Over the last year, a group of provost-appointed art experts met to recommend strategic initiatives that would support cross-campus art collaboration. The University Arts Council advocates for all of the arts at Vanderbilt including related scholarship, performing arts, visual arts and literary arts. The Council is responsible for making periodic strategic recommendations to the Provost for advancing the arts at Vanderbilt and for enabling the creation, pursuit and engagement of the arts at the university. Recommendations might also include suggestions for campus groups to develop initiatives or programs to advance the arts on campus and publicly.
In the Council’s first year they reported on:
- Best practices at peer institutions and what would make for a uniquely One Vanderbilt approach to advancing the arts
- The state of current campus arts resources and planned programs and initiatives, and other areas for enhanced collaboration or resource gaps
- Potential relationships to develop with external partners locally, nationally and globally so as to have on-the-ready engagement strategies
Thank you to the 2019-2020 members of the committee:
University Arts Council
Bonnie Dow (chair), professor of communication studies and dean of academic initiatives, College of Arts and Science
Carolyn Huebl (vice-chair), professor of violin, Blair School of Music
Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Fine Arts, College of Arts and Science
Jay Clayton, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English, College of Arts and Science; director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy
Frank Dobson, associate dean of The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons and faculty head of Gillette House
Dwayne Elliott, director of arts and campus events, Office of the Dean of Students
Robert Engelman, doctoral student in philosophy, College of Arts and Science
Julianna Hernandez, economics and English/creative writing major, College of Arts and Science; Vanderbilt Student Government executive committee member
Valerie Hotchkiss, university librarian; professor of English, College of Arts and Science
James Hudnut-Beumler, Distinguished Professor of American Religious History, Divinity School
ChiHee Hwang, senior artist teacher of piano, Blair School of Music
Catherine Kozak, director of strategic projects, Division of Communications
Midori Lockett, community liaison, Division of Government and Community Relations
Chris Loss, associate professor of Public Policy and Higher Education, Peabody College of Education and Human Development
Sankaran Mahadevan, John R. Murray Sr. Professor of Engineering and professor of civil and environmental engineering, School of Engineering
Kevin Murphy, Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities and professor and chair of History of Art, College of Arts and Science
Foster Swartz, theatre major, College of Arts and Science; VUcept executive board member
Holly Tucker, Mellon Foundation Chair in the Humanities, professor of French, College of Arts and Science; director of the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities
James Moore, university landscape architect, Campus Planning and Construction
Celia Walker, associate university librarian, special collections, engagement, and strategic assessment; acting director, Fine Arts Gallery