The Johns Hopkins Taskforce on the Arts (the Taskforce on the Arts) is a group of 15 members, ranging from faculty to students with an interest in the arts. These representatives are serving to help the Taskforce on the Arts identify opportunities and improvements across the University’s various arts programs and schools. This group meets as a whole each month, with subgroups of the task force meeting more frequently to discuss specific areas such as programming, collections and facilities, and possible partnerships and collaborations across the University and in Baltimore.
In an interview with The News-Letter, Daniel Weiss, Homewood professor of the humanities and senior advisor to the Provost for the Arts, shared that the Taskforce originated from conversations he had with Provost Ray Jayawardhana and President Ronald J. Daniels, discussing the University’s longstanding commitment to the arts and what is already available across art muesems, the collections in Milton S. Eisenhower Library and more. However, despite these collections, the arts programs and resources at Hopkins can seem disjointed.
“We have all these things but we have not taken a larger strategic point of view about where we'd like to go with our commitment to the arts and whether or not there are opportunities we might realize that we haven't yet fulfilled,” Weiss said.
The question of a larger commitment to the arts came into the spotlight while Weiss was working with others on creating the art programming for the Irene and Richard Frary Gallery at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue.
“The process of planning the gallery and thinking about other aspects of the arts suggested a larger question about the University's commitment to the arts,“ he said. “So, [the creation of the Taskforce] was in some ways an organic development that came out of a series of discussions over the course of that year of planning.”
The Taskforce on the Arts is additionally doing outreach with the student body by meeting with various student groups and other constituencies around the University with an interest in the arts in order to understand what the Hopkins community artistically needs or is lacking.
“Our goal is to be inclusive in discussions with people,” Weiss said. “Then, as our recommendations take shape and as we begin to think about specific ideas, we'll want to test them with the people who would be most affected by them.”
One of the Taskforce on the Arts' student outreach initiatives was two town halls hosted in October. The town halls welcomed any student or student group to share their thoughts on where the arts at Hopkins needed improvements directly with Weiss.
I was able to attend the Oct. 31 town hall. When I walked into the Scott-Bates Commons kitchen, I came in during an active conversation between Weiss and Hopkins students about the University’s theater programs. While I myself am not involved in theater productions on campus, I found myself agreeing with many of the points that they brought up regarding funding for student productions and event publicity. As a visual artist, I have also noticed the same things: a lack of arts spaces, resources and general visibility.
Weiss commented that the town halls were extremely helpful, and noted that hearing students’ ideas and concerns directly was very useful for understanding where the Taskforce on the Arts should invest their efforts, as art-engaged students would know best what does or doesn’t work.
“Some of the things [they shared] were areas I was not aware of at all,“ he said. “So it was good to know how we might want to guide our efforts to make sure we are being responsive to legitimate concerns.”
Additionally, Weiss commented on a few surprising insights he gained from conversing with students.
“I didn't realize quite how much student agency is involved in the work that students do to present and participate in the arts,” he said regarding the logistical and financial efforts required of students wishing to participate in visual and performing arts. “That speaks to a great commitment on the part of the students to the arts, and [it’s] a good thing — but we should be able to help them more, [so] they have the support that they need.”
After this year, the Taskforce on the Arts plans to complete its work and make a series of recommendations to present to administration at the end of the spring semester that can be implemented over time.
“The idea is not to produce a report that goes on a shelf and nothing happens, but rather to use the project of review and assessment to identify an action plan that we would then implement over the next few years,” he said.
While this plan means that current students — especially upperclassmen undergraduate students — will likely not see the end results of the Taskforce’s planning, it hopefully does mean the development of a long-lasting improvement to the University's engagement with the arts as a whole.
In a way, the situation is a bit like the ongoing construction projects. We might be experiencing gaps in the arts now but given some time, we can likely expect to see the arts at Hopkins improve.
So far, the Taskforce on the Arts is unable to comment on any concrete plans or suggestions.
“We're interested in improving the facilities that are available to students for various kinds of arts, as well as investing in creativity and innovation and supporting various programs,” said Weiss. “But we don't yet have specific recommendations about how to do that.”
For any students who are looking to get involved in this conversation about Hopkins and the arts, Weiss expressed the importance of reaching out to him or the other members of the Taskforce on the Arts.
“The most important thing at this stage is for anyone who has ideas or interests to or share with us to let us know we're in a very active listening phase. We want to learn and understand. So they should reach out to me or members of the task force,” he said.
Currently, the question of how Hopkins will further engage with its commitment to the arts is still under review, but hopefully, the answer will become clearer soon. In the meantime, students should remember the ways they can contribute to the efforts of the Taskforce and the arts.
“We are eager to hear what people have in mind, because the goal of this is to help our legitimate interests in the arts to flourish — not to impose on the community new ideas that don't come from them in the first place,“ Weiss said.
