programs can and should be better integrated into the academic life of campuses. Stronger bridges need to be built between campus arts presenters, local artists, faculty and students so that the arts are transformed from grace notes to an integral part of the core melody of campus life.”
Representatives from leading institutions and foundations will attend, including California Institute for the Arts, Syracuse University, Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, James Madison University, the Pew Charitable Trusts, The Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Vanderbilt Chancellor Gee will host a panel of university leaders on Saturday afternoon.
The presentations are:
Friday, Nov. 10 at the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center
– 3:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., “Assessing the Creative Campus.”
– 4:45 p.m. to 6 p.m., “Artistic Expression, Social Capital, Tolerance and Cosmopolitanism.”
Saturday, Nov. 11 at the Board of Trust Room at the Student Life Center
– 9 a.m. to 10:15 a.m., “The Creative Campus Dividend: The Economic Consequences of Sustaining, Training and Presenting the Arts at Universities and Colleges.”
– 10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m., “Cultural Participation, Learning and Campus Engagement.”
– 12:45 p.m. to 2 p.m., “Mapping the Creative Campus: Understanding Connections and Networks Inside and Outside the Academy.”
– 2 p.m. to 2:45 p.m., “Reactions from higher education leaders, featuring Gordon Gee of Vanderbilt, Nancy Cantor of Syracuse University, Susan Cole of Montclair State University, Richard Allyn English of Howard University and Nancy Uscher of California Institute for the Arts.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu