The university continues to work on plans to provide students, beginning fall 2023, with strong extracurricular opportunities for participation and enjoyment in the arts. As reported earlier this year, Lynette Johnson was named senior director of arts and event services and has been hard at work reviewing resource needs, building relationships, and considering future programming. The program focus areas were refined after internal and external arts discussions and focus groups to gauge priorities and interest.
MUSIC — We are hiring a director of music programming and will continue offering band and choir opportunities. This role will serve as an adviser for pep band, offer lessons for students, assist with student recruiting, and would help bring in external residency opportunities. Ideally, we plan to have two music performances offered annually, one each semester, including the traditional Lessons and Carols event. As our music fraternities are student groups, they will continue to offer music variety shows.
THEATRE — We have hired a technical director who will start in June 2023 for the performing arts. This person has a teaching background and a strong background in running shows. The technical director position is an existing position that is now vacant and was not part of the phase-outs. Under direction of Jimmy Bickerstaff, two student productions will be staged in 2023-24 as we teach out the major.
PAGE SERIES TRANSITION — We are working on partnerships to engage community and professional productions to host their productions at Page Theatre and are working toward bringing back the Page Series. These public performances may take on a new name, and no timeline for bringing them back has yet been set as we are in the process of securing grants. The technical director, under the direction of Johnson, will be helping to oversee this work.
VISUAL ARTS — The 2023-2024 Lillian Davis Hogan Galleries schedule is being solidified, thanks to Lisa Truax. We will be looking at other ways to expand visual arts opportunities, including hands-on workshops as well.
We have been in conversation with various arts organizations regarding partnerships for workshops, productions, etc. In addition, we are examining future utilization of Studio S, and the on-going development of the arts program.
As more plans are solidified, we’ll continue to share them with our community.