Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
August 11, 2025
August 11, 2025 | Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896

By now, most students may have seen them around campus: a papering of flyers with a spotted cartoon cow and the words "GOT ART?" scrawled across the top. This year, a new class of Hopkins juniors had the chance to answer that question and prove that yes, we do make art at Hopkins.

This marks the third year of the Homewood Arts Programs Certificate, an honor that recognizes graduating seniors who have made a significant contribution to the arts at Hopkins. Four years ago, two students approached Eric Beatty, director of Homewood Arts Programs, with a single vision.

"They wanted to create a structure to acknowledge and reward the seniors who had contributed so much to the arts on campus," Beatty said.

In response to the students' demands, and to the interest of others who were actively involved in the arts at Hopkins, Beatty formed a 10-person committee of staff and students to find a way to make their vision a reality. It took another six months of discussion, but by 2003, the Homewood Arts Programs Certificate - awarded in the areas of dance, music, theater, digital media and the visual or fine arts - was first offered to Hopkins juniors and seniors.

Three years may not seem like a long time, but to the people most closely involved in seeing art thrive at Hopkins, the progress that has been made in that short amount of time is inspiring. Although Beatty's department is non-academic, he is supportive of both the academic and non-academic aspects of the arts at Hopkins.

"Everything in the spirit of collaboration," Beatty said.

In the past few years, Hopkins academic arts courses have expanded from about five a semester to 12, including painting, drawing, photography and 3-D design. Also, in 2001 the school built the Mattin Center, a $17 million, 53,000-square-foot complex that provides student-artists and performers a space of their own.

The Mattin Center replaced Hopkins' previous arts facility: a single studio in Merryman Hall, a building which was demolished in June 2001.

"I think [the Mattin Center] was created to provide a home for the arts," said Beatty, whose position at Hopkins was created five years ago when they built the Center.

The Arts Certificate awards students for their involvement, influence and leadership in Arts groups on campus. Requirements for the Certificate include four to six semesters worth of co-curricular activities - that's any activity that doesn't award credit, like a cappella groups, Witness Theater or Barnstormers productions, or campus dance teams like the Lady Birds. Most importantly, according to Beatty, the student must complete an original final project their senior year.

"Basically, the student agrees to do something above and beyond what they would normally do."

This semester, Robin Gannek, a Hopkins senior, is directing a one-act play called Art by Yasmina Reza, to be performed Mar. 5 and 6 at the Arellano Theater.

"Besides Eric [Beatty], who is sponsoring the production, no other faculty or staff is working on the show," Gannek said. "I anticipate having a more extensive student staff, but I'm not sure who it will be comprised of. My cast is made up of the dynamic trio of Angelo Santiago, Max Sindell and Ben Kingsland."

According to Gannek, it isn't always easy to pursue both academic and artistic interests at JHU.

"It's difficult to find space to house a production in an already relatively satiated campus. And there are not infinite numbers of people there to help you pull everything together. It's hard to be a student pursuing a career in the arts when there are very few classes offered," she said.

"I don't want to come off sounding harsh on the arts at Hopkins," she says. "I've had an unbelievable number of opportunities to try my hand at all sorts of things."

Gannek is also directing The Laramie Project, the Barnstormers intersession show, this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 8 p.m. in the Arellano Theater.

Yet the Arts Program Certificate does not actually appear on student transcripts or translate into university credit. As Hopkins now offers a minor in music, and last year it first offered a minor in theater through the Writing Seminars department, does that mean an arts minor, or even major, will follow?

"Theater courses have really developed in the past four years or so since [Writing Seminars professor] John Astin has been here," Beatty said.

As for a union between the Arts Certificate and these new concentrations? "I think that's a question to hold for a while," he said. "It's a very interesting idea. We have to be careful to collaborate and communicate as we develop both the academic and non-academic."

And new developments are underway. Besides sending out campus-wide e-mails, contacting student groups and papering the campus with the "Got Art?" flyers, the school also created the Homewood Arts Task Force. They discuss a range of topics, from shows to academic programs, to even the possibility of renovating Shriver Hall into an up-to-date Performing Arts space. Beatty also hopes to start a theater consortium of representatives from student theater groups and the academic theater program.

Otherwise, Beatty does not necessarily feel that the Homewood Arts Program Certificate needs to expand. "I think that most people who it is appropriate for know about it."

And there are some people who could have received the Certificate but did not apply. Loren Dunn graduated in May with a Writing Seminars major and now teaches Hopkins acting classes.

"I actually didn't receive the Homewood Arts Certificate," he said. "But I think it's great that there have been a number of theatrical productions produced under the auspices of the program. Anything that brings more art to our campus is a good thing."

Whatever the exact future of the Arts at Hopkins entails, the development of the Homewood Arts Certificate establishes the school as a place where students know how to wield not only a scalpel or a TI-83 but, occasionally, a paintbrush as well.


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