I am Amy Jones-Timoney from the Office of Public Relations at UK and today I'm here
with Dean Mark Shanda from the College of Fine Arts and we're going to walk around your
area of campus today.
That sounds wonderful.
Welcome!
AJT: So, tell me a little bit as we walk through some of the areas that touch your college:
how does the College of Fine Arts contribute to the overall mission of UK?
Well, the College of Fine Arts mission declares that the arts are essential to both the individual
and the community.
We believe that, by virtue of the way we work with our faculty and staff and students to
both expose them to art, engage with art, and offer art to the larger Lexington community.
The arts have the ability to express so much of the human condition in such a wide variety
of unique ways whether it's music, or theatre, or dance, or sculpture, or painting.
The arts have the ability to interpret our world in a very special way and that's the
core of our mission.
Why are the arts so meaningful to you?
Well, I came to the arts through theatre design and technology.
That's where my passion lies.
I was raised … studied as a technical director.
A technical director is to a scenic designer what an engineer is to an architect.
So, pretty pictures are designed by the designers and the technical director figures out how
to put those pieces together.
And I found that my passion for problem solving, for working with a variety of materials, being
backstage, the sort of pace and the excitement of both opening and the celebration of closing
when things get done; all of those things are part of my passion.
Well, I know the College of Fine Arts, there are so many different programs within the
college.
What makes your college so unique?
One is the people.
We have a remarkable faculty and staff and we have very distinct programs, like the one
that is housed in the Schmidt Vocal Arts Center which is where our Opera Theatre Program is
that produces really world-renowned performers.
We have our instrumental music program and vocal music program, we really anchor this
corner of campus and sometimes we refer to ourselves as the front door to the university,
one of the three front doors, with the other two being the medical center, and of course,
athletics.
Absolutely.
Well we've seen kind of this little area of campus and I think the Singletary Center is
also a really important building to your college.
So, let's go inside and take a look.
That sounds great.
So, we've walked inside to the Singletary Center for the Arts.
How valuable is this building to the College of Fine Arts?
Well, the Singletary Center serves as our primary performance space for almost all of
our musical organizations, ensembles.
In addition to our own College of Fine Arts student programming, Singletary brings in
acts as well to enhance the student experience on campus.
Every act that Singletary brings in sets aside a block of free student tickets so that those
performers and students can have an interaction as well.
So, Singletary, as a performance venue, is again, part of this front door connection
between us and the rest of the community.
So, why is it so important that your college has that mission of kind of reaching out into
the community and bringing people in?
Well, one of the ways particularly in the performing arts to complete the dynamic of
our performers is to have an audience.
When it comes to visual arts the same thing is true.
The artist expects some sort of response to the piece that they create.
The Art Museum serves as both a teaching laboratory for our newly developed curatorial practices
degree program as well as inspiring connections with all sorts of students on campus from
non-arts courses.
The English department has students come over here and be inspired for their writing, we
have business majors come and look at the way in which the arts are marketed.
So, the center serves as really a catalyst for all sorts of engagement within the community,
within the campus community and then to the general public, how do you want to spend a
Sunday afternoon?
You want to come and be inspired by art and art exhibits and the museum has a pattern
of both rotating art exhibits as well as companion shows using the museum's 10,000 item collection
that's permanently housed here at UK.
And, for students as they come in here and explore this, is that free, or is there a
cost?
Admission is free, we ask them to "pay attention" which I really like, that tagline.
Now let's maybe take a look at some other spaces that students use and go over to the
School of Art and Visual Studies.
That sounds great.
So, we've worked our way to the School of Art and Visual Studies, or 'SAVS,' as you
call it.
So, let's head inside and see what we have.
A lot of students use this space, correct?
Indeed.
This anchors the west end of the campus portion for the College of Fine Arts and includes
painting, sculpture and ceramics, and photography, digital media and design which is our fastest
growing degree program.
And do a lot of students beyond even your college use this building, too?
Yes.
It's very popular as a minor program as well as in the UK Core there are some art-based
classes that are supported in this building.
Well, tell me about some of the opportunities that your students have, ranging from using
buildings like this to the Living Learning Program.
This particular building is designed in such a way that, as you can see, with the amount
of glass and openness, that students can explore different medium.
Another facility that you mentioned is our Living Learning Program, the LLP, and in that
particular environment, our freshman students, about 156 of them, live together as well as
study the arts in their particular areas of disciplinary study and the LLP has in it a
dance studio, an art working space, a writing studio, and practice rooms for music.
So, it's not all arts majors in the LLP, in fact.
A certain percentage are from other degree programs.
So, tell me about your students.
Why are they picking the UK College of Fine Arts?
I think, in part, they're picking to come to UK because of the quality of the faculty.
Our faculty are exhibiting art, performing all over the world, a really remarkable group
of individuals, and a lot of our recruitment is kind of analogous to the way that sports
have recruited in that students often come to work with a particular coach.
Here in the arts, students come to work with a particular artist often.
One of the things we discover is that when they come, though, they discover other artists
that they also connect with and so that arts community, and that original sort of mission,
is part of what we celebrate.
We've talked a lot about students.
When you think about your faculty what is "research" for your college?
That's a great way to start a conversation, and particularly the way that I define research
and we define within the college, is that research is nothing more than asking a question
and seeking an answer.
How does this piece of music need to be interpreted?
How is an interpretation today different than before?
How does a piece of art reflect different values in terms of audience experience?
So, the creation, the making and the dissemination of the art all becomes part and parcel of
that research and creative activity that we do in the college.
You know, everything that's made in the arts for the most part is pro-typical.
It's the first time it's been created whether you're taking a slab of clay and turning it
into a particular sculpture or whether you're starting with a blank stage and putting on
a theatrical production.
It starts with an empty environment and an idea, something that somebody can be passionate
about.
That's a great way to put it.
So, is there anything else you want campus to know about you, your college?
Well, the college has wide open arms to welcome students who want to engage in spaces like
the gallery space here in SAVS, the art gallery over in Singletary and all the concerts and
everybody has the opportunity to experience the arts through the College of Fine Arts.
Well thank you so much for taking the time to show us around.
I really appreciate it, it's been a wonderful trip.
And if you want more information on the College of Fine Arts, just visit the website on the
screen.