State of the Arts: Bigger and better

Hidden beneath its pristine white lab coat, Hopkins has a vibrant art community that's busy mucking around, getting its hands dirty, and generally causing a ruckus. And now more than ever, arts are breaking out of the hushed background and bursting onto the daily scene of campus life.

This academic year saw a lot of landmark events that emphasize the progress that the arts have made at this predominantly research-oriented school. A music minor and drama minor were introduced to the registrar's offerings and the Homewood Art Workshops celebrated their 30th anniversary marked by the first faculty art show this campus has ever seen.

Students have contributed greatly to the burgeoning Hopkins arts community as well. More and more, the admissions committee says it finds itself turning away valedictorians and perfect SAT scores from Hopkins campus. The difference has been noticeable: today Hopkins students aren't the awkward bookworms focused solely on making the grade that they used to be. They are - dare I say it - well rounded.

Take for example the recipients of this year's annual Louis Sudler Prize for the Arts, awarded to a senior who has demonstrated a proficient extracurricular interest in the arts. The awards committee had such a hard time choosing that the honor was bestowed upon two seniors, one a premed majoring in East Asian studies and the other a Biomedical Engineering major. In another arena of academic prestige, a psychology major and graduating Woodrow Wilson Scholar spent her $10,000 not on researching synapses or frontal lobes but on exploring her passion for graphic design.

In other student arts news, a Hip-Hop Society was formed, Trojka - a grad student run film series was revived, students who had never acted before produced a play in their free time, and it seemed like everywhere you looked there was a poster for a new dance group or cultural association. And of course longtime student groups like Witness Theatre, the Buttered Niblets, and the student run JHU Film Fest had terrific seasons.

Not that they do it all alone. There are a lot of great opportunities to be involved in the arts thanks to the Mattin Center facility and programs like the Mattin Art Munch which features an arts speaker once a month, the Shriver Concert Series, the Wednesday Noon Series, and the Writing Seminars guest reading series. And art is never far from our fingertips with the Evergreen House just down Charles St and the Baltimore Museum of Art right next door.

Students wishing to get involved in the arts on campus and around Baltimore can pick up free copies of local papers around campus, including the City Paper, and the Baltimore Sun, delivered daily to Wolman and Terrace. Radar, a free new arts magazine can be found at Eddie's or http://www.radarreview.org.

There are several mailing lists to join for weekly events calendars around town, including the Mission Media mailing list at http://www.missionmedia.net/space/mailing.cfm, the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance list at: www.baltimoreculture.org/, the Creative Alliance mailing list at http://www.creativealliance.org/, and the Atomic Books list at http://www.atomicbooks.com.