April 2015
Spring is always a time for renewed energy, but this spring has brought a particularly high level of excitement in the College of Humanities and the Arts.
This month I will be traveling to New York City to see Dr. Jeffrey Benson conduct the Choraliers and the Concert Choir at Carnegie Hall. Professor and mezzo extraordinaire Layna Chianakas will accompany them. You can support the students by visiting SJSU’s inaugural crowdfunding site: Help the SJSU Choirs Sing at Carnegie Hall. This performance is just one of the many year-end events planned in the College. From numerous BFA exhibitions and final concerts to Zoot Suit and Opera Theatre’s Orpheus in the Underworld, we have a plethora of cultural events for everyone. You can read the full schedule here.
This trip comes in the midst of a whirlwind of opportunities for the College. Recent opportunities have helped me begin positioning the College to become a catalyst for stronger humanities and arts programming in San José and beyond:
Building Public Will for the Arts: Over the past six months, I have had the privilege of serving on the city of San José’s Building Public Will for the Arts committee. This nationwide effort involved surveys and focus groups to determine the values people place on arts, culture, and cultural expression. The goal is to devise effective strategies for audience building and marketing for all arts and culture activities. The project was funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and numerous local partners in San José. The work was performed with local advisory committees under the leadership of the Metropolitan Group, a social change marketing and research company.
Capacity Building Grant Awarded to College of Humanities and the Arts: In December 2014, we were awarded a DeVos Institute for Arts Management grant for building capacity in the arts. We now are part of a city-wide initiative to help San José and the region build greater capacity for effective fundraising, marketing, and audience-building across all arts sectors. The vision articulated in the grant is for the College to establish a Collaborative for Arts, Innovation, and Technology (CAIT). CAIT will be a platform for networking existing arts and culture organizations. The overarching goals include the use of a collaborative university-community model that aims to (1) raise the profile of arts and culture programming and organizations; (2) build audience for multi-modal arts programming; and (3) increase the visibility of SJSU as a center and catalyst for robust humanities and arts education, programming, and regional leadership. The College is at the center of these efforts, so please stay tuned for updates and opportunities for involvement.
ArtPlace Grant Application: The College has applied for a $3 million ArtPlace grant that aims to use art as a mechanism for social and community change. This is a highly competitive grant: only six will be awarded nationwide and only one in the state of California. If we are fortunate enough to be advanced to the next round, we will send a team to present our ideas for using art to impact social and community change throughout our region. This grant has amazing potential to infuse art throughout the strong community work we already do at SJSU through such diverse programs as all our extensive K-12 outreach, the Marion Cilker Conference for the Arts in Education, CommUniverCity, Center for Community Learning and Leadership, Cesar Chavez Community Action Center, the Young Musicians Project, and Steinbeck in the Schools, to name a few of the many ways in which SJSU faculty, staff, and students serve the broader community. We are fortunate to have the endorsement of the above-mentioned Metropolitan Group as part of our application.
In addition to these exciting opportunities, we also are in conversation with the Knight Foundation about how SJSU might move some of our arts and culture programming into downtown as a way to extend the university’s reach and help raise the profile of downtown San José as an arts and culture destination.
Exploration of the university’s efforts to extend our reach into downtown includes our recent response to the city of San José’s Request for Interest (RFI) in the operation or co-operation of the Susan and Phil Hammer Theatre. President Qayoumi will be updating the campus about SJSU’s response to the RFI as this process unfolds. You can read more about the public process concerning the future of the Hammer Theatre here.
As you can see from this list of activities, I am committed to helping the College of Humanities and the Arts become a driving force for arts, culture, and education in San José and the South Bay. I am grateful to the many faculty and staff who have participated so far in making it possible for us to respond to the Hammer Theatre RFI, participate in the DeVos capacity building exercise, and put together a strong ArtPlace application.
Please stay tuned for updates and calls for participation as these projects unfold. Overall, these initiatives remind me on a daily basis that it is a joy to be in the position of helping raise the profile of the important, impactful work we do in the College of Humanities and the Arts. To all who both do and support that work, I thank you.
Sincerely,
Dean, College of Humanities and the Arts
