Martin Wollesen
The internationally acclaimed DeVos Institute of Arts Management announced a series of new initiatives this week after officially relocating to this university Sept. 1.
Michael Kaiser, chairman of the DeVos Institute and professor at this university, said institute officials are planning a series of arts management seminars on the campus this fall, along with introducing a master’s program in arts management in the coming years.
Kaiser said the institute also plans to work with students and faculty to conduct diversity and technology research, specifically with the challenges African-American and Latino art institutions face throughout the country and the ways new technologies affect art institutions.
The institute is part of the arts and humanities college and will work in collaboration with the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, providing training in arts management for those who wish to become leaders in the field.
“This university places a value on entrepreneurialism, and that’s the same ethos we are trying to inspire in arts managers and board members around the country,” said Brett Egan, president of the DeVos Institute and university professor. “So it made a lot of sense for us to partner with a team that encourages and rewards creating at both the student and faculty level.”
Martin Wollesen, executive director of The Clarice, said this partnership with Kaiser, known as the “Turnaround King” to many in the field, will help further develop arts on the campus and in the College Park community.
“I want arts organizations to thrive and survive because the more arts organizations that are here, the more folks participate in the arts. That’s better for The Clarice; that’s better for the students,” Wollesen said.
The DeVos Institute was previously located at the Kennedy Center before moving to College Park, combining the resources of a large research-based university with the institute’s influence in 80 countries. The partnership will help to ensure arts management is not a neglected field, Kaiser said.
“In general, countries tend to invest so much money to train the performers and the writers and the choreographers and so little money to train the people that have to run the organizations that are supporting the arts,” Kaiser said. “We are living in a very challenging environment, and it takes a great deal of sophistication to know how to do the marketing and the fundraising and the board management that makes arts organizations function in a healthy way and that can be learned. “
And students will be able to take advantage of the institute’s international locations with a fellowship program, said Bonnie Thornton Dill, the dean of the arts and humanities college. This will give the college and the university a chance to develop international partnerships, she said.
“Art’s primary role, in my opinion, is to challenge our assumptions about what we believe,” Egan said. “For this reason I think that it’s important we support artists and art institutions in many places around the world that can combat fundamentalist thinking of any kind.”
The DeVos Institute will increase arts management funding in Baltimore and Los Angeles, as well as start a new Baltimore program in February 2015, officials announced.
Although funding for the arts has dropped nationally, Loh said he remains committed to the arts reputation at this university.
“My stated commitment repeatedly is not only to STEM, but it is to STEAM: science, technology, engineering, arts and technology. I think exposure and learning in the arts are essential in the well-rounded education in every university graduate,” Loh said. “I have no doubt that with Michael Kaiser coming in, we will be the No. 1 arts management program in the country.”
