{"id":474,"date":"2010-12-07T11:49:08","date_gmt":"2010-12-07T15:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.montclair.edu\/crdirector\/?p=57"},"modified":"2019-04-09T12:39:51","modified_gmt":"2019-04-09T16:39:51","slug":"big-issues-transcend-disciplines-in-the-arts-humanities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/creative-research-center\/2010\/12\/07\/big-issues-transcend-disciplines-in-the-arts-humanities\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Issues Transcend Disciplines in the Arts and Humanities – by Neil Baldwin"},"content":{"rendered":"

The<\/strong> Creative Research Center <\/em><\/strong><\/a>attends the Regional Committee Planning Meeting for the\u00a0November 3-5, 2011\u00a0<\/strong>Association of\u00a0American Colleges & Universities<\/em><\/strong><\/a> Network for Academic Renewal Conference on<\/strong> The Arts and\u00a0Humanities Within Liberal Education<\/em> <\/strong><\/a>at the Westin Providence Hotel, convened December 3, 2010.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

“A community of self-governing citizens, a demos<\/em>, understands, creates, and reinvigorates itself through culture. It is only when we have a cultural democracy<\/a>, where everyone has the same capacity and opportunity to take part in cultural life, that we will have a chance of attaining a true political democracy<\/a>.” — John Holden, Visiting Professor at CUNY; former Head of Culture for Demos<\/a>. [Cited\u00a0by\u00a0AAC&U in\u00a0handout to Planning Meeting participants.]<\/p>\n

“This is the\u00a0first time\u00a0AAC&U has\u00a0ever\u00a0addressed this convergence of arts and humanities in one meeting — and we are very excited,”\u00a0Susan Albertine<\/a>, Vice-President, Engagement, Inclusion and Success of AAC&U<\/a>, announced as soon as we had randomly taken our seats at a group of round tables in the Providence Ballroom; and\u00a0it quickly became evident to me that this was not going to be another one of your\u00a0typical academic gatherings.<\/p>\n

We were here, about fifty of us from a wide array of public and private colleges and universities,\u00a0to disregard our disciplinary constraints,\u00a0and brainstorm about current issues of importance in undergraduate education in the arts and humanities. We were here to find commonalities, not carve out or reinforce distinctions. We were here, as\u00a0Dr. Albertine charged us most emphatically, to “find big themes and talking points” and “to cross\u00a0boundaries.”<\/p>\n

The first order of business was to take a full hour, talk among ourselves, and come up with a strong roster of potential matters that the full-fledged conference could address in a year’s time. My table was a lively, representative sample of the group as a whole: Maureen Goldman, Bentley University<\/a>;\u00a0 Susan E. Pease, Central Connecticut State University<\/a>; Davis Baird, Clark University<\/a>; Wayne Steely, Saint Joseph College<\/a>; Jude Nixon, Salem State University<\/a>; Elizabeth Hollander, Tufts University<\/a>; Lisa Cabulong Buenaventura, UMass\/Boston<\/a>; and A. Vereene Parnell, Wheaton College<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The conversation\u00a0sped from zero to sixty in\u00a0five minutes. I pride myself on writing fast (if illegibly) but had trouble keeping\u00a0notes quickly enough.\u00a0The mandate was emancipating — to\u00a0fly\u00a0just above the treeline, and stick to ideas and challenges. Only by happenstance did\u00a0I find out that one of us was a scholar of religion; another was a Victorianist; another was\u00a0a musicologist.<\/p>\n

We talked about how to measure (or even find words to\u00a0describe<\/em>) the intrinsic value of\u00a0studying the arts and humanities\u00a0in a climate of undergraduate job-insecurity; the deep influence of the Web on the learning-consciousness of our students; the making of art in social media; the continuing upheaval in General Education <\/a>edging out “softer”\u00a0subjects; the relevance of the campus Library in the (supposed) post-book world<\/a>; the threats\u00a0of specialization to scholarship of integration<\/a>; the essential meaning beneath the rhetoric of creating\u00a0global citizens<\/a>; the merits of creative thinking <\/a>in the most practical of occupations; the underused power of outreach through the arts going\u00a0beyond the walls of the university; the intellectual highs and political lows that come with crossing boundaries<\/a>…and on and on…<\/p>\n

At some heated moment during that hour of conversation, I\u00a0scribbled this note to myself: “Forget<\/em> the jargon and focus upon the importance of the creative mind in real life<\/em> (i.e., outside, in the world at large) and let’s get in tune with the unique consciousness of our students!”<\/p>\n

I\u00a0am not going to itemize the exhaustive list of further ideas that came out of our meeting as we went back into\u00a0general session and shared\u00a0lists — because within the next couple of months, AAC&U<\/a> will be issuing a full-fledged Announcement and Call for Proposals<\/em> for the November 2011 conference. Allied co-sponsoring organizations include The International Council of Fine Arts Deans, and Imagining America<\/a>, with others\u00a0to be enlisted.<\/p>\n

I was\u00a0inspired by my day in historic Providence<\/a>. There was a palpable\u00a0desire\u00a0generated among higher-education professionals to leap over the (albeit cliched) walls of the Academy and\u00a0embrace\u00a0societal realities.<\/p>\n

The University is divided into subjects and disciplines; but,\u00a0as we have been deliberating with\u00a0intensity during the past several months here at the Creative Research Center<\/a>, pragmatic life\u00a0feels different.\u00a0\u00a0This essential tension has been with us for a long time.\u00a0We have an opportunity to talk freely and openly about it;\u00a0by the time November 2011 comes around, the AAC&U<\/a> Conference promises to be an exciting and — given the electrifying and electrified pace of our culture — even more timely one.<\/p>\n

— N. B.<\/a> [12\/4\/10, in the sublimely Quiet Car,\u00a0Amtrak\u00a0Acela # 2251, en route<\/em> from Providence RI to Newark NJ]<\/p>\n

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Please visit these selected & new Creative Research Center Links for December:<\/strong><\/p>\n