Education Matters

Connecting the Arts and Humanities at New College and Beyond
By Ryan G. Van Cleave

As the State University System of Florida’s legislatively-designated honors college, New College of Florida is the only public college or university in the entire state that has the sole mission of providing the highest caliber of education to top students from around the country. Now New College is becoming known for something equally impressive—being at the center of the creative hub that is our community.

Thanks to a five-year, $750,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, they’ve launched New College: Connecting the Arts and Humanities on Florida’s Creative Coast, an initiative to foster a deeper understanding of the arts and humanities through new programs at New College and partnerships with local arts organizations. This is both an expansion of existing programs as well as the creation of new ones, including a series of open seminars given by renowned scholars and experts.

“New College was attractive to the Mellon Foundation,” explains New College Provost Barbara Feldman. “We are an excellent public liberal arts college, Sarasota is in an arts-rich community, and we had just launched our collaboration with the Cross-College Alliance,” which is the five-institution educational partnership of The Ringling, State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota, University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, Ringling College of Art and Design, and New College.

The initiative—now in its third year of Mellon support—is run by Kim Anderson, Associate Professor of Art at New College. “This grant has put us in a good position to connect with partnering institutions that share a core commitment to the arts and humanities,” she says. “Though the huge number of local educational and arts organizations share many goals, in practice, it’s much easier to look inward and work with what you have than work outward and find ways to be collaborative. Our initiative is proving invaluable in terms of helping us break out of our silos.”

One of those partnerships is with the Ringling Museum, where they’ve often had curators come teach classes for New College. This spring, though, New College art history faculty will bring in University of Florida Professor Melissa Hyde to deliver a public talk at The Ringling about her efforts to make the 18th century art world come to life. Students hearing talks like that will be able to apply that knowledge directly to their coursework, and since the community is invited, the reach of events such as this is magnified.

Anderson is especially excited about the Asian Film and Talk series, made possible by the Mellon Foundation, Ringling Museum, Ringling College of Art and Design, and the Elling Eide Center. “I’ve seen the trailers for these and it’s clear—these are life-changing films. One film that deals with air pollution has been banned in China, so having it here brings up the issues of censorship and documentary content. When we screen a film, it’s not just about watching the film—we bring in local experts who can facilitate useful conversations about the films themselves and the issues connected to them.”

Performance artist Kuniko Yamamoto teaches New College students how to incorporate origami, masks and movement into theatrical presentations.

New College Professor of English and Theater Nova Myhill served as co-director for the Mellon-supported initiative for its first two years. About that experience, she notes that it “definitely made me more aware of how relatively easy it is to make connections between our students and some of the local arts organizations. For example, I was able to regularly bring some of the Asolo Rep production team to campus to speak with my theater students. “Doing so gets the students to think about a performance not as a finished magical thing that exists, but rather as something that’s made by people. It gives the students new ways to think about the kind of theater work they might do.”

Some of the highlights of the coming year include a robust set of offerings for Black History month, and at least one Game Jam—a game-making workshop taught by Ringling College of Art and Design professor Rick Dakan, where participants learn an online-game development program called Twine. Plus there’s a series of seminar-style campus conversations where New College faculty present on elements of their teaching and research. The January campus conversation will center on collaboration. Associate Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies Emily Saarinen has been bringing art students in her lab to do insect illustrations, and she’ll talk about that process and share what the students are getting out of it.

Ultimately, Anderson hopes that the Mellon-funded efforts to get the word out about the bounty of arts and humanities offerings will create a stronger sense of impact on their campus and throughout the community. Myhill adds that “we really want to make sure that members of the community have the chance to benefit from the kind of work that we’re doing and presenting here.” One other key point—the Mellon support was intended to help establish and foster creative relationships. The hope is that these will remain in place long after the five-year Mellon support period is completed. “The real goal here,” Myhill says, “is to find new ways for us all to benefit, from the institutions to the general public. That’s the important thing.”

Provost Feldman sums it up, saying that “this initiative connects our college with institutions across the Sarasota area to provide an opportunity for everyone in the community to enjoy the beauty, creativity, and ingenuity that arts and humanities bring to our lives.”

For the current schedule of events for New College: Connecting the Arts and Humanities on Florida’s Creative Coast, please visit: ncf.edu/connecting-arts-humanities.

Ryan G. Van Cleave is the author of 20 books, and he runs the creative writing program at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. Web: ryangvancleave.com