Final candidates competed for founding director with a series of presentations.

For the past two weeks, four finalist candidates for the founding director position of the School of the Arts delivered presentations in front of Binghamton University faculty, administrators and students. Candidates were given an hour to present their credentials, creative practices and plans for the new school as the potential founding director, along with their version of the 21st century university. The presentations were followed by a Q&A where attendees questioned and challenged each candidate’s ideas, and ended with a half-hour opportunity for informal and individual conversation over coffee between faculty and candidates.

A finalist candidate survey was shared after each presentation, where attendees provided feedback on each candidate, to be reviewed and considered by the hiring manager and search committee chairs. Those that have attended presentations are encouraged to complete the surveys by Tuesday, Feb. 21.

Pamela Smart, associate dean for Faculty Affairs and Programmatic Initiatives at Harpur College and associate professor of art history and anthropology, and Dan Davis, associate professor of music, are the co-chairs of the search committee, working with a team to identify “dynamic and qualified candidates.”

According to Smart, the School of the Arts will enhance visibility and recognition of the arts programs offered in the current arts department, and build new transdisciplinary opportunities for students wanting to pursue a career in the arts.

“The proposed School of the Arts will foreground the virtues of the location of the arts within Harpur, affording students the opportunity not only to specialize in professional arts training toward a BFA or BM degree, but alternatively to pursue double majors in which their arts practice will augment their scholarly work and, reciprocally, their training in chemistry or comparative literature, for example, would enrich their creative practice,” Smart wrote in an email. “This initiative, then, responds to the conviction that our already strong arts programs can grow significantly with the institutional support of a school.”

Davis described the candidate selection process as a collaborative effort between representatives across the University and the arts departments. He followed with an analysis of the qualities the committee has searched for in potential candidates.

“The qualifications include but are not limited to a recognized and distinguished record of creative practice with national/international public and professional visibility, evidence of leadership, a track record of successful collaboration across artistic fields and evidence of success in promoting access, equity and inclusion.”

The first finalist candidate to present was Tom Lopez, a professor of compute music and digital arts at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and chair of the Technology in Music and Related Arts Department (TIMARA), who took the stage on Wednesday, Feb.8.

Lopez began his presentation with a review of his previous artistic work. He discussed unity and collaboration throughout the presentation, stressing his goal of communication within the School of the Arts. Lopez listed aspects of being a successful 21st century arts educator, which included expanding recruitment, broadening art mediums, collaborating with artists and funding for the school.

“Each one of these needs to be apart of our work to address this issue of diversity, equity and inclusion,” Lopez said. “It needs to be part of our process as we’re recruiting students. We’re identifying people to recruit. It includes our work supporting alumni. It includes our work with funding, audience members, faculty down the line. So this is just an overarching issue as we think about who’s involved with teaching art.“

The second candidate to present was Amy Deines, the dean of the College of Art and Design at Lesley University. Deines presented on Friday, Feb. 10, where she discussed her past experience in arts education and her plans for the School of Art.

Dienes presented a list of projects and policies she has implemented for multiple institutions, which included the development of a new general education curriculum that received a Davis Foundation grant, the launch of visual effects and game design programs and the institution of policies supporting BIPOC artists and diversity hiring practices.

Along with her initiatives, Dienes has helped in increasing art school enrollment and reach. When Dienes was the Founder and Executive Director of the Detroit Center for Design and Technology, she raised over $2 million in capital and dollars to support the center.

“What I do in terms of my leadership style, especially with this type of new position is to really take time to understand what is existing within our portfolio,” Dienes said. “When I say portfolio, I mean all of the programs. I do think there is a benefit of someone coming in with a fresh set of eyes to find out where those intersections happen. I’m really interested in being effective and efficient with the things that we do well and understanding where those synergies are.”

The third presentation took place on Wednesday, Feb. 15 at, where Christopher Robins, director of the School of Art+Design at SUNY Purchase College, shared his artistic projects and how he will utilize them in leading the new School of the Arts.

Robins’ career includes domestic and international work in art and academics, fundraising, nonprofits and corporate. Robins also worked at the Rhode Island School of Design and University of the South Pacific: Fiji and has fundraised for the U.S. State Department, United Nations, Creative Capital and other institutions. One of Robbins’ projects was his co-founding of the Ghana ThinkTank, an international art collaboration in which a network of think tanks in countries including Cuba, Ghana, Iran and Mexico solve problems. His work was recognized by the Venice Biennial of Architecture, National Museum of Wales, Hong Kong/Shenzhen Biennale and ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art.

Robbins’ presented the importance of business education for arts students, along with multiple other pointers.

“And then there’s business and entrepreneurial experience,” Robbins said. “For instance in my professional practice classes, I teach students how to form their own LLCs, to have a layer of protection when work is getting a bit risky and also show them how to get fiscal sponsors. They can start applying for larger grants and we draw holistic plans for graduation that encompass the business model, lifestyle, location. I remember Creative Capital said to me, ‘artists are permitted to have mortgages too,’ and it’s an important thing to start instilling early. We’re allowed to plan for the future.”

The final candidate to present was Timothy Nohe, artist, composer and tenured professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, who discussed his credentials and plans on Friday, Jan. 17.

Nohe’s art focuses on traditional and electronic media in civic life and public places, and has been recognized nationally and internationally by venues that include the Louvre Museum, the Danish Institute of Electro-Acoustic Music, Museu da Imagem e do Som and the Centre for Contemporary Arts. He is also a leader in residence for the Mellon Foundation funded MOLD program, where he mentors rising faculty of color and women at UMBC and the University of Maryland, Morgan State University. He is the recipient of a 2006 Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, five Maryland State Arts Council Awards and numerous commissions.

Nohe discussed the importance oof internal and external resources. Nohe focused on one of his projects, where he took his students to a grant-funded space open to the community of Baltimore, and drew conclusions on the implications of working with community organizations.

”And so there is a creative kind of ferment taking place thats being magnetized by artists in that neighborhood,” Nohe’s said. “We are encountering dispossession and being forced out of some warehouses to roll those over as workspaces for commuters to be close rail line, and so artists need to sort of put a stick in the ground, be full members of the community. We heart community organizations and being a part of these ad hoc places that are popping up for their stability. I can open that door and that flow between my campus and these community-based organizations because I’ve done the work with listening and connecting those organizations together.”

A final decision will based upon insight from various members of the BU community, Davis said.

“In this process, the committee is dedicated to hearing many voices across campus and beyond — faculty across departments, undergraduate and graduate students, academic leadership, staff, alumni and more,” Davis wrote. “Personally speaking, I’ve been particularly inspired by the level of student participation in the process — as evidenced by the large number of students from across the Arts who have repeatedly gathered together to discuss their ideas for the school.”

Patrick Saint Ange, a theatre department undergraduate representative for two years and a senior double majoring in sociology and English, has been attending the presentations and participating in the selection process. Saint Ange said he thinks the best candidate will be able to effectively unify the art departments as the founding director.

“I believe the best candidate is one who is personable and able [to] communicate effectively between departments,” Saint Ange wrote. “The Music, Theatre and Art departments rarely work together and could create incredible projects and learning opportunities for students if they did. The best candidate will be one who is able to organize and unify the art departments to create something great and uniquely [BU].”