Q&A with Dean William Reeder

Shortly after joining George Mason as dean of the new College of Visual and Performing Arts, William Reeder agreed to sit down with Mason Gazette reporter Colleen Kearney Rich for a Q&A session. Reeder was most recently vice president and general manager of the Washington Performing Arts Society (WPAS). He has maintained a 30-year career in education, management, philanthropic administration, and the arts.

What interested you in becoming dean of the new College of Visual and Performing Arts at George Mason University?

For the past eight years, I have been active in arts administration here in the greater Washington, D.C., area. During that time, I found it increasingly apparent that George Mason was a major regional force in the arts, with significant accomplishments yet poised for an expanding leadership role in the arts, education, and community service. With the formation of the new college, George Mason's considerable arts resources have been optimally alignedfor significant advancement. It is exciting to participate in that future and to work with the faculty, students, and community leaders of George Mason. We are a highly integrated enterprise, ideally structured for leadership in the arts in the 21st century.

What do you see as some of the challenges of starting a new college?

The first, and perhaps most exciting, challenge is to establish a strategic process that captures the voices of all the new college's stakeholders and blends them into a collaborative, interdependent team. My motto is "all of us are smarter than one of us." Often the artistic process pulls artist educators into pockets of independence--and even isolation. We need to resist that temptation and replace it with an interdependent strategic force. Fortunately, the college's heritage is a collaborative one--and we have an optimistic nature, which is important. The college is blessed with an astonishing, talented faculty, and we will turn to them for artistic and cultural fluency, and for their wise counsel as we determine our strategic course.

A second challenge is fund raising. The college's work is important, and I believe that individuals, corporations, and foundations will respond with support. We will be focused on raising funds to support student scholarships, faculty chairs, performance activities, new teaching initiatives, and even community service. I personally like fund raising--it demands that we clarify our values and invest them in people's lives. The dialogue that that ensures is important for educational and creative processes.

Is there a mission or vision statement developed for the college?

Arts institutions are cultural institutions rooted in the society from which they spring. In my experience, it is helpful to shape and test the language of vision through the multiple voices of that community. As we work through the strategic process over the coming months, a new formal mission statement with its supporting vision will be developed.

Some guiding principles, however, are firmly in place. First, the college seeks to make the arts pervasive at George Mason University and in its larger community. Second, the college has been established to create an academic environment in which the arts may be considered individual disciplines and interdisciplinary forms that strengthen each other. Third, education in the arts is deepened by regular contact with the work of distinguished visiting artists and through community service.

Will you be teaching?

Yes, but not immediately. I want to spend the first semester focused on the strategic process and fund raising. However, I look forward to teaching an arts management course and developing a broad curriculum for community arts leadership--both in formal degree and certificate offerings. Meanwhile, my door is open to students who want to explore the world of arts management, and I will be an active volunteer with arts groups in the community.

You have talked about your own experiences as a music graduate. Where did you study, and what do you hope graduates of the new college will take with them when they leave George Mason?

My own skills were honed in two different kinds of universities: a liberal arts college on the undergraduate level and a conservatory at the graduate level. I also enjoyed an extensive career singing opera in Europe and worked closely with many of the finest conductors, stage directors, set and costume designers, and managers of the past 30 years. My management training was "on the job" with lots of continuing education. I have pasted together all the necessary experiences for a successful arts career.

George Mason has all of the above--one-stop shopping. We are both a conservatory and a liberal arts school--so our students will be challenged to write well, master the basic tools of technology, and play, act, paint, dance, or sing at a skillful level. We regularly introduce students to the world's most successful artists and orchestrate master classes, apprenticeships, and mentor relationships. And we are part of a dynamic arts community, filled with opportunities for students to prepare for their lives in the arts and beyond. Hence, I have high hopes and high expectations for our students.

When I graduated from college, I did not know where to go next and wondered, "Now what?" If I have one ambition for our new college, it is that we enable each and every graduate to answer that question by the time he or she leaves us. To that end, Linda Miller, Dance Department chair and recently named assistant dean for student advancement and academic affairs; Nancy Wallace, University Career Services; and I met with several major Washington-area arts organizations to establish an internship program to enable our students to enter the work force in their chosen discipline.

What would you like the George Mason community to know about you?

I love my job. I can't wait to hear my first student recital or see this year's student art shows or theater productions. I am devoted to new work and pledge to support the composers, creative artists, playwrights, and choreographers on our faculty as they explore new ideas and new directions. I am committed to the experience of the amateur and the role of "art in daily life," and I hope that someday a new "Mozart" shows up (preferably here at George Mason). And I have a new 19-inch granddaughter, Amanda.