Exploring, Experiencing, and Envisioning Integration in US Arts Education

Abstract

This book explores the dedication of the New American Colleges & Universities to the purposeful integration of liberal education, professional studies, and civic engagement through the performing, literary, and visual arts. Examples of course level and programmatic integration of the arts are discussed from both an applied practice-based approach and a philosophical framework that posits student benefit from exploring, experiencing and envisioning creativity in their future professions. The authors believe that the development of professional skills in combination with the theoretical aspects of liberal arts curriculum, which traditionally includes music, theatre, art and literature, provides a high quality undergraduate educational experience that uniquely prepares students for adaptability in their careers and engaged citizenship grounded in the ability to think creatively, critically, and ethically. Introduction and overview / Nancy H. Hensel -- Creative interdisciplinarity in the arts / Gregory Young -- Architecture and the liberal arts: a whole-school approach to community engagement / Traci Sooter -- Playing Chopin, playing Barthes: bringing musical practice to reading / Steven Pane -- On and off screen: the cinema and media studies minor at Valparaiso University / Timothy J. Tomasik -- A Lasallian commitment to the arts and liberal arts / Heidi Laudien -- Mindset: entrepreneurship and the arts / Jennifer Blacluner -- The business in music at Belmont University / Don Cusic and Beverly Schneller -- The value of the arts within a liberal arts education: skills for the workplace and the world / Ilene Lieberman and Mara Parker -- Creative writing for professional writing majors / Mary Rist and Sasha West -- Theater and the law: the cross-disciplinary integration of theory and practice in the theatrical arts -- and the art of advocacy / Kevin S. Marshall, Sean Dillon, Michael O'Connor, and Placido Gomez -- Music in the academy: process, product, and the cultivation of humanity / Linda C. Ferguson -- Gospel music: cultural artifact or cross-cultural opportunity? / Adriane Thompson-Bradshaw and Margaret Cullen -- Affecting campus climate: fine and performing-arts community outcomes / Sarah Jarmer Scott and Samantha Siegel -- Conclusions / Nancy H. Hensel.