Summer 2005
NEWS
SOPA and Arts Department Merge to Form School of the Arts
By Mary E. McCrank
The campus is abuzz with the birth of the School of the Arts (SOTA). The new unit combines the School of Performing Arts (SOPA), which housed music, dance and theater, with the art department. SOTA will provide opportunities for faculty and students to broaden their scope across the arts, said Provost Katherine Conway-Turner.
“It is an exciting time of growth and vitality for the College, and I look forward to working with the reorganized school,” said Conway-Turner.
SOTA will become official on July 1 and will be led by Jack Johnston, who previously served as head of SOPA.
“The merger is a logical progression in the development of arts at Geneseo. The arts are all housed in Brodie Hall, have many things in common and should be collaborating in creative ways,” said Conway-Turner. “This new structure will act as a stimulus to assist faculty across the arts to work together, model arts collaboration for our students and should enrich the production of arts on campus in synergistic ways.”
About 300 students will be housed in SOTA. About 200 students were enrolled in SOPA last year and another 100 in art, said Johnston. SOTA will have 50 faculty and staff members — 31 full-time professors, 16 part-time adjunct lecturers and three secretaries.
SOTA will encompass major programs in art history, art studio, music, musical theater, theater and theater/English; minor programs in art history, art studio, dance, music, musical theater, piano pedagogy and theater; and concentrations in history, dance, music and theater.
Johnston said as director he wants to increase the co-curricular interactivity among the various campus arts; to strengthen the relationship between the College and the community’s external advisory council, Friends of Art; to enhance the roles the Lockhart and Lederer galleries play in the community’s artistic interests; and to expand external funding for initiatives in the performing and visual arts.
“I personally am deeply committed to liberal arts education and hold the proposition that the overarching mission of the School of the Arts is to provide all interested Geneseo students, regardless of major, class rank or background, with ongoing opportunities to participate in a rich variety of artistic activities throughout their college years,” said Johnston. “Although another part of the school’s mission is to provide our students with technically advanced, pre-professional training in the performing or visual arts, my central interest is in helping all of our students to embrace their individual talents and perspectives through the making of art, which, like the world we live in, is diverse, messy, chaotic, unpredictable, and without any doubt, life-affirming.”