The Homewood Arts Program is offering an Arts Certificate for students who display a serious commitment to the visual and performing arts, beginning with the class of 2004.
The five areas in which courses can be taken for credit towards a certificate are: Dance, Digital Media, Fine/Visual Arts, Music and Theater. Though students can specialize within one these areas, it is not necessary.
"[The idea] came from several students, including Tara Feehan of Student Council, who came to see me about it this fall," said Eric Beatty, director of the Homewood Arts Program (HAP). "Their idea was to install a program for students who had been doing a lot with the arts."
After the idea was approved, Beatty and a board of five students representing Student Council and the arts met once every other week for two hours at a time to discuss possible criteria for the program and ways to implement it.
According to the information distributed regarding the program, in order to gain a certificate, one must take a minimum of "three academic courses in the area, three semester long extra-curricular projects or activities in the area, either two additional courses or two additional extra-curricular projects or one additional of each," plus a final project.
For the final project, each student will also need a staff or faculty sponsor who will act as their advisor. Students should apply to the program by Feb. 15 of the spring semester of their junior year, after which the Arts Certificate Committee will review the application and respond within a month.
Sitting on the board are the director and technical directors of HAP, five staff or faculty members (one in each of the five areas) and five students, including the performing arts liaison to Student Activities Commission (SAC), StuCo Secretary/Treasurer Tara Feehan and three at-large students from arts groups.
In the academic courses required for the certificate, one must receive a grade of "B" or above in order to have the course count toward the program.
Any courses taken at another college or university must be cleared with the director of HAP before it begins. However, students who are majors or minors in the Department of History of Art may not use the same courses for fulfillment of a degree and the Arts Certificate, nor may Peabody double degree or minor students apply for a Certificate in the same field they are studying.
The guidelines for the program define extra-curricular activity as "roughly a semester-long involvement with a campus arts group or other arts-related activity."
Therefore, any of the student dance or vocal groups, as well as workshops in the Digital Media Center, work on publications and internships can count towards this requirement.
This program is available to current seniors as well, with similar requirements to the official program.
Seniors must apply for the certificate before March 1, 2003. Though not a minor itself, the program is going to be similar to arts minor programs at other universities.
"Eventually there may be minors available in these areas but at the moment this is a non-academic program," said Beatty.
