Bringing Art and Music Together Under One Roof

In an effort to more fully integrate the university’s arts programs, the Music Department is joining the Art Department in the building that has been the Art Department’s home for several decades at 251 East Tenth Street.

Music’s move “will foster significantly greater interaction between and among students and faculty of art and music, creating collaborative possibilities that align with the transdisciplinary emphasis of CGU,” explained Art Chair David Pagel and Music Chair Robert Zappulla in a joint statement sent earlier this month to the CGU community.

Bringing the two programs together in the Art and Music building will enable the two complementary fields to interact and illustrate an important point for students: that no artistic medium exists in a vacuum.

“…having music in the mix will enhance our capacity for creating a context in which art, of all shapes and stripes, thrives.”

Art’s MFA program, the announcement points out, “has always been based on the idea that knowledge happens when painters talk to sculptors, when installation artists speak with photographers, when video artists interact with ceramicists,” as well as in many other encounters.

Now the opportunities for the Music Department to join in such conversations will increase that dynamic.  Music has master’s and doctoral students in programs including performance, historical performance practices, musicology, church music, and composition.

“[H]aving music in the mix will enhance our capacity for creating a context in which art, of all shapes and stripes, thrives,” Zappulla and Pagel’s announcement concludes.  “Having two fields co-mingle in one building will prepare students for a world made up of multiple histories, contexts, and perspectives.”

More information about the Art and Music building is forthcoming.