art/vision/voice - Maryland Institute College of Art

conclusion: la resolana 99
visual and performing arts disciplines. Partnership activities have taken
place both in the community and at campus sites, and the cap institutions
have seen that maintaining that flexibility—to meet the community
in their space while still providing opportunities to come to a college
campus—has been essential to the dynamic nature of these partnerships.
The private colleges of art—Cooper Union, Columbia, and mica—have
long histories of arts-based community programming, of commitment
to public and civic engagement, and of responding to urban needs.
However, their core focus is on providing outstanding educations for
high-performing students in arts and design. Some of their communitybased
work has taken place in continuing education and outreach programs
beyond the curriculum’s fine arts model; some through curriculum-based
programs in art education or design. On the other hand, both
csumb—a part of one of the nation’s largest public systems of higher
education—and Xavier—a private university founded by religious leaders
to address the educational needs of a particular population in
New Orleans—have at the core of their missions a mandate to address
under-served educational needs in their regions. The challenges in
delivering a community-based partnership program within an institution
with a fine arts model differ from those that arise within institutions
whose original mandate is to educate the under-served.
In developing our partnerships, the cap institutions have worked
to move institutions from an outreach or missionary model to one of
reciprocity and respect for community history and knowledge. The ability
to know the partner’s community identity and cultural dispositions is
integral to the success of these collaborations. Equally important is the
ability to identify the culture of the institution. The fine arts institutions
have undertaken the critical step of introducing community-based and
service-learning courses and curricula. The institutions with social
justice goals and curricula have had to undertake partnerships in ways
that integrate diverse aesthetics into the curriculum.
Many of our community partners are connected to multicultural
neighborhoods where particular ethnic and racial groups have had long
histories. The partnerships have sought to relate to and respect this rich
diversity, and community cultures have played an important role in the
relevancy of the projects, as well as in the challenges that have arisen.
The economic resources in the communities served by the partnerships
often stand in stark contrast to those of the larger institution, and
acknowledging this inequality is part of the negotiation required to
provide needed services and to share resources. Perhaps a more intimate
negotiation is the need for college students and faculty to understand the
reality of the context in which they find themselves. The history of
neglect that many community youth and their families have faced in the