PLAN 2010 for College of Visual and Performing Arts

The mission of the College of Visual and Performing Arts is to advance the study, creation, performance, and exhibition of the arts, acting on a strong belief in their transformative influence on individuals and civilizations. To fulfill this mission CVPA
offers degree programs in Art and Visual Technology, Dance, Music, Theater, and Arts Management; and, through the Center for the Arts and Theater of the First Amendment, brings the professional voice of the arts to the campus and community.

CVPA honors the value of the great traditions in the arts while actively engaging in the creation of new works and ideas. These fusions of the academic and the professional, the campus and the community, the past and the present define the College as it moves forward from its founding in 2001 into a decade of growth and discovery.

CVPA's story for the past several years has been captured in a single word: growth. For the balance of the decade, growth will continue to describe the College's primary fact of life, but the concept will broaden to include new facilities, programs, faculty, and national recognition of GMU's increasingly well-founded ambition to join the upper echelon of University arts programs. The basis for this ambition is an expansion of the College’s innovative degree programs along with the unique blend of professional activity and community service that has made the arts at Mason such a compelling theme in discussions of the future of each of the University's campuses and the environments that surround them. The synergies of “Arts at Mason” have already attracted national attention and we expect that by 2010, with careful attention to managing growth, quality, and storytelling (which is, after all, one of our core enterprises) George Mason University will be among a handful of institutions leading the field.

Over the course of the next 7 years, the College of Visual and Performing Arts has the potential to double enrollment from 1,120 students to 2,270. While this growth is consistent with historic trends, and in line with both the marketplace and the college’s artistic and educational capacity, it is based upon a set of assumptions and presents a challenge for staging its outcome.

Facilities
The 2010 plan is predicated in part on the impact of Academic V, which will nearly triple the available classroom space for Art and Visual Technology, the College’s fastest growing unit. The plan also assumes two significant additional spaces – a renovation and expansion of the performing and fine arts buildings at the Fairfax campus, and the Prince William performing arts center with its 1,100 seat music/opera hall and 300 seat teaching theater, supported by rehearsal rooms and shops.

The academic programs face shortfalls in teaching space (traditional classrooms, studios, rehearsal spaces, and technology labs), performance space (theaters, recital halls, galleries) and support spaces (shops, student support areas, storage). Academic V, dedicated primarily to the burgeoning programs of AVT, has emerged as a key piece--but not the only piece--in a facilities plan that embraces expanding Music, Dance, and Theater capabilities in an innovative combination of renovation (primarily in the Fine Arts and Performing Arts buildings and Harris Theatre) and additions to Performing Arts. CVPA views this comprehensive facilities embrace of all four departments as the highest priority on its agenda for the next several years. Not only do the degree programs and general education population demand it, but significant growth in summer arts programs on all levels-- from the beginner to the professional-- has already begun and has attracted substantial philanthropic interest which may find additional expression in bricks and mortar.

The College's professional presenting and producing elements--which have contributed so much to GMU's regional and national reputation as an arts leader--also face challenges and opportunities. Theater of the First Amendment's long-term viability hinges on the discovery or creation of a 350-400 seat theater in a visible location; such a venue could be created in partnership with other civic or University interests and would be a shared asset. The AVT Gallery program and CAS have begun exploring a collaborative effort toward the creation of a museum/gallery to house rotating exhibitions and works from a growing permanent collection. The Concert Hall is ripe for some interior modifications toward better acoustics and a more aesthetically satisfying appearance; the same can be said for Harris Theater, our busiest performance venue, hosting nearly 200 student music, dance, and theater performances annually.

In Prince William, plans for a new Performing Arts Center are emerging in response to grass-roots community interest. GMU will provide management expertise for the planning and operation of the facility, and CVPA will discover many channels by which the center will enhance its teaching mission, perhaps with a special focus on the preparatory and community-school areas.

In Arlington, a similar confluence of community, University, and business interests is working together to create a small black-box civic theater in Virginia Square, which CVPA will help administer.

Programs
This table provides a snapshot of projected growth in majors in the various CVPA academic programs, including degree-seeking graduate students:

Notes:
*2007 and 2008 growth reflects greater capacity created by the opening of new teaching facilities in Academic V and associated renovations in Performing Arts, Fine Arts, and College Hall.
**growth in MUSI in 2004-05-06 reflects greater capacity created in the initial phase of renovations/additions to Performing Arts.

We assume continued recruiting efforts by the departments and the Admissions office to yield sustained success in attracting out-of-state students. FTES growth rate will approximately track, but slightly lag, the major headcounts. Projecting CVPA’s historical 10% growth from adjusted targets for AY 2005 (975 UG, 75 grad) yields an AY 2010 FTE of 1690; we are projecting an acceleration of growth after the new facilities open and new programs come online, so that AY 2010 will yield
approximately 2030 FTES. This number will of course be influenced strongly by the overall growth strategy that the University adopts, as reflected in the general education population.

Clearly, the full realization of CVPA growth cannot occur until the buildings are built, but several strategies are available to sustain enrollment growth at the levels indicated above while we work through the building campaign:
1. An expansion of practice facilities for music (funded by the DeLaski grant and by one-time Provost support) will allow steady growth in Music, and exponential growth in summer youth camps (Potomac Academy). The importance of the Academy is in recruiting ever-increasing numbers of high school students nationally and internationally who will fuel enrollment growth in music going forward.
2. New programs are imminent or on the horizon in AVT (an Arts Education/Licensure Minor, rolling out in 2004F can be partially--if not fully--housed in public school spaces); the Masters of Arts Management program, enrolling its first students in fall, 2004; Theater (a program leading to teacher licensure and an M.F.A. offered in collaboration with Theater of the First
Amendment, GMU's award-winning professional theater); Music (Performer's Certificates for post-graduate study), and Dance (teacher licensure). Recent discussions have revealed potential dual-degree programs leading to a Master of Arts Management and an MBA, JD, or PhD in Public Policy, creating a powerful nexus of education and training that would enable graduates to
compete for high-level leadership positions in major arts institutions.
3. Maximize enrollment management for each of the four departments with a “TQM” strategy (filling available seats, stretching core capacity, etc.). Tightening the discipline around current activity is warranted.
4. Continue to press out-of-state and international recruitment - invest, through Admissions and with internal resources, in a sustained advertising, marketing and recruitment effort.
5. Maximize volunteer networks and guest artist relationships for internships, advisory boards, etc (Kennedy Center, Wolftrap, Lincoln Center) and engage the College’s ever-growing K-12 teaching alums for recruitment.

Collaborations with the Graduate School of Education around the prospective lab school on the Prince William campus and the relocated Thomas Jefferson High School on the Fairfax campus will provide unique opportunities for CVPA to shape arts-based curricula, participate in teaching internships, and serve a community of younger learners. These collaborations will greatly enhance CVPA's licensure programs as well as enriching the cultural vitality of the new schools.

While the University of Maryland, VCU and Peabody are ahead of Mason in national profile and capacity, with Academic V, Performing/Fine Arts renovations, and the Prince William facilities, Mason will have the tools to compete with these institutions, and realistically to surpass them in every measure. The unique combination of elements – distributed campus strategy, regional arts dominance through the concert hall and PW facility, integrated disciplines, and larger relationship to the University’s strategies and practices – makes the Arts at Mason one of best positioned University based programs of the last century and the next.

Summer and Weekend Programs
Summer activities such as the Potomac Music Academy, which debuted in 2003, will grow to embrace other art forms and within three to five years will create a Festival of artistic and intellectual substance featuring new works, classics, and diverse educational opportunities for students at all levels, including lifelong learners. Recruitment of the best students, both undergraduate and graduate, is a happy by-product of this sort of activity. Weekend-college activities at all three campuses will grow to include community-based courses and performance opportunities, as well as opportunities for non-traditional degree seeking students to find are-entry point to their educational journies.

What FTE misses
Other sets of numbers also describe and drive CVPA's activity, including the nearly 20,000 students who take advantage of the free student ticket policy annually; the 100,000 patrons who attend the Center for the Arts each year, including Great
Performance at Mason, the Center's signature presenting series (which includes the 59 highly successful partnership with Virginia Opera), a rich variety of student ensembles, and performances by community arts partners such as the Fairfax Symphony, Fairfax Choral Society, American Youth Philharmonic, Washington Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and others.
CVPA recognizes the need for substantial philanthropic support of these endeavors, and accordingly has assembled a volunteer structure that is increasingly involved with both the development of the strategic plan (via a dedicated board committee) and the
fundraising necessary to activate it. Early results are encouraging both in actual dollars raised and in expressions of interest in long-range investment in the institution.

Faculty
CVPA will seek to hire 35 new FT faculty in response both to simple numerical growth pressure and to structural needs within the departments. Happily, in most cases these two objectives can be met by the same strategic hiring process. The next phase of faculty hiring will focus on: diversity, discovering an appropriate blend of mid-career and senior professionals along with junior faculty, and maintaining a workable balance of FT and PT instruction. Diversity in the visual and performing arts is a fact of professional life, and we anticipate steady progress in minority faculty hiring. One area in which this is not yet true is the arts management field, and we propose to take an active stance on this issue through graduate student recruitment, as we begin to train future generations of arts management leaders. The table below captures the raw numbers, interpolating midcourse
growth objectives for 2007.

Detail of Faculty Growth
• In AVT, 13 new FT faculty will support robust growth projected in: Digital Arts (4), Graphic Design (3), Photography (1), Arts Education (2), and Studio Arts (3). AVT will also require continued proportional growth in PT pool.
• In Dance, 1 additional FT faculty and a permanent (FT) Visiting Artist line will enable the department to meet its growth projections while continuing to serve more than 4,000 general education students annually.
• In Music, 14 FT faculty will solidify the ranks of the performance studios in voice (3), opera production (1) instrumental (6), and provide additional strength in music education (3) and history/musicology (1).
• In Theater, 4 FT faculty will add resident capability in scene design (1), addressing a major gap in the roster, as well as augmenting the ranks of the acting/directing faculty (2) to enable the implementation of the M.F.A. program, and a
generalist (1) to support the minor leading to teacher licensure.
• In the Master of Arts Management program, an additional FT faculty member and a teacher/graduate adviser will be needed to assist in the operation of what we project as a highly active locus of potential growth.
• In addition to the instructional faculty outlined above, CVPA will add administrative faculty to implement the growing constellation of Potomac Academy and Summer Festival activities, the Center for Arts and Wellness, the Prince William
Performing Arts Center, arts programming at Arlington, and the Great Performances at Mason series on the Fairfax campus.

Quality and Characteristics of the Faculty
The quality of CVPA's faculty at the moment is impressive, featuring a high percentage of professionally active artist-teachers. It is important that we maintain this characteristic while increasing faculty diversity, ensuring that students have regular and meaningful interaction with full-time faculty members, and distributing the faculty workload with sufficient equity to ensure that creative and scholarly pursuits flourish. In the same vein, CVPA faculty are historically ranked far below their GMU colleagues (and somewhat below their national peer group) in salary. Atypically for arts colleges, CVPA is the second most efficient unit in GMU in terms of cost per FTES, and is more efficient than the University as a whole. A gradual but discernible program of parity is required to preserve productivity and encourage retention in the full-time ranks. All departments will continue to benefit from the presence of an extraordinary pool of professional adjuncts and will continue to participate in interdisciplinary and cross-unit teaching where appropriate.

Cost of New Faculty
Assuming $2,500 per new FTES in enrollment growth support and 2030 FTES enrollment in 2010, the 35 new faculty lines would be funded at $70,000 each (assuming fringe included), which, despite CVPA’s efficiency, is somewhat less than adequate to meet the goals outlined above. We will, therefore, work to find more salary support for senior/distinguished hires, equity adjustments, and special recruiting initiatives. One caution might be that in hewing too strictly to an efficiency strategy, we may fail to invest strategically in some high profile individuals or programs. Such investments, when indicated, will be carefully deployed and calculated to produce commensurate returns. An additional source of instructional support will come from a larger GTA pool, especially in Music (e.g., for private studio instruction) and AVT (for support of the rapidly growing Digital Arts and Graphic Design concentrations). As Dance reevaluates its graduate program and as Theater implements its prospective M.F.A., GTA support will be appropriately included in the planning process.

Conclusion
CVPA is now positioned to act on the promise of its founding ingredients: the creation of an integrated arts program that spans the continuum of possibilities, from the beginning student to the career professional, from the most sophisticated interpretation of the classical tradition to the deepest engagement with the creation of the new work, from the academy to the community and beyond, to the world. As that promise unfolds, GMU will take its place at the forefront of arts education, adding yet another point of excellence to the University's growing reputation.

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