Lawrence Today - Lawrence University

from Harmony Café to increase awareness of its nonprofit mission
and to build a stronger connection with the Lawrence community.
“We created a Lawrence study event at Harmony that would get
people in the door so that we could tell them about its mission,”
said Suzie Kraemer ’10. “The event was attended by more
than 150 students and generated $1,500 in sales. It was very
rewarding. Usually at the end of a course you can feel good about
getting a good grade on an exam or a paper, but this course was
different. We worked really hard and at the end we had Harmony
management and students thanking us for the event. In the end,
I felt like our group had made a difference.” Harmony Café was
so pleased by the way things turned out that it hosted a second
Lawrence study event before the end of Spring Term.
While courses like In Pursuit of Innovation are catalogued under
the Department of Economics, they are not designed exclusively
for econ majors, and they have attracted students from a wide
range of disciplines who are ready to roll up their sleeves and
face the challenges put forth by Brandenberger and Galambos. “I
found it to be a very difficult course,” said Alyssa Stephenson ’11,
a physics major. “The gloves come off — they’re trying to teach
you a new way to learn, and so the course contrasts sharply with
every other course that I’ve taken. I came away from it with a lot
of new skills, improved problem solving and a greater ability to
think outside the box.”
a sharPer focus
Sooner or later, most students pursuing a career in arts or music
must become entrepreneurial. The addition of Entrepreneurship
in the Arts and Society to the Lawrence curriculum means that
these students will have a few more tools with which to hone
their craft and prepare for life after Lawrence. Designed for its
interdisciplinary appeal, the course offers classroom projects
supplemented by weekly lectures from visiting professors
from the conservatory of music, theatre and the arts. “The
course makes a significant contribution to our curriculum,” said
Tim Troy ’85, professor of theatre arts and J. Thomas and Julie
Esch Hurvis Professor of Theatre and Drama. “Students are given
the vocabulary to talk about their artistic work using insights
gleaned from business and economics, which helps them
understand where their work fits into the larger marketplace of
cultural and educational services and events.”
“The issues and ideas presented in this course encourage our
students to see past the dangerous myth of the ‘starving artist,’”
said Rob Neilson, associate professor of art. “For some strange
reason our culture has decided that every profession deserves
4 summer 2010
Left: Adam Galambos, assistant professor
of economics, lecturing students in the
Entrepreneurship in the Arts and Society class
BeLow: Tam Dao ’10 gives a presentation
for Entrepreneurship in the Arts and Society
to be paid except those that pertain to the production of art.
One rarely hears talk about a ‘starving accountant.’ Hopefully
our students will see that making a living and making art are not
contradictions in terms.” Neilson and Troy said they enjoyed their
time in the classroom. “Only at a place like Lawrence would
an econ professor approach a sculptor about team-teaching a
course!” said Neilson. With a minor name change to The Art of
Entrepreneurship, the course will again be offered in 2011-12.
While work continues to integrate even more innovation and
entrepreneurship into the culture of the institution, Finkler said
everything done so far has been very well received. “Students
love it partly because they become actively engaged in it.” And
regarding the aforementioned “economic event” that is unfolding
at Lawrence, it could easily reverberate through various other
colleges as well.
For now, according to Galambos, Lawrence is among the leaders.
“We’re bringing innovation and entrepreneurship into Lawrence
as we understand they should be. We are passionate about
this matter, and we are consciously doing something that will
distinguish us.” Added Troy, “There is a special élan at Lawrence
that makes these kinds of interdisciplinary collaborations a normal
part of our academic life. We’re very lucky.” ■