Collaboration: opportunities for CFA in collaborating locally, nationally, globally. Collaboration as a tool for advancing strategic opportunities for CFA. Collaboration as an important value to CFA and to individual artists.
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Patricia posted on January 11, 2011 at 6:59 pm
From what I have seen over the years, there is a great deal of collaboration within each of the schools but we have made only small steps to collaborate between the three schools to make a “community of artists”. Would that be a first step or should we be focusing outside CFA? It seems like we have many opportunities in Boston and beyond but lack to desire?, resources?, motivation? to make significant strides in this area (with some exceptions). Would this be something we should brainstorm? What are the barriers to success?
Jim Petosa posted on January 19, 2011 at 12:47 am
I am convinced that we make a community of artists by developing opportunities to work together. When we do that, we become that sought after community. There are notable successes to build upon, but they go into the past very quickly.
Phyllis Hoffman posted on January 19, 2011 at 6:42 pm
There are endless possibilities for collaborations with the University and among the three Schools in CFA. The challenge, however, is the lack of human resources to spearhead and coordinate such projects. For example, I suggested a collaboration between Robert Pinksy (perhaps also other distinguished University poets such as Roseanna Warren) and the Composition and Performance Depts of the School of Music. The idea was to select Pinsky poems to be set by faculty and students composers with performances by faculty and students preceded by the poets reading their works. It seems that such an idea could be expanded to include Art and Theatre. But this idea has not come to fruition. Also, every Symphony Hall program is an opportunity to involve lectures and/or symposia on a variety of topics drawing on colleagues from other disciplines in the University. The forthcoming performance of “Elijah” could be an interdisciplinary collaboration with Hillel and its Rabbi Joseph Pollak and or the scholars from CAS’s Religious Studies. We have a precedent for such collaborations in the School of Music that I could describe at length.
lynne allen posted on January 20, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Dana is touching on what we already do, including the poetry (Pinsky and Warren) artist books made by grad students, but I’d like to talk about what Jim has said. I believe he is correct, but Phyllis also has a point, that we need internal faculty to reach out to each other to create this community. Although we are different animals in how we practice and perform (music and theater are collaborative and need each other), we each get ideas and energy from being involved with other disciplines. In an academy style program such as ours, studio time is paramount. Why don’t foundation drawing classes take more advantage of theater rehearsals, why don’t we take more drawing classes to symphony rehearsals like our upper level drawing faculty have done? It takes an individual to want to do this.
danaf posted on January 20, 2011 at 12:29 pm
In the graduate program we have a very established “Book Project” between the MFA poets and faculty and the MFA painters/sculptors and faculty. Over the years the program has grown and developed so that this year we are including faculty and poets from MIT and beyond (Bill Corbett, for example).
Another collaborative thing happening in the graduate program is our Tuesday Night Lecture Series where the grad students invite a local scholar NOT related to fine arts (scientists, doctors, anthropologists, psychologists) to come lecture about their field of expertise.
Finally, one other element in the visual arts that I want to mention is that often in our upper level drawing classes we have students draw from musical and dance performances and athletic experiences.
These are all starting points that need to be developed across the board…
emcarr posted on January 20, 2011 at 12:34 pm
I see significant overlap between the themes of collaboration and community; an organic outcome of any collaboration is the creation of community. For example, the bonds forged between the School of Theatre and the School of Management through SOT’s presentation of 12 Angry Jurors to hundreds of SMG students last fall. The challenge becomes following up on and leveraging those bonds into a vibrant community, laying groundwork for future collaborations. A virtuous cycle, so to speak.
Stephanie Trodello posted on January 20, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Successful collaboration is also an enormous area of fundraising opportunity, especially with Corporations & Foundations. Funders are increasingly looking for cross-disciplinary programs so that they can – essentially – get more bang for their buck. The arts/public health project spearheaded by Andre deQuadros and Andrew Pleasant at the School of Public Health (a program that combines health literacy and the arts to improve household hygine in third world countries) has received funding attention from the Canyon Ranch Institute, Clorox, and NIH, just for starters. As others have mentioned, it takes an individual to want to do it/see it through (and perhaps goes without saying that any such special project needs to also align with CFA’s mission/strategic goals.) All this is of course challenging with so much competing for time/energy. That said, these are the types of projects BU is uniquely positioned to pursue, and in doing so our funding possibilities can increase enormously.