The leftovers of most anniversary parties include deflated balloons, leftover pieces of cake, empty bottles of champagne and a few lipstick-stained napkins left haphazardly on the dinning room table. However, the remnants of Carleton University’s School for Studies in Arts and Culture’s 20th anniversary are more philosophical than your typical celebration.
As the May 13 celebration drew to a close, the dean of the school, Brian Foss said it has been a time to not only focus on past achievements, but the future of the school.
In 1991, the art history, film studies and music departments joined together to make up the School for Studies in Art and Culture.
“The 20th anniversary provides a nice impetuous to take the original purpose of founding the school and give it a kick start,” he said. “It’s a milestone in Carleton’s interest in interdisciplinary studies.”
Carleton University Art Gallery curator Sandra Dyck said the founding strengthened the existent relationships between departments and and their collective voice.
Foss said because the departments were relatively small when they joined together to found the school, they were able to gain more visibility, build connections and promote interaction between departments and the university as a whole.
Juno-award winning jazz-singer Kellylee Evans is a law and English literature graduate but said her interaction with the music department opened her eyes to the joys of performing.
She performed at the reception.
“I feel like they really inspired me to be different and to make different sounds and choices in my musicality,” she said. “They embraced the ‘me’ in ‘ME’. It means that I am more of an individual, more of an artist after my time at Carleton.”
Evans said she didn’t even know about the school until she wondered on to the 9th floor of the Loeb building where the music department is located. Shortly after, Evans joined the department’s jazz and choir groups. The rest is Juno-history.
The anniversary is not all about celebration, but a time to reflect on what needs to change in the school.
While Evans interacted with students in the music department despite not being part of the program, Christine Sirois, a fourth-year film student and former president of the film society, said students in the different departments don’t mingle that often.
“Even if the class before yours is filled with art history kids, you don’t talk to them. They’re filing out and you filing in,” she said.
Currently the school offers some overlap between the three separate programs. Instructors from each of the school’s units give guest lectures and serve as external master’s thesis examiners, Foss said.
“There is a need for departments to talk to other departments, to work with other departments, to rethink their assumptions and beliefs by taking into account other department’s beliefs and skills,” said Foss. “This is the way of the future. No doubt about it.”
As the figurative hangover from the anniversary begins to wear off, the school is looking to the future.
This anniversary gives the school the clout to revive more interdisciplinary undertakings, including the revival of a curatorial studies diploma, Foss said.
Whatever the future may hold, Evans said she wants the school to keep to its roots.
“I want them to remain welcoming of difference. That’s the thing that will continue to enrich our artistic community.”
