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| COD Concert Choir |
This week on the
Yahoo
Answers site Amanda asks, “
Does
College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, IL, live up to its hype? It is supposedly one of the best community colleges in the
country, but is it anything more than just a pretty campus? How is the quality
of education?” I would tell Amanda if you were considering study in the Fine
and Applied Arts (FAA) look at two things. First, our faculty, I’ve never seen
a community college with the breadth and depth of talent that College of DuPage
(COD) has. Our full and part time faculty have MFA and Doctoral degrees from
top tier schools (Universities of Illinois, Texas, Pittsburgh, Penn State,
Iowa, Northwestern University, the School of the Art Institute...). Many COD FAA faculty are working
artists exhibiting, performing, designing, composing and creating work
professionally. Secondly look at the work our students produce. Attend a
theatre production, a portfolio night, a film screening, or a concert and
you’ll see work on par with any undergraduate institution. I realize these are
qualitative and subjective measures and our society and administrations want quantifiable
proof. In the business of academia the success of a program is measured in
enrollment, completion, transfer and employment data. It’s hard to put
something as complex as art making into a simple box. The measure of an artist
is not whether they completed a program its whether their web-design
communicates well for their client or if their music moves the listener.
Amanda, I would tell you to talk to people and look at the work and you’ll
see a school that is better than hype.
Most community members never see
the important work we do and the primary reason we are here, but this next two
weeks it will be on display. The MAC will present the
Faculty
Recital, Community Band concert, Mid-term Student Music Concert, Community Jazz
Ensemble Dance, Chamber Orchestra Concert, and open College Theatre’s
production of
The
Nerd and a student gallery art exhibit. College of DuPage is an
academic institution first and the people who are the McAninch Arts Center work
tirelessly to support the students and faculty in Fine and Applied Arts.
Students see that in a warmly lit stage set with chairs and music stands,
scenery and costumes for their production, a professionally exhibited gallery
show, a program and a ticket for the concert and a welcoming theatre for
friends, family and community to support their work.
Many of the students enrolled here will use their time at College of DuPage to spring themselves into further
study in the arts. After performing on our stages and studying and creating in
our studios and classrooms many go on to places like Roosevelt University,
Illinois State University, Elmhurst College, School of the Arts Institute
Chicago and many others. But what use is an arts degree? I frequently get this
question, sometimes from fellow educators and administrators. It’s a fair
question, should a student receive federally funded Pell grants to pursue an
education in the arts and should this education be provided at a community
college? My three-part answer,
first, community colleges are the most democratic educational institutions ever
conceived of, thank you William Rainey Harper (1856-1906). Whatever your place
in our society, whatever your previous educational successes or failures, and
whatever your financial circumstances our doors are open to you. What better
place to affordably explore a challenging career and life choice like the arts.
Secondly, our students go on to
success in higher ed and professionally. Examples:
- I can point to dozens of working theatre
technicians across Chicago that started at COD and earn the industry hourly
rate of between $15 and $25.
- Two recent COD grads in music and theatre
received Jeff
Awards, Chicago’s more inclusive equivalent to New York’s Tony award.
- Graphic Design students work for Chicago design
firms, educational software companies, as independent web-designer,...
- You can tune in to Fox on Tuesdays at 8pm and
watch Lamorne Morris,
COD alum, on New Girl.
- Artist and COD alum Vincent Glielmi’s photographs
are on exhibit right now in the College’s Wings Gallery.
This success is often down-played
as only a few anecdotal stories. It’s true that the arts are a tough road to take.
I spent the first five years of my post college life as a working actor and
frankly I did not have the fortitude to gut out a life on the stage and screen.
In 1992 I transitioned to arts administration and arts education. Whether study in
the performing and visual arts leads to a career in the arts is irrelevant My final point would be
that what arts experiences and arts education do produce are creative thinkers
and a more socially responsible citizens. I have known this in my gut since I
toured rural Arkansas in 1987 performing Shakespeare for kids who had never
seen the Bard on stage. A recent study coming out of the University of Illinois
and published in Science
Daily indicates that participation in the arts (attending and creating)
leads to, “predicated civic
engagement, tolerance and altruism.” Frankly, those are qualities I want in my
community.
At the recent Midwest Arts
Conference the
Keynote
Address by Russell Willis Taylor President and CEO of
National Arts Strategies was
wonderfully instructive and if you have time it’s a good read too. One take
away anecdote for me was the story of the non-profit arts organization that complains that
their arts education programs do not receive the kind of recognition they
should from foundations and grantors. A consultant to the organization asks
what percentage of your operating budget goes to educational activities? The
numbers do not lie and the arts organization’s own budget revealed they spent
less then 1% on arts education. They wanted to be recognized for something that
clearly was not a priority of the organization. That’s okay. But it should have been a wake up call that they
were a symphony orchestra or a theatre company first. So I have to ask the MAC and
the College the same question – what do you spend on the arts?
In a previous post (Show Me The Money) the MAC budget was
discussed. The break down of the $3.1 million is 35% goes to arts education and 65% to arts presenting. So
at least 35% of MAC staff time and 35% of the MAC budget goes to supporting
student learning and faculty instruction through performance, exhibition and
opportunities to engage with resident/ visiting artists. The College of DuPage
has committed $35 million to the renovation of the 165,000 square foot McAninch Arts Center. This year COD funded arts instruction to the tune of approximately $6 million
dollars. All of these numbers go to Russell’s point and demonstrate the College can and should be recognized for its support of arts education.
I believe that is an appropriate
level of funding for the kind of broad and specialized arts education we
provide. Could the programs in Fine and Applied Arts use more dollars, probably.
They most assuredly should not be cut. We are here because our community needs creative,
socially engaged citizens whether they make their living from the arts or not.
You and I want good music, good performance, good design, and good quality of
life for ourselves and for our neighbors. That is what art and artists do for
us everyday and why I believe a community college should provide this kind of
education for the community it serves. What we do beyond educating students is the question addressed in the next post.
Be well
Stephen
Next: Why are we here? Part II
