Community arts is a minor within the Arts and Administration Program, which is part of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts.

Leading the Arts

The Arts and Administration Program at the UO is the only one of its kind in the Pacific Northwest. Arts management is a multidisciplinary field, dedicated to increasing opportunities in arts and culture for individuals and society. It combines knowledge in the visual and performing arts with social, cultural, managerial, and educational concerns. This work has applications in both nonprofit and for-profit arts organizations and programs. Study of these issues is vital to cultural preservation and professional advancement of the arts in the U.S. and abroad.

The program offers an undergraduate minor in community arts and graduate degrees in arts management. As a community arts minor, you’ll join students from theatre, dance, music, art, education, sociology, and other disciplines who are interested in working with and for the arts. You’ll take coursework in arts administration, programming, arts philosophy, arts education, and community cultural development.

Sample Courses

• Art and Human Values addresses the fundamental questions that result from viewing art as a powerful communicator of social and cultural values
• The Arts and Visual Literacy explores ways in which physical, perceptual, affective, and cognitive modes of learning interact when viewing, interpreting, and assessing designed visual information within sociocultural contexts
• Art and Gender looks at sociocultural factors influencing roles of women and men in arts disciplines, and examines the underlying social structures that affect how we define art and artists

Select Student Work

Megumi Kaizu chose her arts and administration minor because she liked the idea of gathering people together through art. A native of Japan, Kaizu is an art major whose media includes painting, sculpture, drawing, and photography. Kaiza takes advantage of the many arts-related opportunities in Eugene, including working for DIVA and serving as an exhibit tour guide at the Maude Kerns Art Gallery. A recent show of Kaizu's work was titled Beyond Silence: Responses to War Through Art.

Select Faculty Work

Professor Doug Blandy concentrates his work on the relationships between art, education, community, and place. Through ChinaVine, a new interactive website co-authored by Blandy and students, you can explore the intangible culture and folk art of Shandong Province, China. Blandy also teaches Art and Human Values, a course that's part of the Visual Tales Freshman Interest Group. In that course, you'll consider art as a powerful social and cultural force. You'll be asked to examine your own aesthetic values to understand art and develop cross-cultural appreciation.

Assistant Professor Patricia Dewey studies cultural policy in the U.S., Canada, and in Europe. She is developing data on policies and practices used by governments to support and promote the cultural arts sector of their society. Dewey received a Fulbright in 2006–7 to conduct research in the Netherlands and in other European countries.