News-Letter

Although arts at Hopkins are impressive in diversity, as reported by the Homewood Arts Task Force in their final report, the University can and must do more to promote the visibility and accessibility of performing, visual and musical arts at the Homewood campus.

Launched in response to concern among students and faculty that arts at Hopkins are in a state of neglect, the Task Force issued some 45 comprehensive recommendations to renew and maintain the arts. The top ten of these recommendations are to be completed no later than 2010, and work has already begun on several side projects.

In the fall of 2004, Provost Steven Knapp was appointed to study the state of arts at Homewood. "This is the first time we've sat down and looked at the arts specifically," said Knapp.

Still, meeting all of the recommendations would be a problem, said Knapp. "Some of these goals are like moving targets," due to the nature of scheduling and planning in an institution as large as Hopkins.

"The first step is to appoint a Vice Provost for the Arts," said Eric Beatty, director of the Homewood Arts Program. "Once things happen at the senior level, the rest of the recommendations will start falling into place."

In regards to funding, Beatty remains confident, "It's always a challenge to raise money, but where there's a will, there's a way."

"The biggest restraint now," said Associate Provost for Academic Affairs Pamela Cranston, "is performing space for the arts." In spite of the traditional Hopkins image, which emphasizes sciences and medicine to the point of sacrifice in other fields, interest in the arts is present everywhere at Hopkins. "It would be wrong to think engineering students aren't interested in the arts," said Cranston.

Many students active in the arts, such as sophomore Harrison Wadsworth, feel passed over. "There's a strong effort from above being made to encourage the arts at Hopkins, but the implementation is oftentimes clumsy," said Wadsworth, a political science major who is involved in student music on campus. "This makes students in the arts feel patronized because their problems are not being dealt with seriously."

In February 2005, 276 undergraduate students submitted a voluntary online survey about the arts at Hopkins. The survey confirmed what the Task Force had feared: while most students felt they had some opportunities to explore the arts, they were far from ample.

One student summarily wrote, "[Hopkins] should provide adequate opportunities for students to pursue [the arts] without feeling pressured by academic requirements."

The recommendations issued by the report would work to streamline class times and facilitate greater flexibility among students who would like to have art courses as part of their schedules, said Beatty. The report calls for the University to "synchronize the class schedules of the Peabody and Homewood campuses," a step necessary to allow students to cross-list between the two schools and avoid prohibitive scheduling conflicts.

Currently, student knowledge of the Task Force's action is limited. At the moment, the Student Activities Council is the most direct liaison between students and administrators. Says sophomore Lauren Links, "I'm involved with SAC through Vocal Chords [a student a cappella group], and I do know that they're supportive of student art groups on campus." When asked if she knew of the HATF, Links said she did not.

Other goals are more long-term. Shriver Auditorium would eventually meet its demise as the central hub for performances at Hopkins, which would instead take place in a specially-built performing arts center. According to Dean of University Libraries Winston Tabb, a member of the Web site Task Force, collaboration with a number of architects has already begun.

While no vice provost has yet been nominated, work on projects like the new arts center and an improved arts Web site, some of the top recommendations of the Task Force, has commenced. But as things are now, projects like the desperately-needed renovations to Shriver Hall will need to wait until a permanent fund-raising strategy can be devised, presumably by the new vice provost.

Just how much the position of vice provost can do for the arts at Homewood remains to be seen. The project is "well overdue," said Tabb, who believes that the proper steps toward a greater visibility of and accessibility to the arts have been taken.

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