Charge: "This Committee should work toward an expansion, intensification and centralization of creative arts activity at Vanderbilt, with attention to the opportunities for creativity afforded by recent technological advances. It should consider the plausibility of offering a graduate degree in writing, building upon existing strengths in English, but including educational opportunities in film-making, digital composition, imaging, on-line journalism, photography, scene-design, studio arts, and music. "Writing" is here broadly conceived to include not merely fiction and poetry but non-fiction, science, law, play- and screen-writing."

Background

     No university can hope to recruit a body of intellectually diverse undergraduates without featuring the arts and the vital role they play in academic life. A good deal of art is made at Vanderbilt, but it takes place in disparate locations, some too small, many without handicap access, and several unsafe. Prospective students on a campus tour of Vanderbilt are guaranteed to see students at the lab bench, in the classroom, and on the athletic field, but they will rarely encounter them making art. If a tour guide were to take them to the cramped, deteriorating Cohen Hall where studio art courses are currently taught, these prospective students would encounter rotting plaster, poorly ventilated classrooms, and students exiled to the hallways because there is inadequate classroom space.

     We propose that the university build a creative arts center in a prominent location that will bring together activity in all the arts (including painting and drawing, sculpture, ceramics, computer art, theatre, music, writing, and film), a place where even the casual student visitor will see art in progress, where students and faculty will celebrate the arts, where collaboration among the arts will flourish, and where scholars who are not themselves artists will be welcomed as partners in efforts to document and study popular music, to investigate with their students the proliferation of new media on the internet, and to document their own research in film and video. Students may come to the arts center to take a course in the history of film but by an easy transition they will also learn to write screenplays and to produce films of their own. They will design, direct and perform plays, and they will read their latest poems and stories. In the media lab they will study digital photography, animation, and architecture. We believe that a Vanderbilt Arts Center not only will recruit students who seek to major in the arts but will also attract the pre-med keen to improve as a painter, the education major eager to learn more about art in order to incorporate it into his teaching, and the engineer determined to develop skills in design and animation.

     Several years ago the administration acknowledged that our current studio art facility was too small, too dilapidated, and unsafe. University architects developed plans to construct a small 30,000 sq ft. building to be situated behind Branscomb Hall. At the time of the architectural plan, the cost was estimated at $6,000,000. Subsequently, the Dean and the Development Office raised $4,000,000 to be applied to that building project. Our proposal advocates additional space for studio art in order to address the growth of student interest. Our Studio Art program now turns away 40% of the undergraduates seeking to take art courses. Among students, it is generally understood that unless you major in Fine Arts you won't be able to get into the studio art courses.

     Conspicuously absent from that earlier plan is a computer lab in which studio art students can take courses in computer art. This proposal addresses that lack with the inclusion of a multi-purpose media lab. This lab will become the classroom for the faculty member in computer art whom the Fine Arts Department is currently recruiting and for faculty in other disciplines and other divisions interested in integrating digital media into their courses. The conception of the media lab recognizes the rapidity with which digitization is bringing about a convergence of the arts of filmmaking, music production, television, and radio with the new media of multimedia production, computer graphics and animation, and webpage design. The lab will consist of a single area of modular design with roughly thirty computer workstations that can be split into two classrooms or subdivided according to the size of teams engaged in individual projects. The aim is to permit the greatest amount of collaborative flow while preserving the possibility of intensely focussed attention. Because sound editing requires privacy, there will be six soundproof booths, each equipped with highpowered computers with substantial storage capacity and capable of editing extended film projects as well as performing rapid renderings of 3D animations.

     The Arts Center will feature a modest black box theatre to address the critical need on campus for rehearsal and performance space. Fully equipped with light and sound equipment, the versatile theatre will host small performances, musical events, lectures, and readings. Uses of this flexible facility are outlined below.

     Other than Studio Art classrooms and studios, a shared media lab, and a black box theatre, the remainder of the building will be dedicated to offices, two seminar rooms, a screening room that will double as a performance area, offices, and a common area. In the latter, we envision a coffee house that will serve as a gathering place for students taking courses in the arts center and that will also draw others to the center for student readings and recitals.

     The Creative Arts Center will not only gather together artistic activity currently taking place in several locations on campus; it will also feature the expansion of current offerings in Film and Media Studies and will permit the creation of two new Vanderbilt institutions: a M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing and an Institute for the Study of Popular Music. The attached Media Studies proposal requests funding so that current faculty can develop new courses, so that advanced graduate students can become prepared to teach film and media studies courses, and so that offerings in screen writing and film production can be augmented. Undergraduates will thus enjoy a larger range of courses, and graduate students will develop expertise in film and media studies to complement their work toward doctoral degrees in various departments.

     The Creative Arts Center will also host Vanderbilt's first Masters in Fine Arts degree, a M.F.A. in Creative Writing. Since the Vanderbilt English Department produced a group of writers known as the Fugitives, this university has enjoyed a reputation as a place that develops poets and novelists as well as scholars. More recently, last year's large gathering of Southern writers highlighted the tradition of creative writing on this campus. There is currently no M.F.A. in creative writing in a private Southern university of Vanderbilt's stature. That fact, coupled with Vanderbilt's distinguished reputation, would certainly attract prospective students. Although the number of graduate programs has increased dramatically in the last twenty years, enrollment remains strong. Vanderbilt's program would be distinctive as the only one in the country to require collaboration between writing and at least one other art form in the first year's course of study.

     The Creative Arts Center would also host another Vanderbilt first, the Institute for the Study of Popular Music. Perfectly situated in the middle of a thriving music industry and a collection of rich archival resources in vernacular music at Fisk, Middle Tennessee State University, and Western Kentucky, Vanderbilt could establish not just a national reputation but quite possibly an international one through such an institute. It would bring together current expertise on the Vanderbilt faculty with a group of visiting scholars to define the future of popular music scholarship. Conferences and symposia on current issues in the music industry would enhance this institute's importance to the local music community; performance series and exhibits would educate not only the student of popular music but the entire Vanderbilt community. Complete discussion of these three academic programs (Media Studies, Creative Writing M.F.A., and the Institute for The Study of Popular Music) follow information on Studio Art space and the Black Box Theatre.

     The Department of Art and Art History hosts a small but active program in studio art with courses in both traditional and experimental media, including drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, design, video art, and multimedia. In Spring 2002, the program will expand to add computer art to its roster of courses. While students throughout the university are welcome to take studio courses, Fine Arts majors for whom Studio Art courses are required, have first priority. The demand for studio art courses far exceeds the supply and results in large waiting lists for every course long before pre-registration. Unhappy with the lack of access to studio art classes, Vanderbilt art students often opt to transfer to peer institutions whose offerings are more generous. Those who do get into the courses and complete the minor constitute a relatively satisfied group of graduates. According to former Associate Dean Graham, the two minors that students are most concerned about presenting on their transcripts are business and studio art.

     A diverse group of artists with national reputations, studio art faculty believe that conceptual understanding goes hand-in-hand with technical proficiency, and they work to develop students intellectually as well as technically. They encourage students to research the theoretical context of the artistic methods they employ. This relatively small faculty has established a strong studio art minor, one that has placed its graduates in a number of fine graduate art programs, including the San Francisco Art Institute, the Rhode Island School of Design, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Florida, the University of Chicago, the University of Tennessee, and Memphis State University. Every year the program awards one distinguished graduating senior the prestigious Margaret Stonewall Woolridge Hamblet Award. With the award's $17,000 the honoree can travel and spend a year developing his or her art.

     The studio art faculty has managed to do a good deal despite its limited resources and an inferior facility. Although Vanderbilt offers no program in architecture, Professor Michael Aurbach organized a pre-architecture program for undergraduates by defining a curriculum made up of exiting courses. This popular program has placed several Vanderbilt students in excellent graduate programs in architecture.

     The studio art program faces two major problems: 1)a staff too small to meet the needs of all students seeking to take art courses and 2)an inadequate facility. To partially address the former, this proposal requests the creation of one new faculty position: a two-year senior lectureship (discipline to be determined every two years). This non-tenure track appointment would alleviate stress on the foundations courses, make available additional offerings in a particular area of concentration, and ease the burden of the Hamblet Award and exhibition. In addition to this new position, the Studio Art faculty feel very strongly that the current lectureship in computer art for which the department has authority to recruit should be upgraded to an Assistant Professorship. A regular faculty member would enjoy obvious advantages over a lecturer in developing a new area of the curriculum and in collaborating with faculty in other disciplines through the media center. The attached budget includes the estimated differential between a lectureship and an assistant professorship.

     With respect to the current Studio Art facility, the Cohen building, Studio Art's home, suffers from many years of deferred maintenance the evidence of which presents itself in curling plates of paint that fall from the walls and litter the floor, retrofitted air conditioning units that rain condensation, moisture that forms puddles in the stairwell and studios, and plaster walls that blister and froth from years of roof and steam leaks. Poor ventilation traps the noxious fumes generated by oil-based solvents used in painting, sculpture, printmaking and by the spray fixative used in all drawing courses.

     Two years ago, representatives of Risk Management and the St. Paul Insurance Company issued a safety report critical of the limited egress in the studios. In the event of an fire caused by highly flammable art supplies, lives might be lost because most studios maintain only one exit. For disabled students unable to navigate the stairs at Cohen, studio art courses are off limits. For faculty transporting heavy art materials to classrooms on the top floors, Cohen's stairs are a constant frustration, not to mention a physical strain. Certainly some students must observe that among the universities in Tennessee, Vanderbilt offers the most expensive art classes in the worst facilities.

     The proposed Art Center would facilitate both more sections of classes and larger classes, particularly in the areas of Ceramics and Printmaking. It would also provide critical storage space for student work, work that any student interested in applying to graduate school must keep in a safe place. The proposed Studio Art Space outlined in this proposal also includes 3600 sq. feet for senior studios. This presumes the development of a Studio Track for the Fine Arts major. Caucus I-3 did not discuss the merits of this new academic program, but we attach its outline as Appendix A. Were such a program to evolve, senior studio space would certainly make Vanderbilt competitive with other universities. Were such a program to evolve, the attrition rate might, in fact, fall.

     The Department of Theatre has long lamented the absence of a second work space in which to rehearse departmental plays and teach performance classes (acting, directing, movement and voice) when play schedules overlap and Neely Auditorium is occupied by a large multi-level set design. Not only will the flexible facility requested herein answer that need; it will also break down the isolation that currently segregates different art forms to different parts of the campus by providing an experimental place which features collaboration among the arts.

     The advantages of the Black Box Theatre for interdisciplinary study and performance among the creative arts are many. The space will provide rehearsal and performance opportunities for those students who wish to culminate their multidisciplinary exploration of an artistic movement, say in Expressionism. See Appendix B, for the description of an interdisciplinary course of that title. Design students from Theatre and Studio Art might collaborate on the visual representation of a script developed by creative writers, actors and directors in English and Theatre. Student musicians and composers from Blair might create and perform a musical score to accompany the work. All of this creative intercourse could be realized in a Black Box Theatre. After hearing from several creative arts faculty from various disciplines and schools, it is our belief that these colleagues are eager to guide such collaborations. Already, lists of names for potential guest artists to enrich such ventures are being discussed.

     Guest artists are often relegated to classrooms, inadequate venues in which to exploit the talents of these visitors. When these distinguished guest are properly accommodated in Neely, other important activities are typically bumped. This was the case during the three-day workshop in Classical Greek acting style taught by visiting artist, Olympia Dukakis: production work for a major production had to be brought to a halt during the three day intensive workshop. This fall, nothing but classroom space was available for Shakespeare scene studies led by internationally acclaimed director Jonathan Miller. Had it not been for the good will of Dean Wait in the Blair School allowing theatre students to shove desks out of the way in classrooms, the Shakespeare workshop would not have had a home. The workshop and demonstration session led by the director and choreographer of Rome and Jewels last semester would have been better served by a black box space than on the tiny Sarratt stage designed primarily for film viewing.

     The inclusion of a Black Box in the Arts Center will additionally benefit the Department of Theatre as it strives to offer advanced opportunities for its upperclass majors and minors, particularly in directing and lighting design. Finding dependable and appropriate rehearsal space for upper-level student directors ready to direct one-act plays is currently an impossibility on our campus. This proposed theatre will provide the much needed work area for those students as well as a lighting laboratory complete with instrumentation for students of lighting design. Department faculty and guest directors have also found themselves with no rehearsal space when Neely is otherwise occupied; this proposed theatre will address those needs.

     The Black Box Theatre takes as its model several similar theatres (the Wallis Theatre at Northwestern University, the Freimann Stage at Whitman College, and Johnson Hall at Tennessee Performing Arts Center). Its dimensions and equipment define a facility that will accommodate an exciting range of possible uses. An approximately 40'-45' square, with a ceiling height of 25'-30', this space will yield square footage of between 1600 - 2025 sf. (This size is determined by examining the current usage of Neely Auditorium and is also based upon past experience in other studio theatres.) The type of access to the lighting system dictates ceiling height. If students are able to access the lights via a catwalk or cable grid system above the space, a height of 30' would be needed; if they access lights solely via ladders or personnel lifts, then the ceiling height could be lower. Although the latter would save on initial construction costs, the latter would trade cost for ease and safely. Ladders and lifts require careful supervision; catwalks are decidedly safer.

     In addition to actual theatre space, attached storage for lighting equipment, sound equipment, staging, and seating would also be necessary. An additional 20' square would probably suffice, making for a total of 2400 sf for both the theatre and storage space.

Equipment

     The lighting system proposed for the studio is a small package, ample for a wide range of uses of the space. As proposed, it is comprised of a computerized lighting control console, which is easily used by both novice and expert. There are 60 electronic dimmers for stage lighting, and 12 for use by work and house lighting. An architectural lighting control panel would be included for control of house and work lights. There are 60 stage lighting fixtures proposed, which allows for a good deal of variety of light plots and compositions.

     A small system of projectors is suggested, for use by classes and in performances. A video projector, suitable for connection to either a computer or to a VCR would enable experimentation with digital or analog video. A slide projector would be used to project still images. A screen, either in a fixed location or mobile, would provide the proper surface for projections to be most effective.

     The sound system is comprised of a small mixing console, with control for both microphone and audio devices. There are 4 speakers and amplifiers, which could be placed in either default positions, or moved as necessary. Playback of music or sound effects is made possible through two CD players, and 4 microphones are available for audio reinforcement. A rack or case that can be locked would be necessary to ensure the safety and security of this equipment. No theatre can function properly without an intercom system to connect technicians and the stage manager. A system composed of a base station/power supply and 6 headsets is specified.

     Staging is provided using portable riser units, ranging from 8" - 24" in height. These can be used for both the stage platform, and also as risers for audience seating. There are 120 seats specified; these are perceived as being simple, plain seats for use both by and audience and on the stage by performers. Rolling caddies are suggested, to make storage and moving of risers and seating easier.

     Finally, basic scenic elements are recommended. Masking curtains to provide a backstage space, flats to provide walls and additional masking, and cubes for use by classes and performers will offer a basic set of tools with which one can experiment.

Media Studies Program

     Vanderbilt should seize the opportunity afforded by the capital campaign, the inauguration of a new chancellor, and the symbolic impetus of the new century to launch a Media Studies Program as part of its newly proposed Vanderbilt Center for the Arts. This program will provide opportunities for teaching and research in all aspects of media today: film, video, and the new digital media, which encompass online writing, experimental filmmaking for the web, computer art, graphic design for the web, electronic music, and more. The Program will involve both undergraduates and graduate students in project-oriented courses both in film and interactive multimedia production and in seminars that reflect on the legal, social, economic and cultural policy issues that the media revolution presents.

     Not since print technology revolutionized the cultures of Western Europe have assumptions about the nature and role of the arts been so in flux. Concepts at the center of our traditional sense of culture-the autonomy of the creative individual, the originality of the work of art, the authenticity of cultural acts, the uniqueness of selfconsciousness, the absolute difference between technology and art-are up for redefinition because of the possibilities offered by new media. Many artists, writers, and musicians reject these challenges, often for excellent reasons, but few remain untouched by the important creative, intellectual, and policy issues such debates raise.

     The recent case of Napster v. the major record labels is a symptom of the range and speed of change in recent years. What is intellectual property in the face of almost instantaneous duplication and transmission? Is copyright, itself a nineteenth century invention, an outmoded concept? Our students are already immersed in these questions. More generally: what is the meaning of community in the age of online communication? What is civility without face-to-face debate? In the area of scholarly research and publication: what is the fate of the scholarly monograph in an age when traditional book publishing is becoming prohibitively expensive and online publication so rapid and affordable? Is more information more freely circulated necessarily better information without the traditional gatekeepers?

     The Media Studies Program would combine the study of such critical, historical, and policy issues with a hands-on orientation toward the production of film, video, and other digital media. As university-level disciplines, film and television production must be informed by the larger cultural questions these media provoke, or it becomes little more than an apprenticeship to industry. In the emerging digital arts, virtually every innovation must be accompanied by its own theoretical justification, for the new media are forced to demonstrate the principles by which they are to be understood.

Undergraduate and Graduate Programs

     Undergraduate Minor and graduate program leading to a Certificate in Media Studies. The Minor or Certificate can be in one of the two following areas.

(A) The Program in Film Studies. This interdisciplinary program would build on the existing minor in Film Studies to develop, in stages, a Film Studies concentration for undergraduates and, later, a Certificate in Film Studies, which would supplement the PhD in departments that welcome it. Below we present the rationale for housing the Program in the Vanderbilt Center for the Creative Arts.

     The Film Studies Concentration would be an outgrowth of the minor in Film Studies that was introduced this year. The minor consists of 18 hours: 3 from a cross-listed Introduction to Film Studies, 3 from a film theory course taken either in Philosophy or Communication Studies, 3 from a production course, and 9 in electives. At present, 10 faculty from 7 departments offer 17 courses per year that count toward the minor. A formal concentration in Film Studies consisting of 36 hours would become possible with the addition of only two faculty and one staff positions, detailed below (see Staffing).

     These resources will contribute a total of 14 new courses to the present 17 for a total of 31 courses per year. The Film Studies faculty thus will be able to offer courses to the general undergraduate population while also being able to staff the courses necessary for a concentration.

     The structure of the concentration would be:

• 3 hours in Introduction to Film Analysis
• 6 hours in Film History
• 3 hours in Film Theory
• 3 hours in screen writing
• 6 hours in film production
• 15 hours of electives

     The Certificate in Film Studies for graduate students would supplement existing PhD structures. On the model of the minor already required by some PhD programs, it would consist of 9 hours of courses available for graduate credit. The availability of graduate fellowships in Film Studies discussed below in connection with the undergraduate concentration in film studies will naturally generate a core of interested students. In combination with the less predictable but nonetheless growing number of students with film interests in English, philosophy, Spanish and Portuguese, and so on, the Film Studies fellowship program will justify the implementation of a Certificate in Film Studies within a very few years. If our prediction pans out, then some additional resources will be required, although not, we expect, any new appointments. Specifically, one devoted graduate Film Studies course per term will be created by buying out a course from the department of an affiliated Film Studies faculty.

     The rationale for housing the Film Studies Program in the Vanderbilt Center for the Creative Arts is twofold. First, since the Film Studies concentration will have 9 hours of production and screen writing, proximity to the film production facilities and the offices of the MFA in Creative Writing will be essential. Second, proximity to the proposed digital media lab will permit great flexibility and creativity in the integration of media technology into courses in film history, criticism, and theory. Already, courses in film exist that take advantage of new technologies to solve one of the traditional problems of film classroom teaching-how to permit visual moving images to be taught alongside written texts. Vanderbilt does not now have the facilities to exploit these new courses, but the media lab will solve that problem. However, we envision even greater creativity in the invention of new kinds of courses that blend laboratory and academic activity. One possible course is presented below, but in general we hope that the ever greater intermixing of textual, visual, and new media resources will make the Film Studies Program at the Vanderbilt Center for the Creative Arts a laboratory for the invention of fresh techniques for film pedagogy.

The History of Film Editing: With the freeing up of affiliated Film Studies faculty to teach more specialized courses in film history, one can envision comparative courses on the history of film techniques. While such a course could be taught using the technologies now used in film history courses (projectors, VCRs, DVDs, and so on), the same sort of course taught with interactive technologies would be infinitely more dynamic. In a course on the history of film editing, students will be able to see the effect of certain editing styles by visually contrasting the choices made by film artists with the other choices those artists might have made as well as, in effect, testing those choices for themselves. For instance, an instructor could teach a unit on the development of the jump cut by having students watch clips from landmark films in the history of the technique, edit their own specimen films, or "re-edit" sequences from films that do not use jump cutting. As another example, consider a class on the aesthetic differences between the tracking shot and the establishing shot/medium shot/close-up sequence in which students work out various reconstructions of famously damaged sequences from the films of Orson Welles. The interactive and hands-on experiences that the media lab will make available to teachers even of history and criticism courses are just being explored. The importance of integrating them into film teaching argues in favor of housing the Film Studies Program in the Vanderbilt Center for the Creative Arts.

(B) Digital media courses. The Media Studies Program will offer or cross-list courses from other departments and schools in computer art, online graphic design, hypertext, sound art, and interactive multimedia forms. These courses would include both workshops in emerging media, which would be largely studio or computer-lab based, and seminars in the history or theory of media, which would include a lab component (as a fourth credit hour) in creative projects exploring a new media. Examples of each of these kind of courses follow:

Workshop: Hypertext-Reading and Writing Online. This course is currently offered as a Freshman Seminar in the College of Arts and Science, but it could be significantly reconfigured and improved were it supported by the resources of a Media Center housed in the Vanderbilt Center for the Arts. Hypertext is the emerging literature of the World Wide Web. Experimental hypertext novels create linked narratives with no beginnings or ends, literary mazes that can never be read twice in the same way. The possibilities of hypertext composition challenge established notions of literary form, leading critics to argue about how hypertext will transform research, editing, models of reading and writing, and the nature of literacy itself. Novelists and filmmakers attempt to imagine the future of a wired society, while corporate culture strives to cash in on the World Wide Web. In this course, students explore emerging forms of hypertext through readings of cyberpunk fiction; hypertext fictions, both on the web and on CD-ROM; novels about the boundary between human and artificial life; movies that use cyborgs and virtual reality to speculate about the role of technology in society; critical theory about the future of electronic writing, the definition of cyberspace, and the future of literature in an age of hypertext. Students compose two collaborative hypertexts themselves during the course of the semester. (See Appendix C)

Seminar on Shakespeare with Lab, producing an interactive edition of a play. Multimedia tools allow the editor to overcome the disabling divorce of dramatic performance from dramatic text by making it possible for her to annotate the text with multiple scenes aimed at representing divergent interpretations of the play. Such an edition could include an archive of historical documents, reviews, and criticism. It could also include slides representing set and costume designs from prior productions of the play. It would also be possible to construct a virtual stage that would allow the student as well as the amateur or professional practitioner to experiment with set designs and work out directorial options. In addition to the pedagogic value of involving students in the creation of such a resource, graduate students and faculty might ultimately decide to produce a scholarly edition based on this model. The users of such an edition would include scholars of the drama, students and teachers of theatre, dramaturgs, directors, and costume and set designers. Given that the project would have commercial applications, it would be a candidate for funding by Annenberg/CPB or for a contract with distributors of humanities software. There are numerous faculty in the English department, including Lynn Enterline, Chris Hassel, Dennis Kezar, Leah Marcus, and Kathryn Schwarz, who would have an interest in teaching such a course were the needed technical staff support available (see Staffing below).

Documentary across the disciplines. Whether attempting to show the inside of an institution (Wiseman's High School and Basic Training), tell the story of an art movement (Russell's Jazz), capture a group event (Hands on a Hard Body) or celebrate individual obsessions (Morris' Pet Cemetery) , the documentary film maker always adopts a point of view. Students will examine the depictions of "real people" and "real experiences" in documentary film, video, sound recordings, and on web sites in order to discover how "reality" is constructed. They will plan and execute a simple documentary of their own that will be the subject of a website they create.

Staffing (see Budget for details of estimated costs)

Staffing the Media Studies Program with creative personnel who are creative, technically expert, and capable of working with faculty and students is of the utmost importance. At its core the Media Studies Program will have the following members:

(Existing personnel)

Faculty Director. This person will be actively involved in one of the new media disciplines-film, video, or other digital technology-and will have an interest in questions of the history of media, cultural policy, or media theory. A&S has a number of faculty already on staff with the interests and expertise required for this position, including Jerome Christensen, Jay Clayton, and John Sloop.

Affiliated A&S faculty in Anthropology (Beth Conklin), Communications Studies and Theatre (Jon Hallquist, John Sloop), English (Vereen Bell, Jerome Christensen, Jay Clayton, Sam Girgus, Leah Marcus, Sheila Smith McCoy, Mark Wollaeger), Fine Arts (approved new position in computer art), German (Dieter Sevin), Philosophy (Gregg Horowitz), Political Science (Richard Pride), Religious Studies (Jay Geller), Spanish (John Crispin and Andres Zamora).

Affiliated faculty in other schools: Blair (Daniel Landes [computer music] and Stan Link [film sound tracks]), Engineering (John Bourne [asynchronous learning networks], Kazuhiko Kawamura [electronic and robotic musical instruments-see Appendix D], Richard Alan Peters II [computer graphics], D. Mitchell Wilkes [entertainment robotics]), and Law (Steven Hetcher [internet law, intellectual property, and privacy law] and Christopher Yoo [technology and freedom of speech issues).

(New Positions)

Faculty appointment in screenwriting (one part-time adjunct).

Faculty appointment in film production (one part-time adjunct).

Technician in film and sound editing to maintain the equipment, assist in the editing studios, and train students and faculty in their use.

(Vanderbilt Faculty and Student Fellows)

The Media Studies Program will offer faculty fellowships of two kinds: research fellowships and teaching fellowships. For a Faculty Research Fellowship, a faculty member would propose a research project to a selection committee set up by the Program director including both faculty and senior technical staff. If selected, the faculty member would receive half-time teaching relief for a period of two years, as well as office space, student assistance, and consultative support from the Program's staff. Faculty Teaching Fellows will be appointed for a single year with relief from one course. The Faculty Teaching Fellow would be expected to develop a course that would entail collaboration with advanced students in a workshop environment with the goal of developing film or other digital applications that would facilitate the conduct, presentation, and propagation of research in a particular field. The Program will host a maximum of four fellows at any one time: two Faculty Research Fellows, two Faculty Teaching Fellows.

Two graduate fellowships in Film Studies will be competitively awarded to students already admitted to graduate programs in the College. While these fellowships will support the students' work in their home departments, each graduate fellow will teach two Film Studies courses per year at the introductory level (Introduction to Film Analysis, Film Theory, and Introduction to Film History). Because these courses will be taught by graduate fellows, faculty who now teach the introductory courses for the minor will be available to teach 4 upper level undergraduate courses with no additional faculty appointments.

The Program will also offer Student Grants, in the $300-500 range, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, in order to fund the expenses associated with film and other media projects. We envision making available up six such grants per year. These stipends would be given to students who have demonstrated proficiency and imagination in developing film and other digital projects in order that they may have the opportunity to bring a meritorious project to completion or serve as a co-developer on a project undertaken by a faculty research fellow.

(External Fellowships)

We propose that the College establish a Vanderbilt Media Studies Fellowship in order to recruit successful filmmakers and digital artists and entrepreneurs from the profit and non-profit sectors to take "sabbaticals" from their enterprises and occupy an office within the Center for the Arts. Such a post would involve no formal obligations and would have to be flexible in its term, anything from a month to a year. The aim would be to attract Fellows who would appreciate the opportunity for conversations and consultations with imaginative faculty and students. The cost of supporting an outside fellow, which we have budgeted at $40,000 a year, would be more than repaid by the publicity such a program would provide for the Center. We request funding for only five years, after which time we expect to generate permanent outside funding for these fellowships.

Vanderbilt Documentary Project

Vanderbilt hosts a number of courses dedicated exclusively or partially to the study of documentary films. In one course (English 269 taught by S. Girgus) students produce a film that documents their own university. Several faculty members and graduate students produce documentaries as a culmination of a research project. Even when funding is available to the senior faculty member, that funding rarely covers the entire cost of a project. The Vanderbilt Documentary Project will make small to faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates to assist in some aspect of documentary production. We request a modest $5000 per year for five years with the assumption that in that five years the Center will be able to raise funds to provide ongoing support.

Facilities (see Budget for details of dimensions and estimated costs)

• Shared computer lab.
• Offices for director, screenwriter, and faculty member in film production. Office space for fellows. Shared office for technician.
• Shared conference room/seminar room.
• One editing suite for 16mm film.
• Shared screening for film and digital projection and to be used for blue screen shoots. Adjoining projection booth with room for storage of films and film equipment.

Costs (see Budget for details)

Some of the infrastructure and operating costs would certainly be carried by outside grants, and those that were not could be offset to some extent by overhead from project-based grants. Faculty participation might be funded by individual departments, with infrastructure and basic staffing costs carried centrally by the Vanderbilt Center for the Arts. A potential return of up to 100% in outside grant funding is possible.

Affiliations with other divisions in the university.

The Media Studies Program will have its center in the College of Arts and Science, but from that center its activities will radiate throughout the University. The Dean of the Law School has endorsed a proposal in Law and Humanities, which includes an extensive component devoted to the legal implications of developing media. Media Studies will also provide collaborative opportunities for faculty and students at the Blair School of Music, Divinity School, the Engineering School, and Peabody. Finally, the Program will involve social and natural sciences in projects that can benefit from humanities and arts applications suitable for an interactive medium.

Library and Press

There will be a parallel unit focused on the creation, maintenance, and use of scholarly electronic resources, run jointly by the Library and the Press. The Media Center will cooperate with this unit by facilitating the collaboration of faculty in the production of innovative electronic texts and journal publications.

Office of Media Relations

The one place in the University where digital media is currently being fully exploited is in the Media Relations Office. Michael Schoenfeld, its director, welcomes the opportunity for formal associations with the Digital Media Center. The Media Relations Office will be able to offer internships for expert undergraduates both in its own shop and through sponsorship of those students in the Nashville software community. Media relations is well underway in its plans to produce an online magazine featuring faculty research. Mr. Schoenfeld has embraced the idea of also featuring graduate and undergraduate research. Faculty and students who have conducted research in the Digital Media Center and who take advantage of this outlet would not only be representing the fruits of their research, but conducting research in order to devise the most appropriate and powerful means to represent their research. Digital applications of research are distinguished by a recursive form: digital applications of research alter the very conditions by which research is conducted and the audience which that research can reach.

Teaching Center

The focus of the Media Studies Program will be academic. Its teaching will be content driven: design a research project, the successful realization of which depends on devising a multimedia application and the use of electronic tools. The concern of the Teaching Center is service. It focuses on the process of teaching, how technology can assist any teacher to improve classroom pedagogy. These are complementary goals. The line is there, but it is permeable. Crossings will and should occur. Allison Pingree, the Director of the Teaching Center, has enthusiastically embraced the idea of a Media Studies Program and has offered to use the resources of her organization to build a network for campus wide dissemination of information regarding digital projects.

Conclusion

     There is an important curricular payoff to the introduction of lab courses in the arts and humanities. Working on such projects would provide the kind of intense, hands-on creative experience that is rare for students. Because that experience would be in film and other digital media, it will have special value for those students who aspire to careers in the entertainment and communications internet industries, which have become prominent sectors in today's economy. A program that prepares students of the arts and humanities for success in the world of business while dramatically elevating the quality and creativity of their research into cultural topics has no precedent. We are convinced that such a Media Studies Program would be greeted enthusiastically by outside funding agencies as well as individual donors committed to enhancing Vanderbilt's influence and prestige.

     Considerable free national publicity will attend the creation of this program. More important are the changes that will occur in the classroom, in the lab, and in the study-in the culture of research and teaching at Vanderbilt. Faculty will find new areas of research and creative solutions to old problems. Multiple forms of publication, from formal and peer-reviewed to informal but influential, will arise among researchers. Vanderbilt would have the opportunity to become a preferred publisher for the increasingly electronic scholarship of faculty elsewhere. Innovative coalitions of faculty and students can be expected to form, as the relationship between student and researcher alters: students will have classroom experiences closer to an apprenticeship than to rote learning. Undergraduates who participate will enter either graduate school or the media fields with a competitive advantage. Wholly new opportunities for partnerships and outreach will arise; new academic degree programs may arise as well. In sum, by putting itself in the position to introduce innovations rather than respond to the innovations of others Vanderbilt will become an academic leader in film and other digital media.

MFA Program in Creative Writing and the Integrative Arts

Rationale

     Vanderbilt University has been recognized throughout much of the twentieth century for eminence in creative writing. Despite the fact that the writers who established that reputation are no longer living, an aura remains attached to the University in the area of creative writing and literary achievement. We believe that Vanderbilt's ongoing reputation for excellence in and commitment to creative writing warrants the development of a graduate program in creative writing. Last spring, a call for writers born in the South to come to campus to discuss issues of mutual interest and controversy resulted in the largest literary conference the University has ever sponsored. Seventy writers responded to the call, and traveled to Nashville in return for very modest honoraria and without the opportunity to read from their own work. Repeatedly, writers and attendees spoke of the historic importance of Vanderbilt University in twentieth century literature, and expressed appreciation for what appeared to be the University's reemergence upon the stage of contemporary letters. The event generated an enormous amount of positive publicity for the University as more than 1,500 people attended the events.

     Creative writing programs typically act as generative, corralling forces for cultural activities and artistic energies on college campuses. At institutions where undergraduate creative writing programs exist (as at Vanderbilt where one third of our English majors are enrolled in the creative writing track), there is inevitably a positive "trickle down" effect. Undergraduate creative writers benefit from on site role models who provide models of professionalization and personal encouragement. (Criteria #1 & #9)

     Creative writers, through their readerships, are often the most visible members of English Departments - as were Robert Penn Warren, Allen Tate, and John Crowe Ransom earlier in the century at Vanderbilt, and as is our young colleague, Tony Earley, at this point in time. In this way, creative writing has the potential for generating national publicity for an institution and its programs. Given Vanderbilt's historical identification with writers and writing, it makes sense, we believe, to develop a program that carries the potential we describe. (Criteron #7)

     Just as a community's or a nation's cultural vitality depends upon a dialogue with itself through the original art its people produce, Vanderbilt's stated intention to rise in the rankings from the Top 20 institutions of higher learning in America to the Top 10 requires serious attention to the arts. No major liberal arts university has ever succeeded by ignoring or marginalizing the arts. If we look at our peer institutions - or those institutions we hope to become our peers as we ascend in the rankings - Duke, Northwestern, the Ivy League schools, the University of Virginia, the University of Chicago - we will find that all of them support vibrant communities of faculty and student artists in many genres. For a few examples: Duke University provides a summer home to the American Dance Theatre. Harvard University is home to the Fogg Art Museum. The University of Virginia and Stanford University offer the best and most exciting programs in creative writing in the country. The program we propose has the potential to attract national visibility for our programs in creative writing, the arts, and the humanities overall; to bind our university community closer together through the dialogue encouraged by on campus production and performance of art; and to promote a highly sophisticated image of Vanderbilt University as a top rank institution that is fully committed to the cultural enrichment available through support of the arts. (Criterion #7)

Program Description

     The degree offered: Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and the Integrative Arts.

     This would be an interdisciplinary graduate program of studies in creative writing, housed in the Center for the Creative Arts. The program would report to the Dean of the College of Arts and Science.

Curriculum

     Areas of concentration: Poetry, Fiction, Narrative Non-Fiction, Emerging Genres. Screen writing and Dramatic Writing would also be offered, not initially as concentrations.

     Size of program: We would begin with six to nine students, growing to eighteen to twenty four students. Approximately 75% of the students would receive some level of funding. The remainder would be full tuition-paying enrollees. See attached budget for details.

     Because this M.F.A. would come out of an arts center, rather than a specific academic department, we are proposing a program that not only offers, but requires, students to undertake a substantial amount of collaborative work with an artist or artists working in another genre. Approximately half of the first year's work would be devoted to collaboration, and would result in a first year collaborative project. Also during the first year, each student would be required to take a gateway course, Introduction to Integrative Arts.

     During the second year of study, students would focus on their thesis projects under the direction of a thesis director or directors. The structure of the program we suggest allows students to concentrate in one genre, or to combine genres (under the Emerging Genres option).

     Required courses would include: writing workshop each semester; Introduction to the Integrative Arts (a two-semester, first year course in which students study and work across disciplines that would result in a collaborative writing-based art project). A thesis would also be required for completion of the degree.

     Service Learning: An important (and unique) part of the program would be a required one credit course in community service that the student could fulfill in a variety of ways. Please see Affiliations with other schools and departments, below, for details. This part of our program will help to enhance Vanderbilt's relationship with the Nashville community in education and the arts - "strengthen[ing] Vanderbilt's covenant with the community.' (Prologue to the Criteria.)

     Elective courses would be chosen from offerings in the graduate programs of Vanderbilt University (subject to departmental governance), as well as any other graduate workshops, seminars, or studios offered by the Center for the Creative Arts.

     The advantages of such a degree are many, but perhaps the primary one to consider is its uniqueness. We are unaware of any other M.F.A. program in creative writing that is structured in this manner. The program's location in an arts center not only allows, but actively encourages, collaboration between artists. As such, we consider this a bold proposal that interrogates the relationship between the literary arts and the visual and performing arts, and that explores the aesthetic possibilities available through the utilization of new and emerging media technologies. (Criterion #6)

Directorship

A program director would be appointed from the faculty in creative writing and the integrative arts.

Faculty, existing strengths

From the English Department:

• Professor Mark Jarman (poetry, practical criticism, 20th century British and American poetry)
• Associate Professor Kate Daniels (poetry, practical criticism, 19th and 20th century American poetry, women's studies in poetry)
• Assistant Professor Tony Earley (fiction, narrative non-fiction, practical criticism)
• Assistant Professor in fiction writing currently being hired.
• Visiting Professorship in Creative Writing. This is a regular appointment made every other spring. The genre alternates between poetry, fiction, and narrative non-fiction.

Our current creative writing faculty is firmly committed to participating in the proposed program. (Criterion #5)

Faculty, requested resources

     The creative writing program is interested in and highly desirous of adding a faculty member to its staff through a Target of Opportunity appointment. Funding for this appointment is not included in the Budget.(Criterion #10)

Fellowships in the Collaborative Arts

     We are proposing funding for two pairs of residencies offered to professional artists in different genres who are working together on collaborative projects. Fellows would be offered a stipend, studio space, faculty privileges, and full use of the facilities of the Creative Arts Center. In return, they would teach the first year M.F.A. course, Introduction to the Integrative Arts, deliver a public presentation of their work, and serve as collaborative partners for M.F.A. students working on their integrative arts projects. The addition of resident artists working collaboratively in different genres cannot help but lend an appealing and highly exciting vitality to the arts community at Vanderbilt and in middle Tennessee at large. This is a unique idea that promises to position Vanderbilt among the most visionary institutions of higher learning in its relationship with art and artists. Please see the attached budget for figures.

Other Funding requested

     Please see the attached budget for details of graduate student funding.

     As befits a program of national stature, we are requesting several levels of graduate student funding - from full graduate fellowship to teaching assistantships to tuition grants - in order to encourage the highest level of applicants. In addition, however, we believe that the program we have proposed, and the fact that it is offered by Vanderbilt University, will attract high quality applicants who will be interested in attending the program even without graduate funding. We have envisioned a program that would enroll six to nine non-funded students.

Advantages conferred by the Arts Center Facility

     Almost all of the 85 master of fine arts programs in creative writing in the United States today are administered by and physically located within university English Departments. The unique program we propose - interdisciplinary and located within a specialized arts space that will bring together arts faculty, student and community artists, the annual Fellows in Collaborative Arts, and visiting performers and writers - can only be a strong attraction for any arts faculty Vanderbilt hopes to hire. The physical entity of the arts center and the unique program that will be operated from within it will comprise a major recruiting tool. (Criterion #9

Connections, affiliations with other schools and departments

     The M.F.A. program's unique emphasis on collaborative art enterprise ensures that our program will enjoy strong connections with other parts of the university. The Blair School of Music will be of importance to students who are working in words and music, either through traditional venues like libretto writing, or in more contemporary modes such as performance art. Within the college, M.F.A. students can be expected to work closely with the Drama and Studio Art programs.

     Since a part of the M.F.A. program in creative writing and the integrative arts involves service work, we propose an affiliation with the Department of Cultural Enrichment at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center to bring writing students into the hospital in various scenarios. In addition, the program will encourage creative writing students to volunteer their time in Metro schools, teaching writing workshops and advising school literary publications. For this, we would depend on the guidance of colleagues in Peabody to direct us to particular schools and student populations. Other possibilities for service work and volunteer opportunities include:the Nashville Independent Film Festival; the Frist Center for Contemporary Art; Cheekwood; the Country Music Foundation and Hall of Fame; the Nashville Scene; the art galleries and theatre companies that exist in Nashville.

Vanderbilt Institute
for Research in Popular Music
     In the 1930s, Professor George Pullen Jackson, of Vanderbilt's Department of German, researched, wrote, and published a series of pathbreaking studies on the vernacular music of the American South, books that yet retain monument status. Today, outstanding Vanderbilt faculty in African-American studies, American studies, communication studies, dance, English, folklore, history, music, religion, and sociology continue the tradition with their research, publication, and teaching in popular and vernacular music and culture. Vanderbilt University sits, of course, in close proximity to Music Row, one of the world's great centers for the creation, performance, production, and dissemination of popular music. And within a short distance of the heart of Vanderbilt's campus, there are rich and deep archives and academic programs of high standing devoted to aspects of popular music.

     No institution of higher education in the United States enjoys this special mix of faculty, programs, resources, and geography. No other university is in a better position to become the national and international leader in the study of popular music. This is, thus, a proposal to build upon present strengths and transforming visions and establish a Vanderbilt Institute for Research in Popular Music.

Mission and Definition

The Vanderbilt Institute for Research in Popular Music (VIRPM) will:

• encourage and support pertinent and lively scholarship on all aspects of popular music;
• maintain a forum for dialogue on issues in popular music between scholars, musicians, business leaders, civic leaders, intellectual property specialists, journalists, libraries and archives, students, and the general public;
• continue the ongoing development of a curriculum in popular music studies;
• present lively, interesting, and challenging performances of vernacular and popular music on the Vanderbilt campus.

     VIRPM will embrace a broad definition of what constitutes "popular music." Included are commercial music styles such as, but not limited to, country, rock, rap, blues, easy listening, and gospel. The Institute will also encourage and support research on non-commercial idioms and styles that have shaped and influenced commercial popular music (often forms of folk, or oral tradition, music).¹ VIRPM will support work on all the many facets of the world of popular music, including, but not limited to, production, history, sociology, aesthetic and spiritual qualities, economics, legal aspects, and management structures. The Institute will not discriminate against competing methodologies, perspectives, or theoretical understandings, but intends rather to nurture dialogue between scholars and schools of thought.

     VIRPM will disseminate its findings as widely as possible through traditional scholarly channels, through the mass media, through ongoing relationships with the music business communities in Nashville, and through the formal and informal exchange of ideas on the Vanderbilt campus.

Rationale

     Rigorous scholarly methodologies for the study of popular music have developed over the last two decades. Several disciplines contributed towards this, among them history, sociology, anthropology, communication studies, economics, literary criticism, ethnomusicology, musicology, American studies, religion, law, and business management. During this time new scholarly societies devoted uniquely to the study of popular music formed, primary among them the International Association for the Study of Popular Music. Panels devoted to popular music are no longer uncommon at conferences of the American Studies Association, the Society for American Music, the Society for Ethnomusicology, the American Musicological Society, the Popular Culture Association, and many others. Scores, if not hundreds, of scholarly books and monographs are now published annually; numerous dissertations have been written on popular music topics; and new and vital journals publish the results of new research (e.g., Popular Music, Popular Music and Society, Studies in Popular Culture, Journal of Popular Music Studies, and Research in Popular Music). A rich bibliography of literature is now available and much, much more is on the way. During this time, too, new archives were established to preserve the past and present of popular music, among the most important being the Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.

____________________________
.	1The inclusion of this music under the rubric of "popular music" is in line with current thinking in popular music research that finds ever more problematic the divide between popular music and folk music

     Although the viewpoints and methodologies differ, the reasons for focusing on popular music are uniform: popular music powerfully shapes, reflects, and expresses cultural, social, and political values. In an era of globalization, American popular music-much of it emanating from Nashville-has become the basis for the first truly world music. Indeed, a primary means by which the image of our nation and our values are projected to the rest of the world (for better or for worse) is through our popular music.

     Despite the explosion of popular and scholarly interest, no institutes or centers devoted to research on the whole of popular music have been established in the United States.² In large part this is the result of a "critical mass" problem. Institutions with the scholars and the means to support such a center generally do not have access both to research archives and a vital and dynamic music business community. Since Vanderbilt University does enjoy proximity to special people, rich archives, and "the Third Coast," an opportunity, perhaps unique, exists for it to become the most important national and international forum for engaging work on popular music.

Functions and Responsibilities

     The Institute will support and encourage the study and understanding of popular music in manifold ways.

     A Center for Research and Scholarship

     VIRPM will give scholars the means to conduct research and disseminate the results of their work. Some of the research supported by the Institute will surely be discipline-based (that is, from methodologies developed by historians, literary critics, sociologist, etc.). VIRPM will seek specially to encourage scholarship that is more fundamentally interdisciplinary (that is, work that draws on a range of perspectives and methodologies). Music-making is a complex endeavor that touches on many, many aspects of human experience and understanding; we should not be surprised when vital work on music draws on a range of modes and means to study experience and understand creativity. In fact, to ignore the interlocking discourses of popular music would be to miss some of the richness that such music brings to our lives.

____________________________

.

2The closest model is the Institute for Popular Music at Liverpool University, headed by Professor David Horn, although it is concerned more with traditional disciplinary approaches to popular music (through history and sociology, primarily) and less with the interdisciplinary approach favored by VIRPM. There are a number of archives of popular music, most of which devote their collecting to a genre, style, composer, or period of popular music; in most of these cases the primary mission is the collection and preservation of materials, with research taking a back seat.

     VIRPM will develop a program of research support. The first priority will be to provide the means for Vanderbilt faculty to accomplish worthwhile research programs. A program of rotating research professorships (with limited teaching responsibilities) and faculty research leave stipends (to supplement current faculty leave support) will be implemented. A competitive fellowship program to bring in outside scholars for research residences would also have obvious benefits. Beyond these would be the development of post-doctoral research/teaching fellowships, normally of two years in length.

     A major responsibility of VIRPM will be the identification of and support for large-scale research projects. These could take any of a variety of forms, but they would characteristically be of such scope that no single scholar could hope to complete the project on his or her own without major institutional support. These projects should offer resource or methodological benefit to the wide community of scholars. One such project might lead to the digitalization of important resources in the study of popular music (such as Billboard magazine). Another could concern database formation (e.g., record sales compiled by issue/year/label/artist, or a comprehensive index of published sheet music). Another worthy project would develop analytic tools with widespread application prospects. Yet another approach could lead the Institute to support the establishment of extensive online catalogs of resource materials. Such projects would require the funding of at least two graduate research assistants, who would be based in appropriate disciplinary departments or in interdisciplinary programs but work with and for the Institute. A digitalization project would necessitate the employment of a project technician.

     VIRPM would surely oversee some sort of "publication." Whether this would be a book-based publication series (perhaps in conjunction with Vanderbilt University Press, which already enjoys a joint publishing venture with the Country Music Foundation), a journal, Web-based publication, or whatever, is hard to predict during this time of rapid and fundamental change.

     A Center for Teaching

     The Institute will encourage and support the development of curricular programs in the study of popular music. Even now, an innovative undergraduate minor could be devised from courses offered by several departments in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Blair School of Music. Among current and planned course offerings that are concerned in large part or in whole with popular music issues are:

CMST 241:	"Rhetoric of Mass Media" (Prof. Sloop, Communication Studies)
CMST 242:	"Communication, Culture, and Consciousness" (Prof. Sloop, Communication Studies)
CMST 257:	"Contemporary Rhetorical Theory" (Prof. Sloop, Communication Studies)
CMST 294:	"Rhetoric of Popular Music" (Prof. Sloop, Communication Studies)
DANC 112:	"Dance in American Culture" (Prof. Needham, Blair)
DANC 113:	"Theatrical Dance in America" (Prof. Needham, Blair)
DANC 114:	"Dance Roots: Black Dance in America" (Prof. Needham, Blair)
HIST 277:	"The New South" (Prof. Carlton, History)
HIST 278:	"History of Appalachia" (Prof. Carlton, History)
HIST 279:	"African American History to Reconstruction" (Prof. Dickerson, History)
HIST 280:	"African American History since Reconstruction" (Prof. Dickerson, History)
MUSL 147:	"Music in America" (Prof. Cockrell, Blair)
MUSL 148:	"Survey of Jazz" (Prof. Barz, Blair)
MUSL 149:	"American Popular Music" (Prof. Lowe, Blair)
MUSL 150:	"Music in Latin America and the Caribbean" (Prof. Simonett, Blair)
MUSL 171:	"African Music" (Prof. Barz, Blair)
MUSL 264:	"Exploring the Film Soundtrack" (Prof. Link, Blair)
MUSL 278:	"Music and Religion" (Prof. Barz, Blair)
MUSL 294:	"Music of the South" (Prof. Cockrell, Blair)
MUSL 294:	"Blackface Minstrelsy" (Prof. Cockrell, Blair)
MUSL 294:	"Afro-Pop: Critical Foundations and Contemporary Developments (Prof. Barz, Blair)
MUSL 294:	"Issues in Contemporary Popular Music" [planned] (Prof. Lowe, Blair)
MUSL 2**:	"Rock" [planned] (Prof. Lowe, Blair)
RELI 110W:	"Introduction to Southern Religion and Culture" (Prof. Baldwin, Religious Studies)
RELI 205:	"The Black Church in America" (Prof. Baldwin, Religious Studies)
SOC 115-7:	"Country Music in Societal Context" (Prof. Peterson, Sociology)
SOC 248:	"Popular Culture Dynamics" (Prof. Peterson, Sociology)
SOC 24*:	"Music in Society" [planned] (Prof. Peterson, Sociology)
SOC 258:	"The South in American Culture" (Prof. Griffin, Sociology)
SOC ***:	"Rap and Hip-Hop" [planned] (Prof. Brown [new faculty], Sociology)

     The extent and variety of these holdings suggest that it will not be difficult for the Institute to develop and administer a "Popular Music Studies" program, with an undergraduate major in the subject. At the graduate and professional-school level, Arts and Sciences, Divinity, Owen, and Law will all be encouraged to rethink current programs and develop new ones in the light of opportunities and support provided by VIRPM. Mutually beneficial programs could well be along the lines surveyed in a proposal currently being considered that would establish an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Cultural Studies at Vanderbilt.³ Programs such as this one would undoubtedly draw upon and symbiotically enhance the resources of the Institute.

     New faculty resources to support VIRPM's programs might best be applied toward the professional schools. Dean Syverud of the Law School notes that Vanderbilt law students are interested enough in issues relating to legal issues in popular music and culture that they recently established an "entertainment law journal." Yet only one course is offered through the Law School that is germane to the mission of VIRPM-"Law of Entertainment Industries"-and it is taught by adjunct faculty (although they are highly qualified and richly experienced).⁴ Acting Dean Joe Blackburn admitted that, to his knowledge, no Owen School of Business faculty have research interests that include the music business, although several students have gone on to great success on Music Row.⁵ The Divinity School too might welcome an appointment dedicated to sacred and gospel music.

     Once good working relationships are developed with other programs in the Nashville and Middle Tennessee area (see below, "A Consortium of Resources"), curricular offerings through the Institute might include appropriate courses taught at our sister institutions. A goal of VIRPM would be to develop student intern opportunities with area programs, organizations, and businesses.

____________________________
.	3This proposal, from James Epstein (History), Larry J. Griffin (American and Southern Studies, Sociology, History), and Cecilia Tichi (English) is addressed to the SAPCAS Caucus 4.
.	4E-mail correspondence to Dale Cockrell from Kent Syverud, 27 June 2000.
.	5E-mail correspondence to Dale Cockrell from Joe Blackburn, 3 July 2000.

     A Center for Performance

     Nashville is extraordinarily blessed by its popular and vernacular music venues. And beyond the borders of our city there are yet more worlds of popular music and its performance. A high priority of VIRPM should be the putting into sound that which we study. VIRPM would work closely with the Blair School of Music and the student government concert series committee to present regular and ongoing performances by important musicians and "conversations" with popular music figures.⁶ The musical and cultural life of the Vanderbilt campus and Nashville should be and must be enriched by the presence of the Institute.

     On yet another note, if sufficient space were available, exhibitions on popular music might be arranged for or mounted by the VIRPM. These could be traveling exhibits (such as the Smithsonian's "Wade in the Water" exhibit on African-American Sacred Music, which traveled recently to Chattanooga but not Nashville) or temporary exhibits that draw upon rich and deep local resources.

     A Center for Community Dialogue

     Today, in the experience of many in our community, Music Row sings its separate song, Vanderbilt marches to its own bass drum, and Nashville toots its loud horn. This does not good ensemble make. VIRPM must be a force for joining these players, and having them realize that by working together the results can be sweeter yet. An example. Music "piracy"/"access" on the Internet is an issue of vital concern to Music Row, the city, musicians, scholars, the citizenry, and our students (who have been denied access to certain music download procedures by administrative fiat). Had there been a VIRPM two years ago, it should have sponsored a conference in which industry, artist, and consumer points-of-view were expressed and heard. From that common meeting ground an understanding could/should have followed that would have enabled all parties to work together to their mutual benefit. No such conference took place, of course. Instead, each day the voices of constituency seem to grow shriller, in place of the music of compromise and understanding.

____________________________
.	6The Blair School of Music with fair regularity sponsors on-stage interviews ("Conversations") with local music figures like Amy Grant, Marty Stuart, and songwriter Mike Pierce.

     Another example, yet different: Music City is thought of as, variously, a "songwriting" town, a "recording studio" town, or a "music publishing" town. Yet, quietly, Nashville has become (arguably) the center of the universe that swirls around the most popular musical instrument in the history of the world: the guitar. Some of the finest guitars in the world are built here, many are repaired here, and many, many are sold here (check eBay and be astonished at how many guitars go out from Nashville all over the world). George Gruhn (who has a shop at 4th and Broadway) is the "guitar guru" to the world (and its stars), as well as the author of the most popular book on guitars. Then there are the players and the famous count: "There's thirteen hundred and fifty-two guitar pickers in Nashville." The song "Nashville Cats" probably underestimated the number (but it's certainly true that each one "plays twice as better than I will!")! Yet there's so much we don't know about this ubiquitous instrument. It was a girl's instrument until about a century ago; when did men appropriate it, and why? Why has it enjoyed such transcending popularity over the last century or so? Who actually owns and plays guitars, and where? Beyond these questions (and many more like them), here is a perfect opportunity to showcase and enjoy the finest-and local!-guitar playing in the world. (About "thirteen hundred and fifty-two" concerts should do it!)

     A Consortium of Resources

     Within easy reach of the Vanderbilt University campus are to be found the following music organizations, archives, libraries, programs, and museums devoted to aspects of the popular music world.

• BMI/ASCAP/SESAC; organizations that collect royalties on the behalf of artists, publishers, and other copyright holders.
• Leadership Nashville; a civic/Music Row organization that trains leaders to be sensitive to music issues and develops leaders for the future.
• Country Music Foundation; unparalleled archives in country, gospel, and vernacular music.
• Center for Popular Music, at Middle Tennessee State University; an archive rich in documentation of American music life of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
• Folklore, Folklife, and Oral History Archives at Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green.
• Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville.
• Fisk University collections; especially rich in documentation on African American sacred music.
• The Department of Recording Industry program at Middle Tennessee State University; one of a few such programs in the nation, and the largest at fourteen hundred (!!) majors.
• Music Business program at Belmont University; one-third of all Belmont students (more than six hundred!) major in this program.
• Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum; $50,000,000 worth of museum!

     Then, of course, there is the community we call loosely "Music Row," with its recording and publishing companies, law offices specializing in intellectual property issues, studios and producers, agents and music management specialists, the musicians's union, songwriters, and musicians.

     VIRPM will establish and maintain a working Advisory Board consisting of representatives of the above organizations, supplemented by selected scholars, musicians, and Music Row figures. The primary purpose of the advisory board would be to advise and consult with VIRPM's staff on institutional initiatives. These might range from the establishment of intern programs for our students, to research programs, to conference/symposia topics, to fund-raising, to concert programming and venues, to policy matters, and much more. A secondary purpose would be to provide a forum for "networking" and dialogue. Toward this end, an annual day-long "retreat" would be held, with opportunities for presentations, discussions, and meetings, both formal and informal.

Institute Personnel

• Director. This person should possess a record of accomplishment and a high national reputation. The Director would provide administrative oversight and intellectual leadership.
• Institute Associates. Vanderbilt University already has a critical mass of faculty with special interests in popular music research and issues, scholars who come from a range of disciplines. Many of these already enjoy high national reputations. These scholars working together toward a common goal will inevitably form the Institute's foundation.
• Institute Research Professorship. An appointment to a Vanderbilt faculty to undertake an intensive research project. This appointment would carry a teaching load reduction (generally 1-1) and might be for more than one year.
• Institute Research Fellowship. A national competition leading to a one-year research fellowship at the Institute.
• Post-Doctoral Fellowships. Two of these, each for two years (staggered, so their tenures overlap), carrying a stipend more-or-less equivalent to an assistant professor salary. Each recipient would be expected to teach one course per semester in some aspect of popular music, and conduct a program of research supported by the Institute.
• Graduate Research Assistantships. Large-scale research projects would be identified and undertaken at the Institute. These would require the services of graduate research assistants, likely two of them. Assistantships could benefit students from several graduate and professional programs at Vanderbilt University (e.g., law, Southern Studies, history, English, sociology, business management, religion, cultural studies).
• Faculty-Leave Stipends. One of these, competitively available to Vanderbilt faculty, enabling the recipient to extend a "normal" one-semester leave to two semesters in order to do more intensive research at the Institute.

Physical Plant

     A pleasant, central space should house the offices of the Director, a secretary, the fellowship recipient, the two post-doc fellows, and two graduate assistants. This space should also provide for a critical mass of scholars in close and daily contact; it is especially important that the core Vanderbilt faculty who are "Institute Associates" have a home in the Institute's space. In addition to the seven full-sized offices listed above (about 150 sq/ft each), five-seven small offices (on the order of "research carrels"; 100 sq/ft each) should be assigned to the associates.

     Support facilities (such as project, meeting, lecture, performance, and seminar spaces) need to be available, but might be shared with other University entities. A small reference library would need to be established (with emphasis on small, i.e., no larger than a normal office), which might also include a photocopier. Other physical appurtenances of the modern academic office would be available: computers, Web hookups, telephones, scanners, fax service, etc.

Salaries (see Budget for details)

Director⁷

Research Professorship (half of a typical faculty load)⁸

Research Fellowship⁹

[NB: Budget figures do not include requests for additional faculty, although at least two new positions (perhaps in Law and Business) might be necessary.]

Operating Expenses (see Budget for details)

Special projects (publications, CD production, performances, Website maintenance, symposia, conferences etc.)¹⁰

Travel¹¹

One-Time Startup Expenses (see Budget for details)

____________________________
.	7This twelve-month appointment would be at the senior level, made after a national search. The director position would carry some teaching responsibilities, likely either 1/1 or perhaps 1/0 during the early years of the Institute's establishment. Were a current Vanderbilt faculty member to be appointed as director-certainly a real possibility-this salary line would be 2/3 of a new position line (or, $50,000).
.	8The Research Professor could come from several of the schools within the University. Since salary figures tend to be higher in some schools (e.g., law and business) than in others (Arts and Sciences, Blair, divinity), this figure is a rough average that assumes professorship salary savings in a given year are escrowed to cover professorship salary shortfalls in others.
.	9This figure is roughly competitive with research fellowships in the humanities.
.	10The Institute Associates, who would be at the very heart of the Institute's work, would not require salary support. The Institute should endeavor to provide some travel and development support.
.	11This line supports the travel of the director, fellows, and graduate assistants, but not the Institute Associates. Since much of the scholarship on popular music and its business does not issue from North America, conference attendance often requires international travel.

STUDIO ART TRACK
(submitted by Marilyn Murphy)

We would like to establish a Studio track on the Fine Arts major. The Fine Arts major in Studio would build on the existing minor in Studio art and would parallel similar major requirements in Art History for a total of 36 credit hours in our department in addition to the core requirements of all students in the College of Arts and Science.

Proposed Student Requirements for the Studio Major:

• FA 111 History of Western Art: Renaissance to Modern Art (3 hours)
  
• FA 110 History of Western Art: Ancient and Medieval or FA 200 Asian Art Survey (3 hours)
  
• A Twentieth Century art history course or seminar (3 hours)

Options:

• FA 241 Twentieth Cent. American Art
  
• FA 231 Twentieth Cent. European Art
  
• FA 234 Twentieth Cent. Latin Am. Lit, Film and Art Selected
• FA 294 (Impressionism, Surrealism, Harlem Renaissance, etc.) or FA 232 Modern Architecture
  
  
• FA 103 Introduction to Studio (formerly Design and Color) (3 hours)
  
• FA 102, FA 202 Drawing and Composition or FA 135 Life Drawing (6 hours) Senior Thesis (3 hours)**
  
  
• (15 Hours) of studio electives which must include at least:
  
  
  • One 2-D course (FA 107 Printmaking, or 150 Painting) and
    
  • One 3-D course (FA 160 Sculpture, 161 Assemblage, 165A Ceramics)
    

Senior Exhibition*

*Students graduating with the track in Studio Art would be expected to participate in and to take the responsibility for hanging an exhibit of their best work during their senior year. This show could dovetail nicely with the Hamblet exhibit which is currently held during the Spring semester. The student would also have the option to hold his or her exhibition in an alternative space.

     **The Senior Thesis in studio would be a new course taken during the student's senior year. Possibly team-taught by the Studio faculty, this class would include both the theoretical and practical concerns faced by artists. Slide lectures by the faculty, readings in contemporary theory, and lectures by guest artists and art professionals would be presented as well as professional instruction in how to take slides of artwork, develop a vita, build an exhibition record, the nuances of hanging and lighting an art exhibit and the process of applying to graduate school.

     The Department of Art and Art History sees our studio art component as an excellent tool for many students to enhance or develop a creative approach to problems in any field. Our discipline is also a fine means to find one's voice in an increasingly visual culture.

     To better serve the student demand and to establish the Studio major, we recommend the following:

1. The upgrading of the three-year position for which the art department is conducting a search to a full-time tenure-track position. Because of the tremendous student interest in the subject, our department has received permission to hire an artist who utilizes the computer as a tool for art and who is also well-versed in either printmaking or photography. This young professor would also assist with our foundation classes in drawing and design (Intro to Studio).
   
   
2. A two-year rotating position of any studio discipline. This non-tenure-track junior appointment could teach Life Drawing, additional courses in his or her field and help with the administration of the Hamblet Award and exhibition.
   
   
3. A new facility for the Studio art classes. (See appended description.)
   
   
4. The establishment of small studio spaces for senior art majors.

     Numerous opportunities exist for interdisciplinary (or, at the least, multidisciplinary) courses among the arts, humanities, and social science at Vanderbilt University. To cite merely one example, the Theatre Department, Department of Fine Arts, Department of Psychology, and the Blair School of Music might collaborate on a course in Expressionism, which could include the study of expressionist works and artists, such musical monuments as Arnold Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire" and Alban Berg's "Wozzeck," landmark plays by Georg Kaiser and Ernst Toller, and the artwork of Grosz, Kollwitz, and Kokoschka.

     An exploration of important influences upon the Expressionist Movement might include, in drama, Buchner's Wozzeck and Strindberg's A Dream Play; in painting, Cezanne and Van Gogh; and in music, late-Romantic works and early works of Schoenberg, as well as operas of Richard Strauss. Certainly the psychology of Carl Jung is enormously significant to the movement and happily further extends the possibility in this course for interdisciplinary involvement. Jung's fascination with primitive man would provide an interesting intersection with the visual arts. His interest fueled the period's budding delight in "primitive" art and African sculpture, which influenced the work of painters such as Gaugin.

     Since German Expressionism's influence figures significantly in some of the plays of celebrated American playwright Eugene O'Neill, he too might be included in such a study, perhaps including the staging of a one act. The same influence can be traced to such composers as Roger Sessions and to American expressionist painters such as Pollock and Rothko.

     An O'Neill one-act play could be part of an end of term program which celebrates the early 20th century American response to Expressionism in all of the creative arts. Better yet, in a second semester undergraduates could create their own response in expressionistic experiments of poetry, visual art, musical composition and performance. This extension of the course over a year holds appeal in the time it allows for the study of an artistic movement in the first semester and then an informal and inspired creative response in the second.

     In order to facilitate an idea such as this, factors of implementation would have to be worked out between the collaborating departments and their deans. Release time is a major consideration for those participating professors from small departments in order to ensure that their regular classes were covered with temporary replacements. A place in which to meet the class and work on projects is a major consideration as well since at present there is no place available or suitable for this sort of venture. Ideally an arts center with classrooms, a rehearsal space, and other support/studio space would be ideal.