Task Force Ponders the Future of CFA

At the second of its two all-day retreats, CFA task force members posted their responses to a question about the future of research at the college. Image courtesy of Lynne Allen

Marked by a convivial exchange of ideas, goals, and values, discussions at the first two all-day retreats of the BU College of Fine Arts task force are moving toward a new vision for the college. Charged with what Lynne Allen, CFA dean ad interim, refers to as “articulating a wildly compelling vision for the future of creative education” at BU, the task force is working to create a strategic vision for all three CFA schools that benefits both the college and the University as a whole.

The 21-member task force was appointed in March 2015 by Jean Morrison, BU provost. Rather than launching a national search for a replacement for departing dean Benjamin Juárez, who had held the post since 2010, Morrison and President Robert A. Brown decided CFA should focus its efforts on identifying its strengths and weaknesses, and reimagine itself as a more essential and integral part of the University. Headed by Allen, the task force will submit its recommendations to the provost in June.

The task force, comprising the director of the School of Theatre and the acting directors of the Schools of Music and Visual Arts, faculty members, and administrative staff, met at the Hotel Commonwealth on October 2 and 30 for a nine-to-five series of conversations and exercises facilitated by outside consultant Seth Goldenberg, who Allen refers to as her “journey partner.” CEO of EPIC Decade, a Rhode Island–based “design thinking” firm that has worked with Apple, Google, and Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions, Goldenberg is also a partner in the School of Visual Arts Studio Lab course, which challenges graphic design students to tackle projects from real world clients. “Seth cares about an arts education—and is interested in helping us think broadly and look at what we want CFA to be 30, 40, or more years down the road,” says Allen, who is also a professor of art.

The first retreats have promoted dialogue and idea exchange, she says. “We’re using design thinking to facilitate a conversation about the really big questions that go beyond CFA. I want CFA to wrestle with these questions and decipher what the future can look like and then run with it.” Ultimately, she says, the task force must address three issues: what is the optimal organizational structure of CFA, what is CFA’s position in the context of BU as a private research university, and what financial strategy is required to make those things work.

The meetings introduced a shared-thought framework for approaching CFA’s mission, Allen says, and articulated emergent themes and essential questions: “How do we prepare students for a meaningful creative life? How do we assess the value of the arts in changing times? How do we create an integrated CFA that can respond to changing times?”

She says that task force members have “begun to articulate the value of our research and used metaphors to model a future scenario. Now, we’re working through what it takes to get to that future state. Each conversation is a step closer to that vision.”

“The task force has been an exciting example of what the new vision for CFA can be,” says member McCaela Donovan, an accomplished actor and assistant director of the School of Theatre. “It’s been a wonderful opportunity to get to know our colleagues in other disciplines and brainstorm ideas about how we can not only continue to serve our own students at a high skill level, but how we can become a strong pillar and connecting point for all students within the larger University.”

CFA has seen several important changes in the last few years, most recently the University’s announcement that it will sell the Boston University Theatre on Huntington Avenue and add a new studio theater and design and production space on the Charles River Campus by fall 2017. In recent years, the college has added a music theater concentration, made possible by a gift from major Broadway producers Stewart F. Lane (CFA’73) and Bonnie Comley, upgraded its practice rooms, and through a provost-appointed advisory panel, tasked the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, a summer program for gifted high school musicians, to work toward a sound fiscal footing.

“Through the ongoing discussions of the task force, it has been obvious from the start that each of the three professional schools in CFA has a clear vision of its own identity,” says task force member John H. Wallace (CFA’03), a CFA assistant professor of music. “Working toward a shared vision for the college as a whole has been an exciting process, involving long, intensive off-campus sessions, guided by the dean and an experienced facilitator. This process has only increased my respect for all involved.”

Allen says the task force is examining the current paradigms while working through the big questions about what the arts mean to CFA and to BU, the value of rigorous intellectual and interdisciplinary inquiry, the necessity for philosophical, pedagogical, and curricular change, and the opportunity that comes with embracing across the board a new approach to vibrant, diverse, and multifaceted curiosity.

“We’re all creative in different ways, but we’re all really after the same thing, just in different disciplines,” Allen says. “We have to think about what success looks like, and then we have to create the vehicle, the how, to get there. To even get to those points, we have to talk to each other and have this common ground. The strategic plan will come. We’re creating something we don’t have yet.”