As a celebration of its past, present and future, the School of Interdisciplinary Arts will be highlighting its 50-year anniversary by holding the conference “Interdisciplinary Arts: Retrospectives & Future Visions,” Friday through Saturday.
Located in room 231 in Baker, this conference will bring various artists, professors, graduate students and scholars to the campus in order for them to encourage a dialogue about the nature and values of interdisciplinary arts. The event will kick off at 5 p.m. with an opening reception in Trisolini House.
“The apparent goal of us all coming together is to share ideas, see how interdisciplinary studies have evolved over the 50 years of the program, and look at ways breaking down academic disciplinary boundaries contribute to ways we approach life and learning into the future,” said Glenn A. Long, president of Glenn A. Long Fine Arts, who will be speaking at the event Friday.
The keynote speaker for this event will be Esther da Costa Meyer, a professor of the history of modern architecture at Princeton University, who will present her lecture “Object Lessons: Paris, 1920s-1930s” in Alden Library, room 319 Friday at 2 p.m.
“I think this is going to be a great event for giving us public exposure,” said Charles Buchanan, interim director of interdisciplinary arts. “A lot of people, I think, have heard of the school, but don’t really know what interdisciplinary arts means. And so this event will give us that kind of exposure publically.”
There will be a closing reception Saturday in the Kennedy Museum of Art at 6 p.m.
“I think that many people are unsure of the meaning behind interdisciplinary arts,” said Claire Berlin, manager of communications and marketing for the College of Fine Arts. “Interdisciplinary involves thinking across boundaries or multiple academic disciplines and I hope that individually that attend this Conference gain a greater understanding of this practice and can apply it to their own academic pursuit or teaching, no matter what college or school they are in.”
Buchanan looks forward to hearing the variety of papers and presentations given, as interdisciplinary arts has a particular definition of what it does as a Ph.D. program. He believes what will be interesting about the conference is getting the different perspectives about interdisciplinary arts from people all around the world.
“It’s not simply just kind of getting the public to know what we’re all about, but it’s also celebrating ourselves and what we do, and it’s the acknowledgement of the fact that we have been a part of the university for half a century and that we’re still going strong,” Buchanan said. “I think we’re now clearly a part of the discourse that runs around the university. But we want to spread that more widely into the community, as well as into the national dialogue.”
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