THE CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND PUBLIC POLICY
An Overview
2005-06 -- 2007-08
The Creative Campus: In February, 2007, Russell Robinson and Don McGlothlin were appointed by Dean Lavelli to serve as co-chairs of an Arts in Education Task Force. McGlothlin’s subcommittee focused on The Creative Campus (a national initiative) and its implications for UF. One goal was to develop a position paper on this important topic. Dean Lavelli also decided to have “the Creative Campus” be a focus for the 2007 CFA Fall Faculty Meeting. To help prepare for this, McGlothlin brought Steven Tepper, Deputy Director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy (and a leader of The Creative Campus movement) to UF on April 11 to talk with the College Executive Committee and the Task Force members.
In January, 2008, CAPP brought Sir Ken Robinson Sir Ken Robinson, internationally acclaimed author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, to campus. He made a formal luncheon presentation for approximately 100 campus (Vice Presidents, Deans, etc) and community (Mayor, Head of Chamber of Commerce, etc) leaders. This strategic effort to engage these leaders in the creative campus conversation was well received. About this same time, UF announced a faculty development grant program to creative “Faculty Learning Communities”. An interdisciplinary committee, chaired by CFA’s new Associate Dean, Edward Schaefer, developed a proposal which has been funded. Some additional pilot projects, that will hopefully be funded by the UF Division of Sponsored Research and corporate support, are under discussion.
Cultural Diplomacy: During his sabbatical (2005-06), McGlothlin participated in discussions on campus and beyond regarding CAPP’s relationship with UF’s new Bob Graham Center for Public Service. In addition, he met with Bill Ivey, former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts (now Director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt) regarding various collaborative projects, and had discussions with Alberta Arthurs, former Head of Arts and Humanities at the Rockefeller Foundation, about the future of CAPP.
From these discussions, it appears CAPP has a unique opportunity to provide leadership in the
area of Cultural Diplomacy, which can enhance our country’s national security in important, wide-ranging and sustainable ways.
The United States has long history of efforts in cultural diplomacy, ranging from 1938, when we were concerned about Nazi Germany’s cultural activities in Latin America, to the effective major Cold War initiatives administered by the US Information Agency. When the Cold War ended, the USIA was abolished (1999), budgets were cut drastically and our cultural centers and libraries were closed. In summary, we have retreated from the war of ideas. We are not at the table ….and the stakes have never been higher.
The people with whom McGlothlin discussed this matter share his belief that UF can be a national leader in this area because of
- the breadth and quality of our academic, research and cultural programs,
- our campus-wide focus on international programs,
- our distinguished regional centers (e.g. Latin American, African, Asian Studies),
- and especially…because of the creation of the Bob Graham Center for Public Service.
On March 4, the Graham Center brought David McCullough (acclaimed author of Truman, John Adams, etc.) to campus. He spoke to a capacity audience in the University Auditorium. For the dinner preceding the lecture and the reception following, McGlothlin (who was a member of the Graham Center Celebration Committee) arranged for a Student String Quartet and Jacare Brazil from the School of Music to perform for approximately 250 invited guests, including Bob and Adele Graham and campus, community, state and national leaders.
As a result of these strategic efforts, Senator Graham has indicated his personal support for, and his interest in CAPP being an important partner of the Graham Center for future endeavors.
Research: Student Engagement in the Arts: McGlothlin’s work with the NSSE Arts Consortium continued in 2007-08 with a second pilot study this spring focusing on eight small private institutions. McGlothlin received a second external grant ($4,000) to help support the study. The spring 2007 effort involved eight large public research institutions. These data (from 6591 students who participated in the study) are now being analyzed. Data from the 2008 spring study will be available in late summer.
Arts Administration Course Offerings/Certificate/Degree Program: During the 2007 Spring Term, Amy Vigalente, Director of the University Galleries and McGlothlin met weekly to develop a proposal related to arts administration for consideration by Dean Lucinda Lavelli, the School Directors, and CFA faculty. Their work included:
- Developing reference materials/data for graduate arts administration programs in US and abroad (AAAE, etc.)
- Reviewing current resources at UF (CFA, Business, IFAS, etc): instructors, courses, internships
- Reviewing non-traditional programs (e.g. University of Massachusetts-Amherst)
- Exploring potential internships in Florida, US and abroad (e.g. UF alumni, friends, etc)
- Developing a proposed program for CFA with related resources (e.g. curriculum, faculty, GA’s, internships, budgets, etc.)
- Meeting with Dean Lavelli to discuss proposal: April 3, 2007
Statements from the student evaluation of the Arts Administration and Advocacy course (Fall 2007) include:
- The most helpful course at UF, gets out into the real world experience. This class should be required for students in fine arts.
- It’s truly THE best class I ever had in my course work.
- This is a great overview course.
- Strongly recommend this course to anyone in the arts. I loved it!
- This was by far one of the most practical courses I’ve taken in music studies.
- Excellent
CAPP Teaching: McGlothlin developed two new arts administration courses that were offered during 2006-07: “Seminar in Arts Administration and Advocacy”, taught during the 2006 Fall Semester (16 students representing all CFA units and the Colleges of Law and Journalism and Communications on campus enrolled), and “Arts Administration in Higher Education: Developing the Creative Campus” taught during the 2007 Spring Semester (3 PhD music students were enrolled). In fall 2008, he taught the Arts Administration and Advocacy course again. Six students -- two from each school in CFA (2 undergrads, 2 masters, and 2 PhD students from music) -- were enrolled. This semester, he is teaching “Arts Administration in Higher Education: Designing the Creative Campus”. Two music students (one masters and one PhD) are enrolled.
McGlothlin has also applied for a Course Development Grant related to the Graham Center’s new certificate program in Public Policy. The course, which would be offered in Fall 2009, will focus on Cultural Diplomacy.
CAPP Graduate Assistant Activities: Julian Peterson, a master’s degree student in music
composition, has served as CAPP graduate assistant. He was responsible for assisting with organization and implementation of the NSSE Arts Consortia project (including “mapping” arts activities and resources on the campuses of consortia member institutions, and analyzing data from the 2006-07 NSSE arts study); researching potential presenters for the cultural diplomacy lecture series; developing arts administration reference materials; organizing the CAPP research library; and hosting visiting lecturers.
External Funding for CAPP: External (non-CFA) funding to help support CAPP has been
obtained from:
- UF Division of Sponsored Research ($45,000 - $15,000 per year for 3 years)
- Hanbury Evans Wright Vlatta + Company ($4,000)
The College provides annual funding of $35,000, plus a graduate assistantship, to help support CAPP.