Art and Soul
Three of the most important things I want Carleton graduates to carry through their lives are best nurtured by direct engagement with the fine and performing arts: perspective, depth, and creativity.
Perspective means an enhanced awareness of the world around us, recognizing our own place within it and how others might perceive it differently. Art beckons us to explore previously undiscovered depths of experience, empowers us to broaden our thinking, and gives us the courage to pursue larger truths.
Depth, in this context, is shorthand for an appreciation of all it means to be human—to fully experience life in all its wonder. We experience a variety of emotions when we listen to a glorious piece of music, study a fresco or a landscape, or gaze upon a piece of sculpture. There are endless practical ways to apply training in the arts, but regardless of form, the arts add a unique depth and richness to our lives, beyond any instrumental benefit.
Creativity is the art of creative thinking, which we cultivate across our entire curriculum but emerges in its purest form through the act of making art. Carleton students have the opportunity to try almost any artistic medium, including drawing, painting, sculpture, filmmaking, choreography, and musical composition. All of these pursuits impart skills that can translate directly into specific and significant careers, and all of them nurture imagination, innovation, and originality—habits of mind that are priceless in every field and, indeed, in every life.
Over the past five years, 12 percent of degrees awarded at Carleton have been in the arts. Our newest arts major, cinema and media studies, has grown from 4 majors in the class of 2008 to 20 in the class of 2014. Nearly a third of all Carleton students are involved in some musical activity; the music department has more than 2,200 enrollments per year in classes, lessons, and ensembles. Drawing classes enroll about 200 students each year. Participation in dance classes and activities is widespread—from Semaphore Repertory Dance Company, which caters to advanced dance students, to Ebony II, which involves more than 200 participants annually in dance concerts that are popular, playful, and at times irreverent.
Some Carleton faculty members are prominent practicing artists in their own right, and they embrace the arts as a catalyst of creativity across the curriculum. They have provided leadership on initiatives like the Mellon-funded Visualizing the Liberal Arts, which explored innovative ways to incorporate images, media, and models into the curriculum. They have championed interdisciplinary use of exhibit spaces in the library and Weitz Center, and forged collaborations between the arts and other disciplines.
Other Carleton faculty members have incorporated the arts into their coursework. For example, students in English professor Susan Jaret McKinstry’s Victorian novel class partner with students in a photography course to create contemporary portraits of literary characters that reflect both the characters’ traits and the students’ understanding of the novels and time period.
And more exciting changes are under way! An addition to the Weitz Center will include a large and a small performance venue, as well as rehearsal and practice space for all of our performing arts. The level of music participation among our students has strained our existing facilities for a long time. This new space will serve both curricular and cocurricular music needs, and create a shared artistic commons that will further embed music in and alongside the academic disciplines it already influences. We also anticipate synergy when music students and faculty members are working alongside their colleagues in other fields.
The arts have long occupied a special place on our campus and in our curriculum; they merit our continued support and investment.