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Updated: Fall 2010 Updated: Fall 2010 PROGRAM OF DISTINCTION SHEPHERD UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF CONTEMPORARY ART AND THEATER DATA: The Department of Contemporary Art and Theater in conjunction with the Contemporary American Theater Festival helps to fulfill the University Mission to serve as the cultural center of the region. The Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia does not have cultural facilities as can be found in Charleston, Huntington, Wheeling, and other parts of the State so Shepherd University and the Department of Contemporary Art and Theater in partnership with CATF have accepted responsibility for that role. The Department and CATF annually provide over 65 exhibitions, 80 theatrical performances, and many workshops, lectures, and seminars for the campus and the extended community. These events attract an audience that exceeds 50,000 each year and enables us to provide our students and community with the opportunity to experience and learn about contemporary art and theater from some of the finest talent in the nation. In addition to the programs identified above, the Department supports institutional out reach through collaborative work with many arts organizations in the region as well as with the business community. These efforts have resulted in recognition and awards from the regional business community, the Chambers of Commerce, and the State. We provide art services (design, photography, display) for several non-profit organizations dedicated to services ranging from providing coats for needy children to animal shelters. We provide specialized assistance to community leaders who need to improve their ability to do public presentations. In addition, we share our facilities and equipment with many of these same organizations whenever possible. During the 2009/2010 Academic Year Graphic Design Students received prestigious awards and recognition for their work both locally and regionally. Photography students received 10 awards for their work both locally and nationally. Students in the studio areas participated in exhibits and events that brought attention to their personal efforts but also to the programs and art within the community. The Department has been a campus leader in experiential learning having established the first campus internship programs over 30 years ago and the first foreign studies program on the campus over 25 years ago. The Department currently offers internship opportunities to every student in the program and they range from working with small local businesses and organizations to the large and famous in the metropolitan Washington, DC and Baltimore area as well as New York City and other major cities. These experiential learning opportunities have served to open career opportunities to our students that would never have been possible through traditional educational methods. The Department annually offers at least two foreign study and travel opportunities. These opportunities are available for any student and community member as well as for our majors. Each travel program is accompanied by a course that studies the art and the culture of the countries to be visited and is followed by public exhibitions and presentations by those who participated in the trip and the course. Annual participation in travel programs through the department averages over 100. In the Fall 2009/2010 academic year the department traveled to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam for two weeks. In Spring of 2011 the department will travel with 20 participants from the campus and the community to Paris for a week and in the summer of 2011 a trip to Venice and the International Venice Biennale is planned. The Biennale occurs every two years and is one the most highly recognized and well established contemporary arts venues. The Department supports the University goal to provide service to the community by working directly with regional as well as State businesses and agencies to support tourism and business. Graphic Design students and faculty created informational brochures for the Shepherdstown Visitors Center, Shepherdstown Business Association, the National Conservation Center Environmental Film Festival, and the Shepherdstown Train Station. Our annual Contemporary American Theater Festival alone attracts an audience from all states as well as several foreign countries and we work with regional hotels, restaurants, and businesses to provide tourism packages as well as to promote their businesses to our audience. A recent audience survey indicated we generate over $3,000,000 per year to the local economy through our five week festival alone. We are currently working on a survey project with the Gateway New Economy Council to identify our input on the regional economy and to identify ways to have an even greater yearly impact. CATF includes opportunities for student internships, teachers workshops in addition to art exhibits, humanities lectures and of course theatrical productions. Goal: The Department is currently working on efforts to strengthen the program. 1. First is the work mentioned above with the New Gateway Economy Council to identify ways we can enhance regional tourism and business activities and to attract new businesses to the area. 2. We hope to increase our collaborative work with regional art and theater organizations (Martinsburg Arts Center, Shenandoah Arts Council Gallery, Washington County Arts Council Gallery, Delaplaine Visual Arts Center, Frederick, to increase the number of related activities and to coordinate those activities to be mutually beneficial. 3. We are investigating the possibility of accreditation with the National Association of Schools of Art and Design to increase our ability to provide an accredited programs for our students. 4. We are investigating the possibility of workshops and activities to invite more collaboration between the local community and the department and to provide a service to local residents and the region. 5. We are investigating the possibility of an MFA Low Residency Summer Program that would offer graduate classes and a degree achieved through summer classes. We are currently in contact/collaboration with someone (Brady Robinson) who has experience with such programs. 6. We are working in collaboration with the Communication Department to develop a curriculum that might better serve the student in both degree programs while maximizing faculty, facilities and equipment. 7. We do yearly curriculum evaluations and updates and are currently beginning research on developing a major in performance and possibly arts management. The later is an area that is not offered in West Virginia and we see a career opportunity not currently being served. 8. We are continually seeking to develop a semester and/or year-long study abroad program to provide extended foreign study opportunities and to develop internship programs in other countries in recognition of increasing globalization. 9. Our final current effort is the completion of the final two phases of the Center for Contemporary Art to provide additional facilities for art and theater programming for the campus and community. The second phase is scheduled to break ground in March 2011. Strategies/Rationale: The strategies are many and some overlap. Our efforts to enhance the region’s economy, to increase collaboration with regional organizations, and to secure funding for the completion of the Center involve many of the same strategies. We understand that each of these goals is mutually supportive. Increasing collaboration enhances the region’s economy and, in turn, brings us additional support for the Center. It is a simple recognition that what benefits us benefits the community and what benefits the community benefits us. The effort to develop new programs within the department involves a large amount of research. We will work with arts providers—galleries, museums, theaters, schools, businesses—to identify the potential job market in these careers and to then identify the needed curriculum. We developed and continue to revise our curriculums in graphic design and photography through this same method and have found we are then able to produce graduates who are very successful in the job market. Our goal to develop extended foreign study opportunities involves work with other academic units of the campus and with the administration. We are currently working with the Departments of Sociology and English and Modern Languages to offer the first opportunity in this area with an extended program in Africa next year. We are also working with institutions that have such programs already in place to see if collaborative programs are possible and to also learn what they already know. An additional effort involves conversations we have initiated with foreign universities and businesses to identify possible areas of collaboration and opportunity. The Department of Contemporary Art and Theater has an extensive review program in place in addition to the institutional five-year program review that involves external evaluators. The department brings in external reviewers each year to evaluate every second and fourth year student in the program. The reviewers are from the professional world—gallery and business owners, museum curators, professional designers, photographers, and artists, representatives for graduate art programs—and they interview each of the students and evaluate their portfolios. Another group of reviewers concentrates on the students’ writing samples-letters of introduction, resumes, etc. At the end of the review process, every
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