Stephen Knapp, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, has created two appointments within the Arts, which he called in a statement "critical to the cultural life of the university." The new positions -- Vice Provost for the Arts and Associate Vice Provost for the Arts -- will be filled by Winston Tabb and Eileen Soskin respectively. The two were selected based on their extensive experience in and enthusiasm for the arts.
Winston Tabb, who currently serves as dean of university libraries, and Eileen Soskin, the associate dean for academic affairs at the Peabody Conservatory, were both members of the Homewood Arts Task Force, a group which discussed the role of the Arts at Hopkins in the 2004-2005 academic year. The positions of Vice Provost and Associate Vice Provost were created following the advisory group's conclusion that supporters of the arts on Homewood campus required better coordination in order to more strongly advocate the role of the arts in both curricular and extracurricular settings. Working through their new positions, Tabb and Soskin are hoping to implement changes parallel to the suggestions given by the Homewood Arts Task Force and will consider the formation of an Arts Coordination Council in order to better organize the Arts at Homewood.
Like the majority of advocates on campus, Tabb and Soskin seek to implement, within the arts, a series of objectives and policies to better centralize the activities on Homewood Campus and help push them forward -- a challenge that the university has long faced, as the majority of interest has long focused on the sciences rather than the humanities. The forward development of arts has many benefits, like the broadening of intellectual pursuits.
"The arts are alive and well at Home wood but credit and co-curricular offerings are not centrally funded. Dean Tabb and I hope to encourage more arts activities and, most importantly, arrange a comprehensive set of goals, policies and oversight. Too many aspects of arts activities on the Homewood campus are orphans in that they do not belong to any one department or division," said Soskin.
This "manifesto" of sorts would join previous developments in Hopkins' arts scene, including the establishment of the Mattin Center and the rise of the acting program under John Astin.
Knapp and Soskin assert that the Hopkins community will be positively affected by the creation of the positions through the resulting curricular opportunities for students and more efficient fund appropriation. Along with increasing collaborative efforts with the Peabody Conservatory, those involved in the arts at Homewood are seeking to increase cooperation with other local artistic institutions, such as the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Walters Art Museum, the Maryland Institute College of Art and others.
Knapp, Tabb and Soskin emphasize that the various arts programs will coalesce in the years to come in order to create a strong foundation for the creation of new activities and collaborations.
"Arts activities should be imbedded in the rigorous academic milieu that Johns Hopkins University embodies. The reputation of Johns Hopkins University as a pre-eminent institution for the study of the humanities and the arts must be established. Although it takes time for reality to catch up with perception, we are already on the path to ensuring that our undergraduates can choose a wide variety of educational experiences of the highest caliber," Soskin explained.
Winston Tabb was out of town and unavailable for comment.
Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The News-Letter.