The Mike Curb Creative Campus Program, administered by the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy at Vanderbilt and funded by recording-industry executive Mike Curb, will affect every student on campus through new courses, faculty, internships, guest speakers, and implementation of the first national research program on creativity, the arts and higher education.
The program also will be open to select students from other Curb-supported colleges and universities, including Belmont University, Fisk University, California State University, Daytona College and Rhodes College.
“By demonstrating the value of linking artistic skills and vision with work in business and government, it is Mike Curb’s career that provides inspiration for the Creative Campus Program,” says Bill Ivey, director of the Curb Center.
“American universities must recognize their defining role in nurturing creativity and linking it to teaching, learning and citizenship,” says Steven Tepper, associate director of the Curb Center. “The Curb program will establish a new relationship between students and art on Vanderbilt’s campus.”
Key components of the Mike Curb Creative Campus Program will be phased in over five years, beginning in the fall of 2009 with acceptance of the first cohort of undergraduate Curb Leadership Scholars. The fifth-year master’s program in creative enterprise and public leadership will be launched in 2011, as will a series of month-long summer internships offering graduate and undergraduate students unique opportunities to test their leadership skills through real-life work experiences with government agencies and in the recording, film and broadcasting industries.