impromptu A newsletter from the College of Arts & Humanities at MSU Moorhead
Dear Colleagues, Students and Friends: COVID-19 is destined to join the long list of pandemics that changed the course of history. It certainly has changed academia – affecting enrollment, forcing courses online in greater numbers, and changing the traditional college experience for many. COVID-19 also affected our ability to gather as a community to enjoy speakers, exhibitions, music and theater events. But here on the MSUM campus, we adapted. That’s what Dragons do. Our commencement ceremonies went virtual. We had rehearsals outside. Theater productions were livestreamed. Choir rehearsals and concerts went virtual and Straw Hat held performances beneath the shade of the great elms on the campus quad. As we look forward to inviting audiences back for live events, we are inspired by earlier generations of creatives that survived past pandemics. The bubonic plague, or the “black death,” hit medieval Europe in 1347 and claimed an estimated 200 million lives in four years. It appeared to have run its course by the early 1350s, but subsequent waves wreaked havoc over the next few centuries. Indeed, William Shakespeare lived through five outbreaks of the bubonic plague during his lifetime. A particularly devastating outbreak of the disease in 1593 and 1594 convinced the queen’s Privy Council to close all public theaters in the interest of public health. Shakespeare survived the plague, without the benefit of modern science, by social distancing and avoiding crowds. I imagine Shakespeare wondered when his life would get back to normal. I imagine he wondered when theaters would open so people could gather for a performance of King Lear, which he wrote during one of those pesky outbreaks. Interestingly, the plague never showed up as a topic in his oeuvre even though it was a constant in his lifetime. Although Shakespeare didn’t write about it, other creatives before and after him have used the pandemics of their times for inspiration. Boccaccio’s The Decameron, Love in the
OCTOBER 2021
Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez, Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, and John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1 (The AIDS Symphony) are just a few examples of pandemic art. Art created in response to COVID-19 is already making a cultural impact. Just last spring, through the magic of technology, MSUM faculty and students made their contributions to pandemic art with the world premiere of Distance, a multimedia work about social isolation in the Age of CoVID. Adapting is what creatives do. It is what Dragons do. Since the fall of 2020, the College of Arts & Humanities has embarked on a visioning process that involves faculty and the community. After our summer retreat, I am excited to share our vision, goals, and strategies for the College of Arts and Humanities with you.
Our Vision: Transforming lives through the nexus of the arts, humanities and technology.
Our Goals: 1 We commit to bringing the humanities to life 2 We commit to use the power of the arts to promote the health and wellness of the human spirit through creative arts therapies 3 We commit to being a center for creative technology 4 We commit to preparing the next generation of creatives for the world of work
Our Strategies: 1 Articulating career pathways 2 Curricular innovations 3 Cultivating a marketing mindset 4 Fostering arts & humanities identity within our community We’ll spend the remainder of the academic year implementing the actions necessary to build our vision. I’ll share some of those actions with you in future communications. With all this talk of adapting to change, one thing remains constant – our need to come together to experience great