art/vision/voice - Maryland Institute College of Art

106 art / vision / voice
carmel In the Columbia case, the faculty didn’t employ what they knew.
They didn’t set up the space and have the dialogue about the
[conflict between Luis and Ron] and let each person talk about the
conflict and figure out the key points and how they could make
[their collaboration] stronger. They just let it lie. It was the young
people, the community youth, who stepped up and said this was
inappropriate, but they said that to Luis, not Ron. The college
students said something to Ron, but never to Luis.
ken The input of community is extremely important. We recognize that
mica’s casebook story is about mica, not about the youth and
families of Banner Neighborhoods. We should not presume to
know or speak for the community. We must remember that, at best,
we really only know our own motivations for attempting to build a
meaningful relationship with community. If asked, the community
might tell a story that represents a very different perspective on this
interaction. We cannot assume that our story is everyone else’s
story—or the only one worth writing.
Administrative and Institutional Obstacles
The work of the cap projects was often fraught with difficulty as partners
and institutional staff tried to move against bureaucratic inflexibility
and resistance to engaging the real work of community cultural
development. Obstacles included historic settings of limited resources,
disengaged curriculum and faculty, and students unprepared for
working in community.
carmel Columbia considers itself to be an urban institution that supports
the community of which it’s a part. In a story similar to that at Cooper
Union, the institution has changed since its founding. The young
people who currently enroll in the college’s degree programs are not
reflective of the founding mission. Part of the college’s mission is to
have students actively engaged in the community—civically engaged
and responsible—but there was no infrastructure for that to happen.
The Center for Community Arts Partnerships provided that
infrastructure. It established opportunities for academicians really to
be actively involved with community members. Our case brings
together partners from the theater department and two communitybased
organizations with a longstanding relationship with each other
because of cap’s model of engaging Columbia faculty and students
to work with people in the community.