Letter from the Dean

"Imagine all the people"

Just imagine a new college, in a new building, with new staff, for new students, taught by new faculty. Imagine a new theatre brimming with music, film, and dance. Imagine new classrooms, new workshops, and new seminars. Imagine it all in the middle of a rock-solid Michigan State University working round the clock. The RCAH is working hard just to keep up with our imagination.

Rather than list the many things you can read about in more detail on this web site, let me highlight two things that I believe embody the emerging spirit of the College.

One is a creative energy and talent that has already begun to stream through the new building. Student projects like the Building Stories Project are full of ingenuity and fellowship. Faculty artists work side by side with students, faculty, and community partners to paint, chalk, and print their ideas up and down our halls and sidewalks. The voices of poets are singing out daily. This is all a prelude to an incredible series of artists-in-residence coming through our doors starting this spring 2008.

• Favianna Rodriguez, a San Francisco Bay Area printmaker, will join our own Prof. Dylan Miner in his creative workshop this semester. http://www.favianna.com/

• Guillermo Delgado, a painter from Chicago, continues to work with our students and local community groups this semester, pointing toward a full semester residency in fall 2008. http://www.gdelgado.com/

• Edgar Heap of Birds, an installation artist from the University of Oklahoma and a recent U.S. representative to the prestigious Venice Biennale, recently made a site visit to the RCAH this semester in preparation for his two-week residency here in spring 2009. http://www.heapofbirds.com/

• Alexandra Huddleston, a photographer, will be exhibiting her work on the tradition of Islamic scholarship in Timbuktu in our LookOut! Gallery and joining Prof. David Cooper in his photography creative workshop in fall 2008. http://www.alexandrahuddleston.com/

• Kate Snodgrass, an actress and playwright, will join Prof. Anita Skeen’s book arts workshop in fall 2008 and also work with students as part of next fall’s trip to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario. http://www.bu.edu/bpt/facstaff/index.html

• Harry and Sandra Reese, two exceptional book artists from the University of California, Santa Barbara, also will be joining David and Anita, as well as exhibiting work in the MSU Main Library’s Special Collections in spring 2009. http://www.arts.ucsb.edu/faculty/reese/

• Kandiourou Coulibaly and Boubacar Doumbia, founding members of the fabric art collective Groupe Kasobane from Mali, will be here in spring 2009 to exhibit their work as part of a larger West African Textile exhibit in the MSU Museum and participate in an RCAH creative workshop on fabric art led by local fabric artist Chris Worland. http://www.janetgoldner.com/kasobane/kasobane.html

These will not be fleeting appearances. Our artists-in-residence will have offices in the RCAH and will work closely with students and community partners. The creative work they’ll inspire will be a lasting part of the environment – whether it is a garden sculpture, a photo-essay, a mural, a print, a quilt, or a book. Visit their web sites to catch a glimpse of what’s to come.

Second is a spirit of personal and social responsibility. RCAH students have taken a significant step reaching out to the Lansing Refugee Development Center and the many community groups it serves. Others have begun working with the Michigan Historical Association to extend and sustain our Building Stories Project.

Faculty are planning a full array of courses for next year’s sophomore-year curriculum in which several sections of RCAH 292 Civic Engagement will be offered through these partners as well as others. Led by Laura DeLind and Vincent Delgado, in collaboration with the MSU Community Service-Learning Center, our civic engagement curriculum is beginning to take root.

In addition, we also now have launched one of our 21st Century Chautauqua projects that focus on personal and social responsibility. We call it a “traveling Chautauqua on sustainability and human rights” because it “travels” between the RCAH, Lyman Briggs College, and James Madison College once each week.

Twenty students and invited faculty are discussing how we, as consumers and citizens, affect the social as well as the natural environment, and what we can do to live more sustainably AND respect human rights. Our faculty guests have come from as far afield as Packaging, Fisheries and Wildlife, and Anthropology, with more expected later in the semester.

Students have signed on (not up) for this not-for-credit discussion group because they believe deeply that there is an urgent need to address this subject. Many of the students participating in the traveling Chautauqua are already actively engaged in projects in these areas, from the study of climate change to the creation of a more sustainable campus here at MSU.

There is no simple formula we can apply or rule we can follow to achieve these two inter-dependent goals of sustainability and human rights. The “tragedy of the commons” has been a long time coming, and it will take a long time to turn things around. In this traveling Chautauqua students are discovering just how important it is to bring science, public policy, and the arts and humanities all to bear in order to meet this challenge.

It has been a pleasure listening to these students from the three residential colleges share ideas and experiences across these borders. As our other Chautauqua projects get underway this spring and next fall, more students from all three residential colleges will have opportunities to fashion answers to the question, What does it mean to live and act responsibly today? that move beyond moral platitudes and political clichés.

Stephen L. Esquith
Dean, Residential College in the Arts and Humanities