Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.). Integrated Arts Program

Biography

First introduced in the fall of 1988, Northwestern University's Integrated Arts Program was a multidisciplinary certificate program offered through the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences (WCAS). The program gave students the opportunity to explore the creative process from the perspective of the artist, across disciplinary lines in the fields of theatre, visual arts, music, dance, and media arts. Faculty members participating in the program included artists and scholars from WCAS, the School of Music, and the School of Communication. The Program ceased to be offered as of the 2004 academic year. 

The idea for the Integrated Arts Program originated in the spring of 1986, when President Arnold Weber appointed an ad hoc committee to begin developing a comprehensive undergraduate curriculum integrating the fine and performing arts. Carol Simpson Stern, Chairperson of the Department of Performance Studies in the School of Communication, chaired the committee. Stern was able to secure a $75,000 grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation to help establish the Integrated Arts Program. A grant of $450,000 from the Ford Foundation was given to the Program from February of 1987 to August of 1991, and President Weber also committed $250,000 in University funds. 

The Integrated Arts Program offered between nine and twelve courses to be completed over one year. The introductory class, A90, was taught by six faculty members and acquainted students with common concerns in the arts, utilizing the analytic paradigm of artist/media/art work/ audience to understand the creative process. Two B-level courses were selected from B91 Modes of Theatre, Modes of Art, or Modes of Music, and two C-level courses were selected from a wide range of classes incorporating the three foundational arts: Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts. 

During October 6-8, 1995, aided by a $50,000 grant from the Ford Foundation, the Integrated Arts Program held a successful national symposium at Northwestern. The three-day symposium explored the issues involved in the design and implementation of undergraduate interdisciplinary art education, discussed strategies for curricular reform in the arts, and examined the problematic role of the artist/scholar in academia. 

The Integrated Arts Program was successful in allowing non-art majors to seek a unified course of study across the arts, while art majors were able to gain further cross-disciplinary experience. The Program ceased to be offered as of the 2004 academic year.

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