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.
S.89-35
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
MEMORANDUM
To:
?
Senate
?
From: Senate Committee on
Academic Planning
Subject:
Master of Fine Arts Program
?
Date:
?
October 12, 1989
Action taken by the Senate Graduate Studies Committee on July 10, 1989 and by the Senate
Committee on Academic Planning at its meeting of October 11, 1989 gives rise to the
following motion:
"That Senate approve and recommend approval to the Board of
Governors the proposed Master of Fine Arts Program as set
forth in S.89-35, including the new courses
FPA. 811 - 5 Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar 1
FPA. 812 - 5 Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar 2
FPA. 883-5 Studio in FPA 1
EPA. 885-5 Studio in FPA 2
FPA. 887-5 Selected Topics in FPA
FPA. 889-5 Directed Study in FPA
FPA. 898 -10 MFA Graduating Project."
c!
.2
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L
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
?
g\Q
MEMORANDUM
To ........ ..-F..
?
1vic .
?
çy
?
From......
Subjed.
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Qf,.
F.iu
.&.ts. Xrp.grxu.
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Date
Attached is the proposed Master of Fine Arts Program which was approved
by the Senate Graduate Studies Committee at its Meeting on July 10, 1989.
S
11

 
( S
?
t
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
?
MEMORANDUM ?
DEAN OF GRADUATE STUDIES
TO: ?
Senate Graduate Studies
?
FROM: ?
B.P. Clayman
Committee
SUBJECT:
MASTER OF FINE ARTS
?
DATE: 27 June 1989
PROPOSAL
I am pleased to present
the proposal
submitted by the Centre
for the Arts for the introduction of a Master
of Fine Arts
program.
?
This proposal, the
first draft
of which was received on
11 December 1987, has been
considered by
the Assessment Committee
for New Graduate Programs,
a sub-committee of the S.G.S.C. whose
members were:
Chair
B.P.
Clayman
Faculty of Arts
T.
Perry
Faculty of Education
T.
O'Shea
Faculty of Science
G.
Bojadziev
SGSC (faculty)
M.
Jackson
SGSC (faculty)
M.
Plischke
SGSC (student)
M. Coates
Secretary
N.
Hunter
Registrar's Office
M.
McGinn
The proposal has been sent out for external review. The
external reviewers were:
Dr. W. Benjamin, Director, School of Music, U.B.C.
Prof. D. Keane, Professor, School of Music, Queen's
University
Mr. G. Lewis, Head, Media Arts, Canada Council
Prof. H. Shore, Associate Dean, School of Performing Arts,
U.C.L.A.
Dr. A. Welch, Dean, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of
Victoria
All of the external reviewers supported the proposal and,
after minor modifications based on comments by the external
reviewers, the Assessment Committee for New Graduate Programs
approved the proposal and recommended that it be submitted to the
Senate Graduate Studies Committee.
I recommend approval of this proposal. Simon Fraser
University has an excellent opportunity to establish a unique,
high-quality program at the graduate level.
cc: M. Bartlett
?
(P 0,,-

 
I
Simon Fraser University
?
Centre for the Arts ?
Proposal for a Graduate Program ?
In Interdisciplinary Fine And
?
Performing Art Studies
?
Leading to the Degree of
?
Master of Fine Arts
November 9, 1988
?
(Revised June 21, 1989)

 
1-
.
?
I GENERAL INFORMATION
1.
Title of the Program:
?
Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinaiy FPA
Studies
2.
Credential to be awarded to graduates:
M.F.A.
4.3.
Department
Date of Senate
to offer
Approval:
program:
?
Centre for the Arts
5.
Schedule for implementation: ?
On approval, hopefully September 1989
II PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
To provide an advanced level of professional training for artists, with an emphasis on
contemporary
arts.
interdisciplinary issues and new technologies in the fine and performing
2. Relationship of the Degree to the Role and Mission of the University
The Master of Fine Arts is a new degree for Simon Fraser University. The MFA is
regarded as the completion of an artist's university studies and is customarily a two
year program in which theoretical and critical issues can be pursued alongside
creative artistic work. Introduction of the degree broadens and strengthens the
University's academic base to include art disciplines as subjects of serious inquiry
• beyond the undergraduate level. The interdisciplinary emphasis of the proposed
degree reflects the fact that social, cultural and technological developments have
given rise to new kinds of artists and new modes of art making which provoke complex
interrelations within the fine and performing arts and new issues in the relationship
between the arts and other disciplines. We believe that these issues can most suitably
be examined and acted upon within the university.
Such a graduate program is a natural outgrowth of the research and teaching
presently being carried out in the Centre for the Arts, which has already, attracted
several graduate students by Special Arrangement. The number of such students has
reached the point where formalization of procedures and academic directions is
necessary. This is in accordance with the Centre's long range plans which have
foreseen the establishment of an interdisciplinary graduate program as the completion
of its curricular goals.
The presence of Special Arrangements graduate students (six in fall 1987) is already
providing stimulation and incentive to undergraduate students through collaboration in
productions, exhibitions, performances, and research projects. These students are
also doing useful work as Teaching and Research Assistants. We have in effect been
offering graduate studies for years; the MFA would acknowledge this declared need
within a broader context.
We should mention that the Centre maintains strong affiliations with other
Departments in the university, especially since entering the Faculty of Arts. The
integration of FPA courses into the Certificate in Liberal Studies and the sympathetic

 
IN
2
goals of the MA in Liberal Studies suggest a mutual recognition of the desirability of
broad-based programs. Faculty research projects have promoted interdisciplinary
cooperation with Communications, Engineering, Computer Science, and Kinesiology,
as well as other departments within the Faculty of Arts.
iiiru ?
.iirri
I.I.ITisI11
:I.
UBC and the University of Victoria offer MFA degrees, but both are disciplinary visual
art studio degrees. As well the University of Victoria offers MEAs in theatre. There are
also disciplinary MAs, (such as UVic offers in music, and UBC in music and film).
However, none offers the potential for cross-disciplinary work that we are proposing
and there is not normally an integration of other discipines into their current programs.
We believe this proposal complements and expands current offerings available in the
province for advanced study in the fine and performing arts.
lPIS1I1
There is at present no program in Canada which attempts to unify the arts in an
interdisciplinary way at the postgraduate level. The work of the Centre at the
undergraduate level is unique in the country and consequently there is great pressure
and strong demand
,
for an extension of our offerings. The Centre has a large file of
inquiries from inside and outside the country requesting information about the
possibility of graduate study; this reflects not only the interest and existent need, but
the identification of the Centre for the Arts as a place which could potentially provide
such focus and contribute substantially to Simon Fraser University's reputation as a
centre of innovative curriculum and research.
5. Curriculum
a. Existing Courses
Approved individual programs of study for MA by Special Arrangement candidates
have been endorsed by Graduate Studies within the framework of present FPA
Special Topics and Directed Studies offerings, in conjunction with graduate level
courses from other parts of the university.
b.
New Courses
The MFA is primarily a studio degree, in which the student will be expected to
concentrate on the production of creative work. Consequently the studio component
constitutes a large part of the work and the number of required hours (40) is
proportionately greater than that required for most MA's. At the same time, the
program allows for critical study within an area of concentration. The intent of the
program is to accomodate a broad range of interests, while directing the student's
critical focus through the Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminars (FPA 811 and 812).
These seminars will form the academic core of the program. Since the MFA is
normally a two year program, the Seminar would be offered each fall, focussing on
some major issue in the contemporary discourse of art and society. There would

 
3
. therefore be one course offered in any calendar year, with participation by both years
of graduate students. Those taking the seminar for the second time would be
registered under the higher course number. Some examples of possible seminar
topics are included as Course Outlines in Appendix D.
Since this seminar is conceived as the main academic focus of the degree it is
legitimate to ask whether its intention is to present, each time it is offered, a uniform
body of knowledge, indispensible to a graduate student in the fine and performing arts.
This is not, however, how the seminar is conceived. At present noone has the temerity
to define such a body of knowledge, and were it defined, it would immediately become
the subject of controversy. Teaching at this level will be not by precept but by
example. We cannot say unequivocally "do this and you will become an artist". We
can however direct the student's attention to examples of art-making and
interdisciplinary activity in the arts, and attempt to evaluate the significance of such
examples for contemporary endeavours. Because the nature of the proposed
-program is interdisciplinary, we feel-it is important to use this seminar to- broaden
students' understanding of art-making beyond his/her disciplinary background, and to
develop critical concepts and vocabulary. We feel that this can be accomplished
without necessarily covering the same material each time the course is offered.
The class will meet twice a week: the first meeting will be lecture and the second
discussion. The lectures will provide critical and theoretical context within which the
student's inter-disciplinary program of work can be located and considered, while the
second meeting will focus on texts relevant to the lectures, student projects and
. presentations. Organization of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar will be the
responsibility of the faculty member designated as chairman of the department's
Graduate Program Committee but lecture participation by other Centre faculty as well
as guests and professionals will be a regular feature of the course.
The Studio courses and the Graduating Project represent the focus of the candidate's
creative work and will be arranged by the Supervisory Committee in consultation with
the candidate. The Graduating Project will normally consist of a performance,
exhibition, installation or other public presentation.
Selected Topics and Directed Study courses are intended to allow individuals or
groups of students to pursue specific academic or studio interests that supplement or
enrich the substance of the Project. These will be designed as necessary under the
supervision of the Graduate Program Committee.
c. Supervisory Committee
Upon a candidate's acceptance into the program, a Supervisory Committee will be
struck, consisting of a Senior Supervisor, a faculty member from the individual's main
disciplinary area and at least one representative from another art discipline. This
committee will decide on an appropriate program of work in consultation with the
candidate and will monitor the candidate's progress towards completion of the degree.
0

 
4
d. Degree Requirements
For the degree, candidates must complete a minimum of 40 semester hours work,
including 30 semester hours of course work and a Project which is the equivalent of 10
semester hours. In most cases this Project will be the presentation of an art work,
although the possibility of more research-oriented projects is not ruled out.
The project must be accompanied by appropriate documentation, to be determined by
the Supervisory Committee in consultation with the candidate. Depending on the
nature of the project, this documentation may comprise a written essay explaining the
aesthetic and technical background of the project or describing the research leading to
its completion, video and/or audio recordings, portfolios of photographs, or other
archivable material.
After completion of the MFA Graduating Project an oral defence will be convened
before an examining committee consisting of a chairman, the members of the student's
Supervisory Committee and an Examiner.from outside the Centre for the Arts. The
External Examiner may be a faculty member from another department of the University
or another institution, with research interests relevant to the student's work. The
function of this examination is to question the student on the conceptual and technical
aspects of his work and to evaluate the competence and artistic creativity of the
project. The presence of the Examiner will assist the Committee in determining the
equivalence of the program's scholarly standards with those of other graduate
degrees.
The Graduating Project plus the required Interdisciplinary Seminars account for 20
hours; Of the remaining 20 hours, 15 will normally be from within the Centre. The
course requirements are:
All of:
FPA 811-5
?
Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar 1
FPA 812-5
?
Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar 2
FPA 898-10 ?
MFA Graduating Project
Plus three of the following:
?
FPA 883-5
Studio in FPA 1
FPA 885-5
Studio in FPA 2
FPA
887-5
Selected Topics in FPA*
FPA 889-5
Directed Study in FPA*
Plus five units selected from Upper Division or Graduate courses outside the
department.
Descriptions of these courses are attached as Appendix D.
In the case of a candidate whose work involves substantial investigation of another
discipline, a second Upper Division or Graduate level course from another department
could substitute for FPA 887 or 889 with the permission. of the supervisory committee.
0

 
5
. ?
111 NEED FOR PROGRAM
1. Rationale
The programs in the Fine and Performing Arts offered at SFU recognize a number of
important facts about the nature of contemporary artistic activity. In particular, the
Centre for the Arts emphasizes the social, technological and interdisciplinary
implications of current work in the fine arts including music, visual art, dance, film, and
theatre.
We stress art's social implications because art not only reflects the current concerns of
the culture but influences them in a complex manner. Our new situation includes a
view of the contemporary arts as high intellectual adventure, a crucial expression of
our culture, generating profound insights and complex forms of knowledge. This
attitude implies a bond between the scholarly, interpretive and scientific activities
-characteristic of the university, and cultural spectacle and expression resulting -from
-
artistic practice. Within this relationship, the arts create their sensuous and
complicated images which become the occasion for fresh intellectual and critical
discussion, the objects of systematic analysis, and the stimulus for the further
development of interpretive theory. Given this integration of intellectual and expressive
approaches, questions that are central to the theoretical understanding of the arts are
not simply"academic" inquiries. They are crucial to the productivity of the artist and to
the development of the literacy of the audience.
.. We do not regard technology as a panacea, and the proposed program is not
designed to focus on technology to the exclusion of interdisciplinary work that uses
traditional skills of movement, music- and image-making. We acknowledge, however,
that the traditional techniques themselves have been deeply altered by their
repositioning in a world of electronic and photographic communication and
representation, resulting in new expressive possibilities and ambiguous relationships
among the fine and performing arts. Our proposal for an MFA degree is specifically
designed to acknowledge this trend and to provide facilities for those artists who wish
to engage technological issues as part of their creative work.
We understand the term "interdisciplinary" in two senses. First, we recognize and
encourage new work which transcends the traditional disciplinary boundaries within
the fine arts. The use of music by dancers and actors, sculptors moving into set
design, film-makers and dancers collaborating in mixed media performance art; these
are examples of types of interdisciplinary work which already find a congenial
environment in the Centre for the Arts. The second sense of "interdisciplinary"
includes activity by artists or from an artistic perspective in fields that lie outside the
normal frontiers of the fine and performing arts. Examples would be composers who
write computer programs for synthesizer control, dancers working with robotics or
computer graphics, painters investigating the psychology of perception. This work,
also, will be supported in our graduate program if the necessary resources and
collaborative links are available.
The educational implications of the new artistic environment are challenging and
complex. We believe that it is necessary for artists to concern themselves actively

 
6
with new developments, and for universities to devise programs and curricula which
can give artists the technical and critical tools this work requires. The program we are
proposing has, therefore, three main goals: the development of craft and technical
skill, the furthering of artistic creativity, and the development of a critical awareness of
the position of the arts in contemporary society and within the historical perspective.
If we are not to inhabit an artistic and cultural wasteland, serious effort must be made
to develop this critical awareness to improve the level of artistic understanding and
reflection in our society as a whole. New technological developments facilitate the
production of art work in many ways, but are unable to produce the creative perception
necessary to the making of art. Furthermore, although skill and craft training remains
basic to all education in the arts, that training should neither preempt nor be
preempted by critical reflection. These complementary issues must be addressed with
clarity and probity as part of the substance of study of an integrated interdisciplinary
fine arts program.
It is clear to us that the Centre for the Arts addresses these issues in ways other
programs do not. The uniqueness of this program, already firmly established at the
undergraduate level, must now be expanded to accommodate the growing need for
integrated and comprehensive theoretical and practical work at the graduate level. It is
an opportunity for Simon Fraser to establish a decisive position within the international
development of this crucial cultural discourse.
Ii171Int:]i'I
a.
Evidence of Student Interest
'0
The Centre receives between thirty and fifty inquiries a year requesting information on
the availability of graduate programs. Followup suggests that a significant proportion
of these are directly interested in the 'kind of Inter-disciplinary work we are proposing.
Several of our MAs by Special Arrangement chose the Centre particularily because it
offered the interdisciplinary flexibility they sought.
b.
Enrollment Predictions
We envision the proposed program being phased in gradually. Initially it will represent
a solidifying and reevaluation of the existing
ad hoc
Special Arrangements MA. Initially
we will be accepting a maximum of 6 students per year; at any one time, the program
will have 12 to 15 active students. We anticipate accepting candidates only as we
have resources to support their chosen program of work.
The Centre is currently pursuing arrangements and relationships with other institutions
and programs that will have future consequences for enrollments in this program. This
includes the active pursuit of funds and facilities from various levels of government,
business, and the community, a quest which is already producing results.
C

 
VA
.
c. Financial Support for Students
The Centre for the Arts currentl
Graduate Students as Teaching an
number of available TA-ships is
Students. In addition, a number
available as a consequence of th
students in the fine and performing
of the Canada Council.
employs several of its Special Arrangements
J Research Assistants. At the moment, in fact, the
greater than the number of available Graduate
of University Graduate Fellowships will become
e program's approval. Fellowships for graduate
arts are also available through a special program
.
3. Employment for Graduates
The MFA degree has traditionally been regarded as a professional artist's degree and
a teaching degree. Professional artists are usually self employed, often combining
their work with teaching or other cultural employment. The increasing demand for
- broad-based specialization in the various arts industries suggests that students could
tailor their graduate programs to suit their intended career goals. A performance artist,
for example, interested in theatre production, or a visual artist interested in
scenography, or a film maker wanting to work with musicians and dancers in a non-
theatric context, could each be accommodated in the program, as could someone
wanting to combine the various aspects of theatrical production and playmaking
toward the foundation of an independent company. There currently exist situations in
the cultural sphere which call for far more cooperative talents than a disciplinary
training can encompass. Theatre management, gallery special events programs, film
production units all require diverse and flexible skills not previously incorporated
within a single program.
The program encourages flexibility and adaptability and consequently we foresee
graduates developing positions within mixed disciplines that will create employment
opportunities for themselves and others; inter-disciplinary projects are by their nature
usually collaborative. The graduates' ability to respond to current situations and serve
existing markets while developing new ones through their creative work is an
anticipated benefit of this program.
0

 
8
. ?
IV PRESENT AND PROJECTED RESOURCES
1.
Administrative Personnel and Support Staff
We are requesting a half-time secretarial position to deal with the administrative
aspects of the graduate program. With the increased importance of high-technology
media, we will also require additional technical support. We are budgeting for one half
of a Technician's position, to be shared by the Integrated Media Facility.
2. Faculty
The Centre currently has an internationally respected faculty around which the
Interdisciplinary MFA can be developed. Faculty members are distinguished practising
artists in the disciplines of film, music, visual arts, theatre, and dance. Each area has
people with cross-disciplinary interests, and two recent searches for replacement
faculty in Film and Visual Art were conducted with consideration toward the needs of
this program.
Our main recommendation is the hiring of one senior faculty member to supervise the
Graduate Program and organize the Graduate Seminars. It is essential that this person
have the interdisciplinary flexibility that the program will require, as well as the
conceptual and theoretical skills necessary for the seminar. Given the diverse nature
of the students' programs of study, it is important that there be an individual who deals
with the administrative and academic coordination of the program. On him/her would
. ?
fall the responsibility of much of the teaching of the Interdisciplinary Seminar, though it
?
is foreseen that other qualified faculty could undertake this from time to time.
We may require additional faculty assistance to reach our full projected strength, in
particular to provide some relief for senior faculty who are extensively involved in
graduate teaching. Because of the flexibility of the program, demand for different
areas of faculty expertise may be encountered from year to year. We have included
budget projections for visiting faculty or sessional positions to strengthen graduate and
undergraduate teaching as required. If, as we project, the acceptance of graduate
students is to be carefully controlled in relation to available resources, this should not
represent a major expense in the foreseeable future. The presence of graduate
teaching assistants in the undergraduate program will also facilitate the concentration
of work in the graduate program.
Although the library at Simon Fraser University does not by itself provide the level of
support that advanced study in the fine arts requires, the excellent inter-library loan
system gives faculty and students rapid access to other collections. Recently, a grant
was received from SSHRC to improve the library's collection of books on film, and we
will continue to solicit external funds to augment our library resources. Further funds
need to be committed to extend the The Fine Arts Room collection of slides, tapes,
recordings and scores. The library's collection of periodicals will require a resource

 
9
commitment, and maintaining currency in this rapidly developing field requires
continuing support. A report on the library's preseritlineaft holdings and an estimate
of immediate and continuing needs has been prepared by the Fine Arts Librarian and
is attached to this proposal as Appendix E.
?
is
UWWWOME
The Centre already has space and facility resources within the university. The theatre
is a well equipped multidisciplinary performance space for music, thöatre and dance;
music has an internationally known electroacoustic studio; film is developing its
production and postproduction facilities; and visual art is in the process of establishing
a downtown exhibition and research space. Development plans for the SFU
downtown campus include improved studio facilities for the Centre fOr the Arts. The
Centre for Image-Sound Research (q.v.) will also be housed in the downtown campus.
With the additional resources of the Praxis studio and the Centre for Image-Sound
Research we believe that our studio space will be adequate for the small number Of
graduate students proposed.
The planned rescheduling of space and equipment to take advantage of periods of
lower demand will allow for a more consistent distribution of resources to both the
graduate and undergraduate areas.
Equipment resources are presently seen as sufficient for the introduction of the
program. However, the increased demand on present resources will require some
augmentation of systems which will be phased in over a period of three years.
Specifically, we foresee increased demand for video, an area the Centre has already
identified for development, as well as general incremental upgrading in the various
areas.
MiTere rrriri i.iiiir*
Since the final product of a candidate's study will be the presentation of a completed
work, generally an exhibition or performance of some kind, funds must be committed to
support these productions on a modest level.
The present faculty's ability to attract Canada Council and SSHRC funding as well as
provincial government funds has been clearly demonstrated. We are including here a
brief description of two major externally-funded recent extensions to the Centre for the
Arts' facilities and their links to the Graduate Program:
0

 
10
?
a. PRAXIS
The Praxis Film Development Workshop received funds from the provincial
government's Fund for Excellence in Education in 1986, and has also received a grant
from the Foundation to Underwrite New Drama for Pay Television. An office, with
facilities for workshops and film viewing, has been established in downtown
Vancouver. Praxis' primary goal is to offer professional film writers, directors, and
producers assistance in creating original dramatic films, with an emphasis on script
development. This is done through a program of workshops, guest professionals, and
general advice and assistance to filmmakers involved in the writing process. Links
have been forged with a number of community institutions such as the Pacific
Cinematheque and the Vancouver Film Festival. Participation in the Praxis programs
is adjudicated on a project basis, and Centre for the Arts graduate students would be
invited and encouraged to participate. Furthermore, the funding of Praxis has both
raised the profile of the Centre for the Arts in the national and international film
communities and has provided valuable additional resources to a film program that
had suffered from recent financial stricture.
b. The Centre for Image-Sound Research
In the spring of 1987 an application was submitted to the federal Department of
Communications for funds to establish this facility, hopefully in the downtown campus.
In September 1987 this application was approved in principle by the Department of
Communications. The proposal calls for substantial capital expenditures to create
. ?
facilities for advanced digital image and audio processing, video, recording, and allied
technologies.
Additional fund-raising is being undertaken to provide salaries for a Director,
technicians, and programmers. Access to these facilities will be on a project basis,
primarily for faculty, graduate students, and independent artists. The goal is to create
enhanced opportunities for research in the relationship of art and high technology in
collaboration with science and industry, and also to provide an environment for the
production of art works and performances using this technology. The value of these
facilities to graduate students and the usefulness of such students to the institution is,
we hope, obvious.
We intend to phase in the program over three years, from 1990-1993. The figures
given below represent what is, in our view, a realistic projection of the costs of the
program, but we do not expect these sums to be forthcoming entirely from the
University's base budget. The technician position may be included in fundraising for
the Integrated Media Centre, and much of the equipment required may also come from
coordination of the needs of the graduate program with those of the Integrated Media
Centre. Other avenues for external fundraising will continue to be explored.
0

 
11
-Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
TOTAL
Recurring
Senior Faculty
60,000.00
60,000.00
60,000.00
180
0
000.00
60,000.00
Other Faculty
1
14,000.00
14,000.00
28,000.00
56,000.00
28,000.00
Staff2
27,000.00
27,000.00
27,000.00
81,000.00
27,000.00
Equipment
35,000.00
35,000.00
35,000.00
105,000.00
Productions
10,000.00
15,000.00
15,000.00
40,000.00
15,000.00
Library
15,000.00
10,000.00
5,000.00
30,000.00
5,000.00
161,000.00 161,000.00 170,000.00 492,000.00 135,000.00
1 Visiting faculty or sessional lecturers
2Half time secretary and half-time technician
.
0

 
12
APPENDIX A
Suggested Calendar Entry
The program leading to the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies is
designed to provide an advanced level of professional training for artists in the fields of
music, dance, theatre, film, and visual art. Its goals are the furthering of cross-
disciplinary research, technical skill and artistic creativity, and the development of
critical awareness of the relatedness of the arts both in contemporary society and
within an historical perspective.
Course offerings are designed to preserve as much flexibility as possible to
accommodate individual differences in background and artistic goals, with the
emphasis throughout the program being on the production of creative work in an
interdisciplinary context.
Admission Requirements
a. The degree of B.F.A., B.A., B.Mus. or B.Ed. in one or more of the art disciplines, with
a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better. In special cases a candidate may
be admitted who does not satisfy this requirement but who either possesses
comparable certification (an art school or conservatory diploma) or has exceptional
experience as a practising artist.
. b. Demonstrated creative competence. This requirement may be satisfied by the
completion with high standing of undergraduate courses in music, dance, theatre, film,
or visual art, or substantial experience in these fields outside the university. All
students applying to the program will be required to submit for the consideration of the
committee a portfolio of examples of their work in the form of tapes, scores, slides,
films, videotapes, plays or academic papers. Performing artists may be asked to
undergo an audition.
Candidates whose qualifications are deficient will be required to take undergraduate
courses to remedy the deficiency during a qualifying year. These courses will be
specified by the Admissions Committee. Foreign students may be required to
demonstrate their proficiency in the English language, which may be done by attaining
a score of 570 or above in the Test of English as a Foreign Language.
0

 
13
For the M.F.A. degree, candidates must complete a minimum of 40 semester hours
work, including 30 semester hours of course work and a Project which is the
equivalent of 10 semester hours. In most cases this Project will be the presentation of
an art work, accompanied by appropriate documentation. Completion of this project
will be followed by an oral defence. The Project plus the required Interdisciplinary
Seminars account for 20 hours; of the remaining 20 hours, 15 will normally be from
within the Centre. The course requirements are:
All of:
EPA 811-5
?
Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar 1
EPA 812-5
?
Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar 2
FPA 898-10
?
MFA Graduating Project
Plus three of the following:
EPA 883-5
Studio in FPA 1
FPA 885-5
Studio in FPA 2
EPA 887-5
Selected Topics in FPA*
EPA 889-5
Directed Study in EPA*
Plus five units selected from Upper Division or Graduate courses outside the
department.
In the case of a candidate whose work involves substantial investigation of another
discipline, an Upper Division or Graduate level course from another department could
substitute for EPA 887 or 889 with the supervisory committee's permission.
?
0
S
1-1

 
14
Appendix B:
Faculty
Faculty CV's are attached as an appendix to the proposal. Areas of research and
availability as potential senior supervisors(1), committee members(2), and
instructors(by course number), are summarized below: This list reflects a currently
(October 1988) representative sample of faculty and is not exclusive.
MUSIC
Martin Bartlett, Professor,
Electroacoustic and computer music, composition, music of non-western cultures
1,2,811/2,883/5,887/9
Owen Underhill, Associate Professor,
Composition, conducting, contemporary ensembles
2,883/5,887/9
Barry Truax, Associate Professor, (joint appointment with Communication)
Computer music, world soundscape studies
1,2,883/5,887/9
THEATRE
Marc Diamond, Associate Professor
Directing, playmaking
1,2,883/5,887/9
Penelope Stella, Assistant Professor
Directing, playmaking
2,883/5,887/9
FILM
Jacqueline Levitin, Associate Professor (Joint appointment with Womens' Studies,
effective 1 August 1989)
Film Theory, Directing, Womens' Studies
1,2,811/2,883/5,887/9
Patricia Gruben, Assistant Professor
Directing, Scriptwriting
1,2,883/5,887/9
Henry Jesionka, Assistant Professor
Video, Integrated media
2,883/5,887/9

 
DANCE
Santa AIoi, Professor
Choreography, movement
1,2,883/5,887/9
Iris Garland, Professor
Choreography, Dance History and Criticism
1,2,883/5,887/9
Grant Strate, Professor,
Choreography, ballet
1,2,883/5,887/9
VISUAL ART
Allyson Clay, Assistant Professor
Painting,
2,883/5,887/9
Greg Snider, Assistant Professor
Sculpture
1,2,883/5,887/9
Anne Ramsden,Assistant' Professor
Painting, video
2,883/5,887/9
INTERDISCIPLINARY
Evan Alderson, Associate Professor
Critical Theory,
1,2,811/2,883/5,887/9:
15
.
.
0

 
16
WW.
o.
R.
r
The people who we propose as external assessors were chosen with two main criteria
in mind: first, they are people of high academic reputation with wide experience of the
international scene in contemporary cultural and educational directions. Second they
are themselves representative of the different disciplines which are taught in the
Simon Fraser University Centre for the Arts and can adjudicate the proposal from the
point of view of the relationship of those disciplines to the interdisciplinary context.
They are:
Gladys Bailin,
Professor and Chair,
Dance Department,
-Ohio University,
Athens, Ohio
Ms Bailin was a founding member of the Alwin Nikolais Dance Theatre in New York
City and remained with the company for 20 years as leading dancer. She has been
guest artist and teacher at many universities including UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, UC
Long Beach, and Simon Fraser University. As a dance educator of unparalleled
experience, she is familiar with graduate and undergraduate programs throughout
North America, and is therefore highly qualiflied to assess this proposal.
Glenn Lewis,
Head,
Media Arts Section,
The Canada Council,
Ottawa, Ontario
Mr. Lewis has a distinguished background as sculptor, media artist, and arts
administrator. The Media Arts section of the Canada Council gives grants to
individuals and organizations involved in film, video, and interdisciplinary
technological art. As Head of this section, Mr. Lewis sees work from all over the
country and travels widely to meet representatives of arts organizations. Noone in
Canada therefore has a more comprehensive view of the current state of media arts,
whether from the artistic, technological, or educational standpoints. Since before
taking up his current appointment he worked in Vancouver as an arts administrator for
twelve years, he is exceptionally well acquainted with the British Columbia situation.
Gerald O'Grady
Director,
Educational Corn munications Cen ter,
300 Wende Hall
S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo,
Buffalo, N.Y.,
14214

 
17
Dr. O'Grady is former director of the Center for Media Study at SUNY Buffalo, has
taught film and media at the New School for Social Research, New York University,
Antioch College, and many other institutions. His career has many parallels with that
of Marshall McLuhan--beginning with work in English literature (particularly mediaeval
studies) and continuing to research in film, educational technology, and the impact of
commercial and experimental media. He
has
done
a
great deal of consulting,
including membership in the the New York State Advisory Committee on the Arts,
consultant in educational media program development at Ryerson Polytechnic, and as
Director and coordinator of many, conferences, summer institutes, and special
programs.
David Keane,
Associate Professor,
Department of Music,
Queen's University,
Kingston, Ontario
Professor Keane is a well-known Canadian composer, primarily of electroacoustic
music, with extensive experience in mixed media work. His work is widely presented
throughout North America and Europe, including many performances at major
international festivals, including the Holland Festival and the International Festival of
Experimental Music at Bourges. He is active in many national and international
organizations, such as the Canadian Electroacoustic Community, and the International
Society for Contemporary Music. He serves regularly as a member of Canada Council
juries and arts advisory boards. His experience and reputation as a widely-travelled
creative artist and educator have givôn him, a broad perspective on, current issues in
advanced education in the arts.
Herbert Shore,
Associate Dean,
School of Performing Arts,
University of Southern California,
Los Angeles, Calif.
90089
With a background in drama, film and television as writer and director, Professor
Shore has moved on to engage the larger issues of the role .ofthe arts,-in technological
society and the process of cultural .transformation in the global context. As a
consultant on cultural development and the performing arts he has worked for
UNESCO, the Institute of American Indian Arts, the Australia Council, the ministries of
culture of Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, and in Ethiopia, Zambia, :Nigeria and
Mozambique. His long list of publications include works on cultural policy, the arts in
developing nations, and specific studies of African, American and 'Asian writers and
dramatists.
n

 
r ?
I
18
• ?
Appendix D:
New Course Proposal forms and course outlines (attached)
!,I:1iluiI
Librarian's report. (attached)
Faculty CV's (attached)
?
Note: Faculty CV's are available in the Office
of the Dean of Graduate Studies, AQ 6035
0

 
SIHON FRASF.R UNIVERSITY
New Graduate Coura.. Pronocal Form
CALENDAR INFflRMATION:
D
e par
t
men
t:
e_for the
?
Course Hur.,er:
FPA.
811
litic; Interdisciplinary (raduate Seminar
I
Description: Critical study of contemporary issues in the fine and performing arts, with
emphasis on concerns common to diverse artistic disciplines and the interaction-between
art and society.
Credit Hour!;:
5 ?
Vector::
2?0
?
Prerequisite(g) if any:_________
ri
ENROLLMENT AND SCHEDULING:
Estimated Enrolloept:_ M ax
8 ?
When will
the
course first be offered:
1990 — 3 or later
How often will the course be offered:
_Annually
JUSTIFICATTOi:
This course
is
the academic core
of
the
M.F.A.
program, as discussed in the
woo
?
M.F.A.
proposal
?
.
RESOURCES:
Which Faculty member will normally teach
the
course: It
Is
anticipated that the new
g
raduate program
director '
s
position
will
teach this course.
What are the budgetary implications of mountinR the course:
Are there sufficient. Lib
?
rary resources (annend detatla):
Yes
Aipcniie;t: al Outline of the Course
h) An Indication of
the
cor3p etencc of the Faculty member
to gtvc the course.
c)
Library resources
Approved: Departmental Graduate Studies Cormitte(
?
Date November
15, 1987
)atulty Graduate
?
Lea 'jtittce.:
tacit I ty:
?
D.itc
-L'r ?
,f1f.1z
Senate (r;;tltustc Stu(hjce Coist tee:
?
S
Senate:
?
Date:

 
6
4.
The avant-garde and the voice
of
the other
5.
The avant-garde in relation to tre miss-meaia and Popular culture
The content of the course would be drawn extensivel
y
from the bibliography
below.
Theodor W. Adorno. Aesthetic Theory. Poutledge and Kegan Paul, London,
-l984
Minima Moral ia Verso Editions, London, 1978.
"On the Fetish Character in Music and
the
Regression
of
Listening." The Frankfurt School Reader. edited
by
Andrew Arato and Ewe
Gebhardt, Contini:um, New York, 1
98
.
2
0
??
The Philosoph
y
of flodern Music. 5eatury Press. New
York, 1973.
Prisms. MI T- Press, Carnbridge,Massacnusetts, 1981.
Theodor Adorno and Max Horkhelmer. Dialectic of Enlightenment, translated
by John Cumming Continuum, New Yor$ 1982.
Aesthetics and Politics: Ernst BlochG.org
Lukacs. Bertold Brecht. Walter
BenJamlnTheodor Adorno. with an afterword by Fredric Jameson. Verso,
London, 1977.
Jacques Attali. Noise: The Political Economy of Music. Theory and History of
Literature,
Volume 16, University of Mnnesota Press, 1985
Stephen Bann, editor. The Tradition of Constructiornsrn
The Viking
Press,
New York, 1974.
Walter Benjamin. Reflections: Essays, Aohorisms, Autobiograühical
Writings, edited by Peter Demetz. Harcourt Brace Jovanovicri, New York,
1978.
I

 
Illuminations, edited by annah Arendt. Schocken Books,
John B Bowit, ed. Russian Art ot the Avant-Garde. Viking
Press, New
York,
1976.
4
S
Benjamin H.D. Buchlor. Figures of Au"horiy, Ciohers of Regession.'
?
t
After Modernism. RethinkInQ Represerktation. edited by Brian Wallis.
Andre Breton Surrealism and Pa1ntng. translated by Simon Watson Taylor.
Harper and Row, New York, 1 972..
Peter Burger. Theor
y
of the Avant-garde. Theory and Histori of Literature.
Volume 4. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 198.
Victor Burgin, The End of Art Theory
..
Criticism and Postmodernity.
Humanities Press International, Atlantic-Highlands, New Jersey, 1986.
Michel de Certeau. Heterologies. Discourse on te Other. Theory and History
of Literature ,Volume 17. University of Minnes-ta Press, Minneapolis, 1986.
Herschel B. Chip, editor. Theories of Modem Art, A Sourcebook by Artists
and Critics, with contributions by Peter
c
elz and Joshua C. Taylor.
University of California Press, Berkley, 1968.
Helene Civous and Catherine Clement. The Newly Born Woman. translated by
Betsy Wing. Theory and Literature,
Volume
24 University of Minnesota
Press, Minneapolis, 1986
Gu
y
Debord. Ib.,Society of the Spectacle. Black and Red, Detroit, 1970.
'Femiist Film Practice and Pleasure A Dscussion' (inducing Dee Dee
3l.jss, Ciselda Pollock, Laura Muivey, Jud
i
th Williams). Formations of
Pleasure. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1963.
Hal Foster, "LArnourFaux'. Art in Amric, Jan:ar
y
, 1986.
Recodings. Art SDectacie. ultural Politics. Bay Press, Port
Townsend, Washington, 1985.
• editor.
T
he Anti-AesthetL Essays on Postmodem Culture. Bay
Press, Port Townsend, Washington, 1183.
?
0

 
Hal Foster, editor. Dia Art Foundation: Liscusslons in Contemporar
y
Culture,
Number
1.
Bay Press, Seattle, Wasringtn, 1987,
Peter Gay. Wiemar Culture, The Outsider as Insider. Harrr and Row, New
York, 1970.
German Realism of the Twenties. The Atist as Social Critic. Exnibitio
Catalogue. The Mneapolis institute
of the
Arts,
l980.
Dan Graham. 'The 3tre, Cinema, Power' Parachute, 3
1
.Jur''.Ju1y/Aug0st,
1983.
Richard Huelsenbeck 'En Avant Dada:
A
nistory of Dadism (1
920)".
The Dada
Painters and Poets: An Anthology, edited by Robert Motherwell, George
Wittenborn, Inc.. New York, 195.
Andreas Huyssen. After the Great Divice. Modernism, Mass Culture. Post
Modernism. Indiana University Press, Eloornlngton, indana, 1986.
it
?
Martin Jay. AdorrQ. Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts,
1984
Cora Kaplan.
"Wild Nights. Pleasure/Sexual i ty/Femiriism." Formations of
Pleasure.
Routledge and Kegan Paul, Lor:don. 1963.
Rosalind Krauss. "No More Play." The Originality of the Avant-garde and
other Modernist Myths. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1985. p.
"The Photographic Conditions of Surrealism.
?
p.87
"The Originality
of
the Avant-garde." 1.
p
14().
Luce Irigaray.
SDeCU1Jn'1
of the Other Woman. tranlatec by Gillian 6, Gill.
Cornell Universit
y
Press, Ithaca, New York, 1985
Helmut Lethan.
"The Roaring Twenties in Berlin, Sociological portraits
of
a
city." Berlin:
A Critical View, Realism: 20s-70s. Exhibition Cata1oue,
The Institute of Contemporary Art London, 1978.
0 ?
Sophie Llssitzky-Kuppers. El Lissitzky Thames and Hudson, London, 1968.

 
6
org Lukacs. Essays on Realism. edted by Rodney Livingston. MIT Press,
Combridcje, MassachuseT:ts, 1 90.
Euaene Lunn. Marxism and Moaernism, An Historical Study of Lukcs Brecht.,
Adorno. Un1verstv of California Press, Berkley, 1982.
John Mimer. Vladimir Tat] in and the Russian Avant-ga
rde. Yale University
Press,
1983.
Tor1 MOI. Sexual/Textual Politics, Femimst Literary TheorL. Methuen,
London, 1()85,
Robert Motherwell, editor. The Dada Painters and Poets: An Antholo,
George Wittenborn, Inc., New York, 1951.
Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock Old Mistressess. Women
? Art a
IdeOlogy. Routledge and Kegan PaUl, London, 1981.
Griselda POflOCK. Art, Art School, Cuture' individualism af:ertheaeath of
the artist,' 81oc I I 1985/86. (also
r
eprinted in Exposure, Volume 24,
Number 3. Fall 1986)
Artists, Mytholoq;es and Media Genius, Madness and Art
History." Screen, 2 1, Number 3, 1980.
Mfflw;]^Ow
e
11
erato Pogqioli. The Theory of the Aant-garde. HarvaraUriiverslty'Press,
flbric
?
M;(h:r:ftc
Ne!ly R1char. Margns and lnst1tutio.s, At in Chile Since '971
Experimental Art Institution for Art and Text, vOlume 21 Melbourne,
A,5 r
3l,a
198
7
Frank
lin
Rosernont, editor and translator. What is SurrealiEni? Selected'
Writings. Monad Press, New York, 1978.
Richard Sherwood, edtor and trans1a:o, Documents from
Lef."
Screen
L.zjj',vo1urne 12,Wnter 1971/1.72.

 
I
Proposal for graduate courses wi
l
rlri
3
,
1
1nteroicioiinary
MF
QioQrarnme
hv f)çirry
7r
A definitive as
p ect
of
tr1e Centre for the Arts underqraduate proaramme
1;
an emphasis on critical discourse
fl
coriunction with studio practce
encourages students to examine 1mmannt values of their own art
production as well as to develop a critical vocabulary about culture an
society. Th
i
s critical-theoret lcal corr'onent is necessarily
interdisciplinary in approach as contemporary discourse on culture is
itself
interdisciplinary (Including, for eamp'e, psychoanalytic tneorv,
sociological analysis, social and political histor
y , literar y
criticism, ?
-
linguistic theory)
Critical-theoretical study would font nue at a graduate level within
carefully defined courses with inthsif led reading requirements.
Examples of course definition m1gt be
• ?
1.
Courses which address a trieoret'cal
r0005
directly
i. by examining some aspect of a arge area of critical inaulry:
eg.
Culture and Technology
Art and Institutions
Theory of the Avant-garde and Avant Garde
Art
Practice
Feminist theory concerning cu'ture
H. focussing on a school
of
theory or 3n individual writer
eg. Frankfurt School
Situationism
Roland Barthes
Theocor Adorrio and Twertetr entur Music Practice
2. Courses that would Indirectly
incorporate
crit1ca-treory withm the
aegis cf a topic which woWd delineat
e
specific cutura! production:
• eg. Vienna and Modernism
r
he L
Tite
Nineteenth Century
Modermsm in Paris
Weimar, culture and poi'tcs
Surrealism
• ?
Marcel Duchamp

 
t
1s
p
ossible to del ineate within western modernism an
.
artpract1ce
that Is
seLf-critical, seLf-conscious of Its poSitonTh relation to society,
and often
in critical opposition to society. This practie is Crftfcal
m'oaernismor'The
3vant -garde
Avant-garde art practice has historically included a sfconscious
consideration of the materials of art oroduction and a demand for continual
originality or renewaL its very premise erefore confronts
theaccepted
concept of Art within bourgeois ideooqy. cs positionwfthin sodty is
3qonstic: separate but also
p
art of the sccial whole. From this
poSlt1ob
avant-garde art has addressed social, political, cultural and ecnomic
arrangements in western society.
Further, avant-garde art practice has formed the cônten't of debate and
theoretical writing on culture througnout tne
twentieth century. Many0f
hA compley
q 'iet.ions raised in conni
L
fti
n
n to
-
the
avarft-qarde
continue in
ostrnodernism
This course proposes to examine selected avant garde art
bracticesand
aspects
of
cr
4 itica l
theory connected o these
art practices ApproØrlate
artworks would be studiec in conjUnction with critical r'eadings.
Material for the course would be chosen and orgnized accordina to the
following topic areas
1.
The historical and social corfiqurati'ons of The avant-garde: theory
of The
avant-garde within western modernism
2.storical examples or avant-garde practice:
i Russian post-revolutionary culture
n 6orman Dada
ll ?
irrea1im
v. The American avart-
g
arde of the fifties and ,sixties
3 The avant-garde as revolutionary CiscoJrse:
the avant-garde in relation to atflnat
.
1ve culture
the avant-garde in relation to cultural ract1te'within tne totalitarian
state
i'i culture as redempton

 
I
?
I
SiMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
16 ?
Ne Graduate Course
Pronoa1.
Form
CALENDAR INFORMATION:
Centre for the Arts
?
FPA. 812
Departrneat:______________________
Course flur.er:
TLtic:
Interdisciplinar
y Seminar II
Description:
Continuation of EPA. 811
Credit hours:
?
5
,
?
-
?
Vector:
220
Prercqui5lte(a) if tutu:
FPA.811
F.NROLUNT AND SCHEDULING:
Estimated Enrollment:
Max
_8
?
When will the course first be offered:
1990-3ox_ia,ter
How often will the course be offered;
Annual l
y
._
This course is offered at the same
time as FPA. 811.
JUSTIFICATION:
With FPA. 811, this course is the academic core of the M.F.A. program, as discussed
in the M.
FA.
Droposal.
RESOURCES:
It is anticipated that the new graduate program
%
Which Faculty member will normally teach the ?
director
'sposition will teach this course.
What are the budgetary implication of mountinR
the
course:
Are
there nuf(Icicnt Library resources (aonenai detatlr,):
?
Yes
Appended: a) Outline of
the
Course
•b) An indication of the coo p
etance of the Faculty member to gtvc
the
course.
c) Library resources
Approved: Departmental Graduate Studies Committee.
Faculty Graduate
VIOUJLC3
Faculty:
?
C
i
t
Senate Graduate Studies CocniC tee:
Senate: ?
-
November 16, 1.987
I
_ ?
Ttc:
40t _
/987
--___
Date
JO/r/F9
/'
C
Date:

 
.
FPA 811/812
INTERDISCIPLINARY GRADUATE SEMINAR
?
Course Outline
This course forms te academic core of the MFA program. Its
function is to provide a focus for developing a critical awareness
of the position of the arts in contemporary society and within the
historical perspective, with emphasis on issues that are common to
the various art disciplines or are concerned with links between
them. It is a required course for all students in the program.
The class will meet twice a week; the first meeting will be
the presentation of some aspect of the chosen topic by the
instructor, the second will consist of student presentations and
discussion of texts and materials relevant to the lectures.
Students will be asked to complete a term paper. or project
relevant to the material under discussion.
The central topic or issue will be chosen by the instructor
and will change from semester to semester. Three sample outlines
are appended.
Evaluation (typically):
Term project or research paper: 60%
Oral presentation: 20%
Seminar participation: 20%
0

 
FPA, 811/812
?
Interdisci p linar
y
Graduate Seminar
SAMPLE COURSE OUTLINE:
FOUR TWENTIETH CENTURY ENVIRONMENTS FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY ARTISTIC
RESEARCH AND PRODUCTION
Interdisciplinary collaboration in the arts has, in the
twentieth century, been focussed on particular institutions or
groups whose aesthetic and cultural attitudes have given a unique
and significant direction to the efforts of numbers of individual
artists. This seminar is a study of four such significant nodes
of activity, namely:
• The Bauhaus (Germany, 19201s)
Black Mountain College (South Carolina, 1940,$)
Experiments in Art and Technology (New York, 196015)
M.I.T. Media Lab
• (Boston, 19801s)
Although these four eñrironments differ radically in their goals
and resources, they r.éresent significant attempts to construct a
coherent frame of refeçnce for interdisciplinary artistic
activity in the modern 'world. They form part of a connected series
of experiments in creating communities of artists and thinkers who
attempted to reshape not only artistic techniques but also the
formal relationship of art and society. For example, Josef
Albers, one of the Bauhaus artists, became director of Black
Mountain College. John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg, who worked
together at Black Mountain, were amoung the founders of the New
York group E.A.T. Several of the artists and engineers who
collaborated in the New York experimental environment now work at
the M.I.T. Media Lab.
Lectures will consider the political and cultural environments of
these experiments, their economic base, their aesthetic positions,
their major accomplishments, and their shortcomings. Attempts will
be made to understand the different attitudes and goals of these
groups in relation to their historical contexts. Student
presentations will focus on particular works, projects and artists
associated with them.
O

 
A;a' 5te!.).
iLc:,
Wnt C•._.L1aL; ?
'e
?
E:.'
i)uSsei,
?
ii'3i(
j
yñr'
?
ihi' ?
mnflOta
Trp
rsr
pr
m
tn
'Nt ?
'J _)Ct
r
v
!
J
C
1 !'. ?
.-. ?
i•)I
H
oderna1i
j
e . ?
:
5)I:0.
r:1rr.
r :r' Wal'H, -, ?
.41 AZr
1
Ler . .n;
Nev. Museun c
17
C
:rtemrar
Art.
'
e0'.
?
964
W I len,
?
ir
.
or
?
trans.
3tC
?
,.
':rt ?
Th
g
tr
. _
Tr
11ftve1c,Om.r.t
n..csthetic Loron,
John Wfl let:.jj
.
arc PHs
?
±Wmar ?
net,
.19 1 7- 1 93.. Partb1ecr: 3ooks, ?w ':or
Christa Woif.
'A
Letter about
Ur.evca! an
Ambue ?
'eani,
Definiteness ar
?
r cenn!teries;
3LO(Jt
flC1&flt LOflCl t1 r
)
c.
scopes; aoout
Ob'ectvity."
Fern irL Asthencs ?
sea Ec..
.r
aitor
ir
Women's Press, London, 1985.
Janet Wolff. The Social Production of
Art.
The Macmillan Press, London,
19EL
'S

 
DRAFT 11/13/87
?
Evan Alderson
WA. 812-5 Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar?
Sample course outline
The Body as the. Source of Truth in 20th Century Western Art
One of the persistent themes of 20th century art-making has been the
attempt to find an essential ground for expression, beneath the veneer of
civilization, upon which a earch for artistic truth could be based Although
the theme is not original with this century, and its appearance is in many
ways an extension of romantic postulates about artists and the arts, there
has been in this century b. recurrent connection between the search for
-. essences and the human body. This course will examine a series of such
connections, both in theoretical writings and in art work of various kinds, as
a means of studying was the body and bodily experience have been
conceptualized and given aesthetic rendering. The primary intention of the
course is to provide an opportunity for reflection and exchange among
practicing artists.
I. The first section of the course (about
5
weeks) will provide an orientation
?
for the subsequent study of specific artists by introducing some historical
and theoretical maial.
1.Antecedents.
A brief look at some pre-twentieth century depictions
of the body and the attitudes toward the body these implied. Possible
examples: Greek statuary, Michelangelos "David", paintings by Ingres.
2.
Some coordinates of theory.
3
or 4 weeks will be spent assimilating
some important 2Othce.n.tury theorizations of bodily experience. These
might include:
a.
Rudolf von Labans vision of the body, in his more abstract
writings, as a cosmic centre, and the relation of his writings to earlier views
of the body as microcosm.
b.
Wilhelm Reich's theory of the body as the central object of
repression and the hope for liberation. A possible extension to the somatic
utopianism of Norman 0. Brown.
c. Merleau-Pontys "lived body," his version of the
• ?
phenomenological attempt to overcome the mind/body dualism by
emphasizing the agency of the body in perception and understanding.
d. Michel Foucault and the social construction of the body,
emphasizing the ways in which both our understanding of the body and our

 
1.
?
.
Bibliara hv
Brán, Stewart, ?
flab, 1987
Cage,
John, SilCnce
191
Dickstein, MàrriS,
the
.
-Gätes ofEdt:Amerian.Cuiture in the
Sixties,
1977
Dub erman, Martin, Bia'ck Moita
.
i
.
ñ.:
.. ?
E*b,lo.rat1bfl. ih Community,
1972
Gopiüs Wáiter,
'
The Thèàtrê :of. the Bauh
?
1'925r,
tr. 161
Koste Ianetz,
Richard, The The'ate:r of
4jëdègns,
1.9t68
Negroponte, N1cho1as, *hë. tchit tuie. ac'h4Tne., 197O
Rosenberg, Harold, Th'e
d
De
iñi . tionO ?
;i91:3
Tomkins, Calvin, Off the Wall
Robe
t
rt 'Rauscherbezg and the Art
World of OurTimé, 1980
Wi 1 lèt't
John, r and Poitcs ihthe êäiPiød, ;19 78
Wthgler, H.M., i'h
'
i •Bauh'ais, 'i9,69
0

 
WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHY
Artaud, Antonin. Selected Writings. ed. S. Sontag.
Brown, Jean Morrison, ed. The Vision of Modern Dance. Princeton: Princeton
Book Co., 1979
Chipp, Herschel B, ed. Theories of Modern Art. California, 1968
Duncan, Isadora. My Life. New York: Liveright, 1955.
Foucault. M. The History of Sexuality
.
. Vols 1-3.
Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writing
Fraleigh,. Sondra Horton. Dance and the Lived Body
.
. Pittsburgh, 1987
Kendall, Susan. Where She Dnced
Laban. Rudolph von. Choreutics. London: MacDonald and Evans, 1966.
Principles of Dance and Movement Notation. London: MacDonald
and Evans, 195.
Lawrence, Nathaniel and Daniel Otonner, eds. Readings in Existential
Phenomenology... Prentice-Hall, 1967
.Levin, David Michael. The Body's Recollection of Being. Routledge and Kegan
Paul, 1985.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception. Routledge and
Kegan Paul, 1962.
Poihemus, Ted, et al. The Body as a Medium of Expression
S ?
Reich, Wilhelm The Mass Psychology of Fascism
(1933).
Souvenir Books,
1972.
Spicker, Stuart, ed. The Philosopily of the Body.. Chicago, Quadrangle, 1970.
Steinman, Louise. The Knowing Body: Elements of Contemporary_
Performance and Dance. Boston, Shambala, 1986.
Turner, Bryan S. The Body and Society.p1orations in Social Theory.
London: Basil Blackwell, 1984
Wigman, Mary. The Mary jffjgman Book. ed. Walter Sorell. Middletown,
Conn.: Wesleyan Univ Press, 1975.
Wiles, Timothy J
.
The Theatre Event: Modern Theories of Performance.
Chicago, 1980.
3

 
practices regarding it are socially mediated. Some extension of these ideas
toward the experience
of
the body within contemporary media culture,
particularly as articulated by feminist theorists.
II - The second section of the course will examine a series of exemplary
figures or works from different art forms. Faculty specialists in various art
forms will be invited to participate, and students in the course will take
special responsibility for their own disciplines.
3.
Early Modern Dance. An ei ination of some of the writings and
available reconstructions of the pioneers, including Isadora Duncan, Ruth
St. Denis, and Mary Wigman.
4.
Some early 20th century art movements The relationship of
rationality and a body-based spirituality in the Bauhaus especially in the
work of Oskar Schlemmer Automatic writing and other subconsciously based
somatic practices in early surrealism.
5.
The reactionary appropriation of the body. An examination of the
ways in which a culture of the body was promoted within fascism, using Leni
Reifenstahls
QiyrnpJ,
but also examining the ambiguous status of Mary
Wigrnan and Carl Orff in Nazi Germany.
6.
Acting theory. A study of various views of the actors training and
role, with brief attention to Stanislavsky in this context, and focussing on
Artaud, and especially Grotowski. Some attention to body therapies as they
have entered theatre training, e.g. the Feldenkreis Method
7.
Visual Art. A consideration of some somatically based artistic
practices in the contemporary period, including the action painting of
Jackson Pollock and the performance art of Chris Burden.
8.
Corporeality in music. An examination of the work of Harry Partch
together with
some consideration or the ways differing somatic sensibilities
have entered contemporary art through non-western musics.
9.
Recent dance and mixed media performance. An examination of
various orientations toward the body in the work of artists such
.
,as Yvonne
Rainer, Anna Haiprin, Deborah Hay, Meredith Monk and Ping Chong.
10 The media body. A brief consideration of some artistic responses
to proliferating visual reproduction of the bOdy, including some attention to
theoretical Issues, and perhaps working from a film such as Antonionfs
B1oyp.

 
a
SiMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
New Craduate
Coutye Prononal Porm
CALENDAR INFORMATION:
Centre for the Arts
?
FPA. 883
Department:_____________________________
?
Couras ?Jurcr:
Title:
Studio in FPA I
Description:
Intensive studio work, concentrated in a particular art discipline, but
with opportunity to involve interdisciplinary materials
drid
techniques.
Credit
lours:
5 ?
Vector: ?
Prercquiztte(n) if any:
ENROWIENT AND SCHEDULING:
SCHEDU!.INC:
Estimated Enrollment:
Max 8 ?
When will the course first be offered:
.1990 - 3 or later
How often will the course be offered:
Annually
JUSTIFICATION-
See M.F.A. proposal.
S
RESOURCES:
Which Faculty member sL1l normally teach the
?
as designed by student's supervisory committee.
What are the budgetary implications of mounting the course:___________________________________
Availability of studio facilities and equipment.
Are there
sufficient Library resources (aDnend dctntle):
Extensive library resources normally
not required.
Appended: a) Outline of
the
Course
b)
An indication of the coruetcncc of the Faculty member to gIv the course.
c)
Library resources
Approved: Departmental Graduate Studies Coittcc:
?
JDnte
:November 16, 197
Faculty Graduate Std)eo Co
?
te ?
ate:
?
8,jqg7
Faculty:
ILL-__
riatc:
öSenate Graduate Studic
?
Senate :
?
_Date:

 
Approved: flcpnrtmc
Faculty
Facu I ty
Senate
Senate:
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
WASW
?
New Craduate Courne Pronnnl Form
?
.
CALENDAR
INFORMATT,ON:
Department: Centre for the Arts
?
Coürne nurtier: ?
FPA. 885
Title:
Studio in FPA II
Description:
?
Conti nuat iOfl
Of FPA.883
Credit Hour!;: ?
5
?
Vector:
?
PrerCqui9tte(s) if
cnv:
FPA. 883
ENROLLMENT AND
SCHEDULING:
Eotimated Enrollment:
?
Max 8 ?
When will the
COUtBC
first be offered:
?
1990 - 3 or later
How often will the course be offered:
?
Annually -
JUSTIFlCATTO1:
See M.F.A. proposal.
?
-
RESOURCES:
Which Faculty member will normally teach the course:
as designed by student's supervi sory
committee.
What are the budgctnry implication of mounting the course:_______________________________________
Are there n%I(IICR'nl Library resources (;,poenrl detoUr,):
Extensive 1ibrarL
r e
sources
normally
not required.
Appended: n) Outline of the Couran
b)
An Indication Of the cor
p
etCncc of the Faculty member to give the course.
c)
Library rcourcc:i
!),,,.November 16, 1987
J13
?
iqg
natcqJ. _'
t_(q7
.fltc:
/0/7/P-i
Date: ?
-

 
a
EPA 883/885
Course Outline
This course consists of intensive studio work under faculty
supervision, based on the student's art discipline, but with the
opportunity to undertake interdisciplinary work and collaboration.
The work undertaken in the course will most likely take the form
of artistic production, but may include a research component as
well. The goal is the development of craft and technical skill
and the development of the student's creative ideas.
?
- - -
Evaluation is-based on the supervisor's informed judgment of
the student's productivity, originality and level of
craftsmanship.
O
6

 
SIMON
FRASER UNIVERSITY
Nir
Graduate
Course Pronosnl F
orm
CALENDAR INFORMATION:
Department:
_Centre
for
-
the Art
s
?
_Course
Hurer:
FPA.
887
Title:
Selected topics in FPA.
Description:
Study of particular artistic techniques or issues. ?
The topic
varies from semester to semester.
Credit Hours: ?
5
?
Vector: ? Prerequi
s
ite(s) if env:_
ENROLLMENT
AND
SCHEDULING:
Estimated Enrollment:
Max
6 ?
When will
the
courae first be offered:'
9 90 -
3
or later
How often will the course be offered: ?
As required.
JUSTIFICATION:
See M.F.A. proposal.
RESOURCES:
Which Facully
member w
ill
nornIly
tcach the cnJrs.:
?
as as signed.
What
nrc the
budgetory
implicattona of mountinR
the
course:
__
.
Are there nuffictent. Library reaourcca
(a p nend.
tictntlr.):________________________________________
Aipcnded:
a) Outline of the Courac
h) An Indication of the. cor
p ete.ncc of
the
Faculty
inr.mbe.r
to glve
the
course.
c) Library rcaourcca
Approved: Departmental Graduate Stud tc ConaLtte.c:^
?
Date
:Nn
yp
mh p
r 16, 197
QC(26r-----
._rtate:L
?
I2'
ate:
Date:
Faculty GradttaLe
St
/
id l
es C
?' Lt
tee:
Facu) ty:
Srnatc
Graduate Stucilca Coiattte.c
Senate:
FA

 
S
SELECTED TOPICS IN DANCE
Changing Perspectives: Aesthetic value and perception in dance
The values of modernism may or may not be relevant in an age which takes
what Erich Fromme has called "consensual validation" as the measure of artistic
success. By investigating a series of relationships and intentions from the
choreographer's point of view, shifts from the close of the modernist era to what is
considered the post modernist aesthetic will be explored. Works of selected
choreographers, both contemporary and historical will be analysed.
?
-
This course will be structed as a seminar which meets weekly for three
hours. Discussion will centre around theoretical questions as well as the specific
choreographic devices used by choreographers. To this end, film, videotapes and
live performances will be utilized.
A) ?
General Questions
-Is there a loss or merely a shifting meaning of idealism from the early
modern period to the consumer - market approach of the 1980's.
-Who are today's patrons of art? How do they influence the taste of both
choreographer and audience?
-How have arts funding and the development of a curatorial system in
Canadian dance affected the work of contemporary choreographers? Are there
parallels in these developments with experiences in visual arts?
-Has dance developed from what Elizabeth Kendall terms "spectacle
extravaganza" to art and then back to sensationalism? In what ways can one talk
About an aesthetic impulse or aesthetic response?
-What have been the conditioning impacts of TV, rock video and other
modern media upon choreographers' sensibilities and audience responses?
0

 
FPA 887
Course OutUne
These courses will vary from semester to semester, topics
being chosen on the basis of faculty and student interest and
availability
of re'searh facilities.
Unlike the Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar, the topics in
FPA 887 may have a distinctly
disciplinary
focus providing the
opportunity for detailed theoretical or practical investigation of
areas of study that supplement or enrich the substance of the
students' projects.
Outlines of some sample Selected
Topics.
are attached.
Criteria for evaluation will vary and Will
4g,
established, by the
Instructor at tie time a particular course is. offered.
.

 
W,
Foster, Hal
(ed)
The Anti-Aesthetic Essays on Postmodern Culture
Gablik, Suzi Has Modernism Failed? London Thames and Hudson 1964
Foster, Susan Leigh Reading Dancing: Bodies and Subjects in Contempor7
American Dance University of California Press 1986
Graham, Martha The Notebooks of Martha Graham Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich 1973
Hanna, Judith Lynn The Performer-Audience Connection University of
Tens Press 1983
Kendall, Elizabeth Where She Danced Alfred A Knopf 1979
Langer, Suzanne Feeling and Form: A Theory of Art Scribner 1953
Martin, John The Modern Dance
1932
reprint Dance Horizons 1965
Martin, John Introduction to the Dance 1939 reprint Dance Horizons 1968
McDonagh, Don The Contemporary Guide to Modern Dance Doubleday 1976
Martha Graham: A Biography Praeger 1973
Monk, Meredeth"Cornments of a Young Choreographer" Dance Magazine
June 1968
Poggioli, Renato The Theory of the Avant Garde Harvard University Press
1968
St. Denis, Ruth An Unfinished Life Harper Brothers 1939
Sheets. Madne The Phenomenolo
g
y of Dance University of Wisconsin Press
1966
Sore!!, Walter
The Dance Has Many Faces
World Publishing, New York 1951
Tobias, Tobi "Twyla Tharp" Dance Scope 4
02
(Spring 1970)

 
'. ?
B) ?
Specific choreographers: intentions and responses
-The works and hitorica1 contexts of the
follbwing
individuals or groups will
be discussed:
1)
Isadora Duncan, Ri St. Denis
2)
Martha Graham
3)
Merce Cunningham
4)
The Judson Group
5)
Twylà iharp
6)
Meredéth Monk
7)
Pina Bausch
8)
Seléctéd contemporary Canadian choreographers, for exaniple
Edward Locke, Kaen Jamieson, Robert Desrosiér.
Bibliography
Banes, Sally Terpichore in Sneakers. Post-Modern Dance
Houghton Mifflin 1980
Barthes, Roland Image. Music, Text New York Hill and Wang 1977
Barthes, Roland Mythologies Millard Wang 1957
Barzun, Jacques The Use and Abuse of Art PrincetohUniversity Press 1973
Brown, Jean Morrison ed. The Vision of Modern Dance Princeton Book Co.
1979
Copeland, Roser and Marshall Cohen (ed) Whatis Dance? Readingsin.
Theory and Criticism Oxford
University Press 1983
Copeland, Roger
"Postmodern Dance and The
Repudatión fPrimitivism".
Partisan Review 1983
Cunningham, Merce Changes: Nóteson Choreography Something Else Press
New York 1968
Duncan, Isadora
My Life Garden City Publishing 1927
Fancher, Gordon and Gerald Myers
(ed)
PriilosophicaiEsSays'Qfl Dance
Dance Horizons 1981
Foster, Hal Recordings Art. Spectacle. Cultural Politics
:
BayPreSS 1.985
.

 
Emmerson, S., ed. (1986).
The Language of Electroacoustic Music.
London: Macmillan.
Hiller, L. A., & Isaacson, L.
M. (1959). Experimental music.
New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Manning, P. (1985).
Electronic and computer music.
London: Oxford
University Press.
Mathews, M. V. (1969).
The technology of computer music.
Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.
Moorer, J. A. (1977). Signal processing aspects of computer
music-- A survey.
Computer Music Journal, 1 (1),
4-37.
Roads, C., & Strawn, J., eds. (1985).
Foundations of
computer
-
music.
Cambridge: MIT Press.
Roads, C., ed. (1985). Com
p
osers and the Com p uter. Wm.
Káufmann.
Schrader, B. (1982).
Introduction to
electro-acoustic music.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Truax, B. (1976). A communicational approach to computer sound
. ? programs.
Journal of Music Theory, 20(2),
227-300.
Truax, B. (1980). The inverse relation between generality and
strength in computer music programs.
Interface,
91
49-57.
Truax, B. (1982). Timbral construction in 'Arras' as a stochastic
?
process. Computer Music Journal,
6 (3),
72-77.
Xenakis, I. (1971).
Formalized music.
Bloomington: Indiana Univ.
• ? Press.
9

 
SPECIAL TOPICS IN COMPUTER MUSIC
Course Outline:
This is a graduate level course
covering
topics in computer
composition, sound synthesis and signal processing. It will
consist of a seminar
dealing
with
theQetcal issues in these
areas, and a lab (the SFU Computer Music Facility) where
practical work may be carried out. Particular attention will be
given to the way in which current approaches in software and
hardware change the p.rqcess by which composers deal with sound
and its organiation.
Topics will include:
- a survey of tyeq of a
pproache,
tQ computer-assisted
composition,, including musical gramma,, s.t,o,cha:stic: processes,
automated or rule-bas
.
systems, and interactive high. level
composition languages
- sound synthesis theory, including wavetable, approaches,
linear and non-linear techniques,, and syothes,is; desi.gn
considerations in microcoding such techniques for a digital
signal processor (DSP)
- introduction to digital signal prqces:s:ing as us:ed in
computer music systems,, including, real-time processes, such. as
filter, delay line and modulation techn&q.ies:, and
,
a4
survey, of non-
realtime approaches such as. synthesis. by analysis, linear
prediction, and. the phase vocoder
- psychoacoustic implications: of current, s
.
ynthe:ss and
signal processing techniques, and recent
,
computer-based
psychoacoustic research applicable to compos,:iti'on.
- analysis of specific compositin; that, implement: new idea's
in timbral and structural organization
References:
Bateman, W. (1980).
Introduction to corflput:er music:
New York:
Wiley.
Battier, M., & Truax, B., eds. (1980).
comput;er Music.
Ottawa:
Canadian Commission for UNESCO.
Buxton, W. (1:977) . A composer's. introdu,ct:io,n to. computer. music.
Interface,
6, 57-72.
Chamberlin, H. (1985).
Musical Applications., of Microprocessors,
2nd. ed. Hayden Book
Computer Music Journal,
MIT Press, vo,ls; 1-present;
.
Dodge, C., & Jerse, T. (1985).
Computer music: synthesis,
composition and performance. New.. York:' Schirmer. Books..

 
Date:
1 a
Date:
S,natc C
Senate:
5, 1987
icr
S
SIMON FRASER UNIVES1fl'
New Graduate Course Prononij Form
CALENDAR INFORMATION:
Department:
Centre for the Arts
?
Courae ?Iurther:
EPA.
889.
Title-.
?
Directed study in FPA.
Description:_____________________________________
Credit Uour:i:
5 ?
Vector:
?
Prerequisite(s) if saw:
ENROLLMENT AND SCHEDULING:
Estimated Enrollment:
Max 5
?
When will the course first be offered:
1990-3
or later
How often will the course be offered:
?
Annually
JUSTIFICATTOJ:
I
?
See
_M.F.A.proposal.
RESOURCES:
Which Faculty member will normally teach the course;
as as.si gned by s tudet
'S
supervisory
What nrc the budgetary implication
g
of mounting the course:
?
committee.
Normally none.
Are ther niifflclent. I.[brnry revourccs (annend (Ietail,;):
?
Yes
Appended: a) Outline of
the
Courne.
Li) An indication of the coouetancc of the Faculty member to give the course.
c) Library resources
U
Approved: Departmental Graduate Studies Committee*
?
- ?
Date ?
vember
1
Faculty
t ?
Sud ?
Cosittcc: ?
Grad
ate:
?
-
8
F.acuty:

 
ri
F P
A E37 ?
Electronic Cinera and Vi(. !
eo Production ?
TrISC DeCriOtLQLI
FPA 837 is a graduate-level examinati)n of the conceptual and
technological systems which support contemporary work in video, digital
art, and integrated media. Criti:al, historical and theoretical studies
will lead into the production of work in these various media.
Within the class a discourse will be structured through discussion of
readings and
viewing of work in video and c•ther media;. students will be
engaged with critical issues in aesthetics. cultural codes and deolouy
which compare artistic work in new t€:hncioqes to the ima
g
e systems jr,
use in the mass media.
The course will also investigate new.deveipments in technology -- both
from an historical point of vlev, and from a potential users perspective.
Particular attention wifl be paid to the deployment of a microcomputer-
based 2-D, 3-D and animation s
y stem,
with
a view to integrating
s y
nthetically generated imager with the more traditional film and
OP
I
N
?
vdeo-based Imaging systems.
Students will be required to complete oroj&cts lnvldeo or integrated
media as their
primary coursework. CIa3 members will be encouraged to
extend the boundaries of the medium(s) :hrough collaboration with others
in dance, theatre, music and visual art,
Guy
Debord,
Society
?
98
Ha Fos :er,
IIie Artt-Aesthetic; Essa
y s in Postrnodern Cultro, I
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Aooaratus, 193
1.
Jerry
Mander,
Four Arguments for the E1imiation of Television, 1982.
0

 
51110$ FRASIR UNIVERSITY
Pe-,j Graduate Coura., Pronoal
VOEfl
CALENDAR INPflRIIATT.0$:
Department:
Centre for the Arts
?
Coursu ?Iurber:
FPA.
898
Title: ?
M.F.A. graduating project
Description:
Credit Hours:
1
fl ?
Vector: ?
Prcrcqui9fte(n) if on":
ENROLLMENT
AND SCHEDULING:
?
- - -
?
- - -
Estimated Enrollment:
?
When will the course first be offered:
1990 - 3 or later
How often will the course be offered:_________________________________________________________
JUSTIFICATION:
See M.F.A. proposal.
RESOURCES:
Which Faculty member will normally teach the course:
Student's senior supervisor
What are the budgetary implications of rnountinR the course:
Funds must be available
to support project costs.
Are there nuffictent Library resources (nonend detntle):
Extensive library resources normally
Appended: a) Outline of the Course
?
not required.
b)
An indication of the cor3pciencc of the Faculty member to gtvc the course.
c)
Library resources
Approved: flepnrtmentol Graduate Studies Committee,!
Faculty
Craf
,L
Stufl.ea CoLttce:
Faculty:
Senate Graduate Studice Connittec:
Dntc:
November
_16, 1987
0atc:AJfb'7
1atc:4J2(
P
Senate:
?
D.tc

 
Library Response to Proposal for a Graduate Programme Leading
to a Master of Fine Arts Degree.
?
Fall 1987
?
V,04y4ro
tA d^00
1W
INTRODUCTION
Usually when a master's programme is introduced,an adequately funded under-
graduate library collection is firmly in place. Unfortunately, the under-
graduate programmes in the Centre for the Arts have never enjoyed full on-going
library funding. The traditional art history print materials required by a variety
of liberal arts and education courses are in place, but collections of books and
journals supporting the experimental avant-garde focus of the Centre are barely at
an initial study level. The collections of non-print materials - slides and
recordings - are less than adequate for the undergraduate programme, and provision
of access to the non-print collections is inadequate in terms of hours of service,
equipment provided, space, or cataloguing.
As the proposal for the MFA programme makes clear, the outlined graduate courses
cover the same areas of specialty as the present undergraduate programme. The
library needs are not different than those of the current undergrad programme, but
while the undergrad courses may be able to operate with less than adequate library
resources, there will be difficulty in attracting and keeping good graduate
students if the library situation is not upgraded. As the proposal suggests, until
the library's collection is expanded, some student needs could be met by access to
other libraries through inter-library loan. In this regard, it should be taken
into account that only UBC Wilson Library recordings circulate; UBC Music Library
recordings do not. Scores, monographs and periodicals are available through
inter-library loan, but heavy reliance on materials in other institutions puts our
students at a disadvantage.

 
-2-
6
NEW BOOKS
Approval Plan Profiles
Approval plans with Blackwell's North America and Coutts determine which new books
from major presses will be purchased by the library. The profiles covering the
approval plans currently provide broad coverage in publications on the contemporary
arts from trade and university presses. The only necessary change would be to have
all play scripts and film scripts sent automatically, rather than purchased at the
discretion of the Collections Management Office as at present. Estimated annual
cost of enriching the approval plans: $2,000.
Exhibition Catalogues
The approval plans cover exhibition catalogues published by university and trade
presses fairly well, but are less reliable for catalogues from small galleries and
presses. Worldwide Books, a catalogue distributor, estimated in 1984 that an
approval plan covering all English-text catalogues of post-1970 art, excluding
trade and university press publications, would cost $1600 US. By using even more
selective criteria, the cost could be reduced to ca $500 annually.
Scores
The approval plans bring only a small number of scores into the library, i.e. those
published by Dover Press, the reprint house. No ongoing budget for scores by
contemporary composers has been allocated and discretionary purchases have varied
from Ca. $800 in some years to nil. At Ca. $40 - per average score, at least $400
annually would be required to add even the most important ten scores of the year.

 
-3-
?
Li
SLIDES
No ongoing budget for slides has been allocated. At Ca. $2 - per slide, at east
$1000 - annually is required to maintain currency and rep1ace deteriorating items.
DECflOflT
PJ((
No ongoing budget for recordings has been allocated., At Ca. $10 - per LP, an
annual allocation of at least $300 - is required just to add each year's top thirty
new albums to the collection. Given the contemporary. focus of the programme,
currency is extremely important. As compact disc technology. overtakes traditional
systems, the additions to the collection should, be. purchased in CD. format whenever
possible. The increased. initial, expense ($
16
-
$26 per item), should be offset by
decreased replacement costs., as CDs withstand wear-and
.
-tear better than traditional
recordings.
.
LI

 
1 - 1
?
Conclusion
Annual Amount Required in Addition to Current Allocations::
Books
approval plan
?
$ 2,000 ?
exhibition catalogues
and ephemera ?
500
scores ?
400
Recordings ?
300
Slides ?
1,000
Journal Subscriptions
?
854+
.
?
TOTAL ?
$ 5,050+ per year
Inaugural Purchases:
Books, including exhibition
catalogues and scores
?
$ 4,500 ?
Recordings, including
compact discs
?
4,000
Backfiles
?
2,500
TOTAL
?
$11,000
These figures are not a consequence of added requirements of a graduate programme
in the Centre for the Arts. In fact, as the proposal makes clear, the small number
of participants, the strong studio component, and the very specific focus combine
to ensure that the graduate programme would require no more library resources than
the undergraduate programme. However, as stated in the introduction, current
.
?
library support for the undergraduate programme is less than adequate.
WANG 0231V
10 November 1987

 
RECOMMENDED JOURNAL SUBSCRIPTIONS
Prices are approximate and do not allow for varying exchange rates:
DANCE ?
Dance Teacher ?
$21.00
Dance Theatre Journal
?
$24.00
New Dance: Magazine of Experimental and progressive dance
?
$30.00
FILM ?
American Film
?
$20.00
Film History: A New International Journal
?
$75.00
International Index to Film Periodicals
?
$75.00
Spiral ?
$20.00
Velvet Light Trap
?
$18.00
Wide Angle
?
$34.00
INTER- ?
Billboard ?
$166.00
DISCIPLINARY ?
High Performance ?
$24.00
Women and Performance; a Journal of Feminist Theory
?
$15.00
Word & Image: A JOurnal of Verbal/Visual Enquiry
?
$80.00
MUSIC ?
Bulletin CEC Newsletter
?
$40.00
Cinema Score. The Film Music Journal
?
$13.00
Ear; a magazine of new music
?
$20.00
Electronic Musician (formerly Polyphony)
?
$22.00
Hugh Le Caine Project Newsletter
?
$ n.p.
Music Works; Canadian Journal of Sound Explorations
$36.00
VISUAL ART
?
Border/Lines ?
$15.00
Bomb ?
$18.00
C Magazine ?
$16.00
Canadian Art
?
$20.00
Last Issue ?
$12.00
?
.
Oxford Art Journal
?
$40.00
TOTAL: ?
$854/yr.

 
The people who we propose as external assessors were chosen with two main criteria
in mind: first, they are people of high academic reputation with wide experience of the
international scene in contemporary cultural and educational directions. Second they
are themselves representative of the different disciplines which are taught in the
Simon Fraser University Centre for the Arts and can adjudicate the proposal from the
point 'of view of the relationship of those disciplines to the interdisciplinary context.
They are:
Gladys Bailin,
Professor and Chair,
Dance Department,
Ohio University,
Athens, Ohio
Ms Bailin was a founding member of the Alwin Nikolais Dance Theatre in New York
City and remained with the company for 20 years as leading dancer. She has been
guest artist and teacher at many universities including UCLA,
UC Santa Cruz, UC
Long Beach, and Simon Fraser University. As a dance educator of unparalleled
experience, she is
familiar with graduate and undergraduate programs throughout
• ?
North America, and
is therefore highly qualifiied to assess this proposal.
Glenn Lewis,
Head,
Media Arts Section,
The Canada Council,
Ottawa, Ontario
Mr. Lewis has a distinguished background as sculptor, media artist, and arts
administrator. The Media Arts section of the Canada Council gives grants to
individuals and organizations involved in film, video, and interdisciplinary
technological art. As Head of this section, Mr. Lewis sees work from all over the
country and travels widely to meet representatives of arts organizations. Noone in
Canada therefore has a more comprehensive view of the current state of media arts,
whether from the artistic, technological, or educational standpoints. Since before
taking up his current appointment he worked in Vancouver as an arts administrator for
twelve years, he is exceptionally well acquainted with the British Columbia situation.
Gerald O'Grady
Director,
Educational Corn munications Cen ter,
300 Wende Hall
S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo,
Buffalo, N.Y., 14214
.

 
External
,.
Evaluators
?
S
Herbert Shore
University of Southern Cáiiôrniá
Glenn Lwis
Head, Media Arts
Canada Council
Ottawa, Ontá±iO
Gérad ÔGrady
Chairman, Media Cèntré
SUN!
Buffalo
Gladys Bailin
Professor and Chairman
Department
of
Dahce
University of Ohio
Athens, Ohio
?
.
David Keane
Professor, Dóparttheit 61 Music
Queens University
Kingston, Ontario
0

 
CENTRE FOR THE ARTS
?
FACULTY LISTING
0
?
PROFESSORS
Martin Bartlett B.A., B.Mus (Br. Col.), M.A. (Mills) - Music
Composition; electro-acoustic and computer music; music of Asia
Iris Garland B.S. (Ill.), M.S. (Calif.) - Dance
Choreography; dance history; dance analysis (Laban certification)
Grant Strate B.A.. L.L.B.
(Alta.),
Director - Dance
Choreography; dance history; arts administration
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
Evan Alderson B.A. (Haverford), M.A. Ph.D. (Calif.), - Interdisciplinary
Dance theory and aesthetics; performing arts criticism; interdisciplinary art
history and theory; sociology of art
Santa Aloi B.A. (Cornell), M.A. (Col.) - Dance
Choreography; performance; directing
Marc Diamond B.A. (W. Ont.), M.A., Ph.D. (Tor.) - Theatre
Directing; acting; playwriting; fiction writing; theatre history
Kaja Silverman B.A..
M.A.
(Calif.), Ph.D. (Brown) - Film, joint appointment
with Women's Studies
Film theory; feminist theory; semiotics
Barry D. Truax
B.
S
c. (Qu.) M.Mus (Br. Col.) - Music, joint appointment
With communication
Composition; electro-acoustic and computer music; sound exploration
Owen Underhill B-Mus (Vic. B.C.), M.A. (S.U.N.Y.) - Music
Composition; performance; contemporary music analysis
Assistant Professor
Monique Giard B.Ed. (Qu.) - Dance
Choreography; performance; performance installations; dance for television
.
I
TiE!
JAN t19
Office

 
Dr. O'Grady is former director of the
Ce
n ter
for
Media Study at SUNY Buffalo, has
taught film and media at the New School for Social Research, New York University,
Antioch College, and many other institutions. His career has many parallels with that
of Marshall McLuhan--beginning with work In English literature (particularly mediaeval
studies) and continuing to research in film, educational technology, and the impact of
commercial and experimental media. He has done a great deal of consulting,
including membership in the the New York State Advisory Committee on the Arts,
consultant in educational media program development at Ryerson Polytechnic, and as
programs.
Director and coordinator of many' conferences, summer institutes, and special
David Keane,
Associate Professor,
Department of Music,
Queen's University,
Kingston, Ontario
Professor Keane is a well-known. Canadian composer, primarily of electroacoustic.
music, with extensive experience in mixed media work His work is widely presented:
throughout North America and Europe, including many performances at, major
international festivals, including the Holland Festival and the. International Festival of
Experimental Music at Bourges. He is active in many national and international.
organizations, such as the Canadian Electroacoustic Community, and the, International
Society for Contemporary Music. He serves regularly as a member
.
of Canada Council
juries and arts advisory boards. His experience, and reputation as a widely-travelled.
creative
advanced
artist
education
and educator
in the arts.
have given him a broad perspective on, current
: issues in
Herbert Shore,
Associate Dean,
School of Performing Arts,
University of Southern California,
Los Angeles, Calif.
90089
With a background in drama, film and television as writer and, director, Professor
Shore has moved on to engage the larger issues of the role of the arts in technological
society and the process of cultural transformation in
.
the global context. As a
consultant on cultural development iand the perfoyming arts he has worked for
UNESCO, the Institute of American Indian Arts, theAustralia Council, the ministries of
culture of Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, and in Ethiopia, Zambia Nigeria and
Mozambique. His long list of publications include works on cultural policy, the arts in
developing nations, and specific studies of African, Americanand Asian writers and
dramatists. ?
.

 
Patricia Gruben B.A. (Rice) - Film
Film writing; filmmaking; directing; narrative film editing
Henry Jesionka B.A.A. (Ryerson), M.A.(S.U.N.Y.) - Film
Experimental film; video; new technologies; writing
David K. Maclntyre B.Mus., M.Mus. (Vie, B.C.) - Music
Composition; interdisciplinary performance; music for drama and dance
Anne Rams den
B.A. (Queens), B.F.A. (NSCAD), M.F.A. (Concordia) - Visual Art
Image and text; script writing and video production; post-structuralist
feminist and critical theory
Greg Snider B.S., M.F.A. (Wis) - Visual Art
Sculpture; critical
theory and analysis
• ?
Penelope Stella B.A.
(Ill.) -
Theatre
Directing; acting; playwriting; movement for actors; voice and mask
Other faculty available for graduate committees
Barry Hegland B.A. (Lethbridge),
M.F.A.
(Illinois)
(Lecturer, Theatre Manager) - Technical Theatre
Stage lighting, theatre architecture
John Macfarlane B.A. (Reed Coil),
(Lecturer, Assistant Director
of
the Centre for the Arts)
-Technical Theatre
Stage lighting; arts administration
Maureen McKellar (Lecturer) - Dance
Choreography; performance; Laban movement
analysis
Donna Zap! B. Mus.,
MA.
(Vic. B.C.)
(Lecturer) - Music
Interdisciplinary art history and theory; cultural criticism; contemporary
music theory and criticism
Jerry Zaslove BA.(Western Reserve), Ph.D. (Wash)
(Associate Professor, English)
Film theory; aesthetics; dramaturgy; sociology of art.

 
APPENDIX G:
Re p
orts from External Reviewers:
Dr. W. Benjamin, Director, School of Music, U.B.C.
Prof. D. Keane, Professor, School of Music, Queen's
University
Mr. G. Lewis, Head, Media Arts, Canada Council
Prof. H. Shore, Associate Dean, School of Performing Arts,
U.C.L.A.
Dr. A. Welch, Dean, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of
Victoria
Re p
l
y
to External Reviewers:
Prof. M. Bartlett, Centre for the Arts
S

 
riCaN
, 1
?
15 ?
ACNGP-89-B1
• ?
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
School of Music
6361 Memorial Road
IESj
?
Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6T
IWS
Tckpbone (604)228.3113
April 17, 1989
Dr. B.P. Clayman, Dean
Graduate Studies
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C.
V5A 1S6
Dear Dean Clayman,
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the proposed M.F.A. in
interdisciplinary Fine and Performing Arts Studies. I will deal in order with
the list of concerns provided in your letter of 15 February.
I find the proposed program to be meritorious as to format and content. There
is a good balance between practical and critical work, and the notion of an
academic core of two interdisciplinary seminars is an Innovative yet
convincing response to the challenge of creating the desired interdisciplinary
context. I find the workload realistic for the two-year time frame, and
approve of two-year Mastér
a
S
programs with thesis (as opposed to shorter
programs without thesis), where the intent is that the degree be terminal.
1 think two matters need clarification: 1) the scope of the thesis, and 2)
the nature of the Supervisory Committee. With regard to 1) one can never err
in
providing too much guidance to students as to the intended length, size, or
degree of ambitiousness of the final project; and as to any requirement that
It be performed, installed, exhibited, produced, etc.; nor is it ever
superfluous to provide a list of plausible examples, together with some
caveats. More crucially, it is not clear if the program is meant to preclude
the production: of a work, as a final project, that is not essentially
interdisciplinary. Will the student be permitted to write a film script,
produce some sculpture, or compose a work for chamber group, without
substantial involvement in other disciplines?
40
?
?
theses,
raises 2) since, if the intention is to permit essentially disciplinary
theses, as well as interdisciplinary ones, why insist on a Supervisory
.12

 
,-,F'P-1T-E:' ?
r•ic'•i ?
1:115
-2-
Committee that is interdisciplinary in nature?
Also, it is
not clear, at the
top of
p.
6, If the Supervisory Committee must have a minimum of three, or
only of two, members.
These points aside, I find little to quarrel with in the proposal from a
substantive angle.
With regard to the adequacy of human and other resources, I very much agree
that a senior person on the critical side is necessary. Looking over the
list
of faculty and their areas of strength, I think it
is
fair to say, at the risk
of being thought to have a natural bias, that critical expertise in music may
be the most pressing need, there being no one on the full-time faculty who
claims it. There are an increasing number of excellent non-traditional
musical scholar-critics who might be considered for an interdisciplinary
teaching and administrative role such as is being contemplated.
Two types of resource are, however, a source of concern for me. First, I find
that the need for enhancement of the SFU library collections in the arts and
in art criticism is understated, and I am troubled by the naivete in the
description of projected needs in such areas as scores, slides,, and records;
and somewhat put off by mention of "the most Important ten scores of the
year" )
as If one were talking about the Downbeat Poll or the Juno. awards.
Surely it would be imperative to add at least 0O scores a year, composed
during the last seventy-five years, to the point where one might be said to
have a truly representative collection
of
20th-century and contemporary
scores. Other crucial library needs would be books in criticism no longer in
print, dissertations, and a comprehensive serials collection. I find the
proposed serials list extremely sketchy. In music, for example, one would
expect Perspectives of New Music, Journal of Music Theory, Music Analysis,
Music Perception, Chadian University Music Review and Muslktheorie, all of
which contain important articles on new music, to be included, unless SFU
lriiiu has themIn nnr1, there i'i eYlrlPnc,r in th
?
IIhFniifln
fif II
somewhat cavalier attutuae towara tne neea ror iiorary aeveiopmetlt, aria
I
would recommend that the program's proponents be required to address this
deficiency in a final draft.
The second resource that may have to be enriched is that
of
graduate support.
Since SFU has opted to increase undergraduate enrollment signficantly over the
next few years, and will receive l.argesums to do so, it is unlikely that It
can count on a big increase In available levels of graduate support, except
perhaps in the T.A. area. Also, Canada Council felTsh1ps, while available,
tend to go to students doing doctoral work, or students studying abroad.
S
0

 
.
-3-
While SF1? students will get their share, particularly if the program acquires
a reputation for excellence, this support will become harder to get overall,
and it would be unwise to count on it in a major way. I would suggest,
therefore, that some serious thought need be given to financing fellowships
for students in this program from special University endowments, perhaps from
campaign funds, using the argument that this Master's merits special
consideration as a terminal degree.
I think the proponents of the program give a fair estimate of demand. The
program would be unique in Canada in some
ways,
although it is something of an
overstatement to say that other institutions do not provide for
interdisciplinary graduate degrees in the arts. The point is that this would,
at the present time, be the only degree explicitly oriented toward the
multidisciplinary approach as a norm, and I believe that many artists are
seeking a training context which is non-traditional and In which a focus on
concerns shared with the other art is natural and easily accomodated.
Ultimately, of course, the, question of demand from applicants is inseparable
from that of demand for graduates. Here, one must first say that one does not
start programs of this sort largely with a view to responding to the job
• ?
market, but with regard to the needs of young artists for growth and
stimulation. Nevertheless, some consideration of eventual employment is not
out of place.
The main worry, in this regard, is of course the question of the Doctorate.
It is one thing to declare the Master' a terminal degree, and another to
determine the marketplace's requirements th
various fields. In university
teaching, the Master's suffices only where the applicant for a job has an
established reputation, as everyone knows; so it is likely that graduates of
the MFA who seek university positions will want to complete their educations
at other institutions. And a certain number
of
potential applicants would be
deterred by this, preferring instead to pursue graduate studies in a single
location.
Individuals aiming at other careers, however, will find the program suitable
for their needs: prospective college instructors, secondary school teachers
and coordinators, arts program directors, planners, and executives, and, above
all, freelance artists or artist/teachers. The demand for graduates will thus
be a factor
of
the overall health
of
the arts in this country, and to the
extent that the program could affect this, the program will be a node in a
'''/4

 
F-I
1 ?
-
J. I
-
-
?
UU ? .
•-.• -
-
4 - ?
.
feedback loop, its efficacy contributing to the situation which generates the
demand for it. However, demand for art in a modern democracy being to some
extent artificial, rather than strictly a product of market forces, a lot will
depend on the political atmosphere and the commitment of governments to foster
artistic activity. These are imponderables. In any case, the idea behind the
program is certainly Sound and it should definitely be tried.
Finally, a concluding comment: as some of your
faculty
may know, I have long
wished that SFU would undertake a graduate program of the sort now being
proposed, not primarily in addition to its current offerings at the
undergraduate level, butinstead of them. It seems to me that the proposed
program is just what is called for, providing that those admitted to it are
well trained along (at least partially traditional) disciplinary lines. I do
not see where technical sophistication or secure command of aesthetic approach
are to come from in the absence
of
years of disciplined, In-depth Involvement
with the classical problems of one 'artistic discipline, and therefore with
its
history, its traditions, its arilfactual repertory, its established
techniques, its categories of thought, etc. Always allowing that there will
be mavericks and iconoclasts of one kind or another, not to mention a genius
once every few decades, I am of the view that for almost all serious artists,
the most useful training for today's world starts from within a discipline, an
broadens out to embrace a generality of concern that permits
cross-disciplinar
y
thinking and technical Integration. I would hope,
therefore, that one of the results of this program implementation, over the
next decade or so, would be a rethinking .of the undergraduate training In the
arts now provided at SFU, with a view to extablishing disciplinary majors in
some of the arts, within a B.A. of the liberal arts type. Such majors should
not duplicate UBC'S undergraduate offerings, and need not: In music, for
example, the SFU orientation would pYesurnbly be less toward concert
performance, composition for the concert hall, and preparation for scholarship
in the music journals; and more toward performance and composition applied to
other arts, to media, and to education; and toward informed music journalism
in a generalized intellectual context; a difference corresponding to a
distinction that ought to pertain between the degree citations B. Mus. and
B.A. One could only applaud such a development, which would not conflict in
principle with what you already have, only intensify and particularize It
within each discipline.

 
r•i'j, ?
15:1:: ?
p_CIE.
-5-
I
trust
this has been of some use., and I wish the Centre for the Arts much
luck in its efforts directed at this program.
Sincerely yours,
Dr. William Benjamin,
Director
F-.^
0

 
04/20/89 1025
?
'613 545 6300
SCHOOL OF MUSIC
ACNGP-89-B2.
QUEENS UNIV P 0
?
Ij001i006
DEAN
STVC)IFS
Or
010C"All
Qieervs University
Kingston, Canada
X7L
3N6
0 P Y
C:
0
F: y
G0 P
y
c o p y f: 0 p y C: 0 F' V
C:
0 P V C 0 F' V
24 March, ii€3G
Or ?
B. P.
?
mia
Deri •:' f C
:
i
r dt,i,t e St t'd I
3irnc'ii Fr.er iJriiverity
V5A
Li
U
r ii
156
a ID Y
r
L*i'
Dean Clayman:
P1 eac forgive my delay in maki nçi this report, but
fit the end of February
I
?
ucJden1 y found myiel f ';.ver '-':c'mrni ttecJ (not
for
i.;he
fi
ritt time, al
c'.
s) and
.m
iiIil y ;
i.:iw:1 y 1i.ru:Jin
?
my way cut
?
j.
?
I.IU
fi.;ttt erct
to
hcv€
btcri a5I:ed
csDrngnçnt on t he ::
:
eiit r i for the Arts, pr i::.piDsal and am p1 eased to ?iay that I
find It a very 1 nteretiit I nq ancj w..'r thwhi 1
e
under tak I r
P1 are find my report eric 1 osed ?
I f I can be
,
of
Any
fi.wther ?
ai stance in
?
any way, p1 ease do riot hesii t ate to
&5A-I-oo
Si n : e e 1 y,
David Keane
Professor
P. S.
?
t'Jh 1 ch b ?
1 ncis
?
t;o ?
ml rid an
?
additional
?
small ?
p01 ut
?
(k.ieeru ?
tini
"er Si t y
was ?
c
s
od
?
enciuc]h
to ?
pr '::'mot
me
to
Pro fesor ?
in
1965. ?
it ?
is of no greta
:nsequenc€,
but ?
I ?
wc'ui d ?
a!i.k
?
that ?
Appends ?
E (whi di
?
i. rich ctes that
?
I
ii ?
Asc": i ate
Fr ':' fec
'
r )
?
be
or r ec t id ,
?
h'.t..i], d
any ?
future use be made •:, f
t: lie document.
Thank you

 
.
I
1t,:.0 ?
J(JA)
u' j
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ULL.I) U'I& V
r
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.,.,'-
EVALUATION OF THE SIMON FRASER L)NIVERS1T Y CENTRE FOR THE ARTS PROPOSAL
FOR A GRADUATE PROGRAM IN INTERDISCIPLINARY FINE AND PERFORMING ART
STUDIES LEADING TO THE DEGr:EE OF MASTER OF FINE ART
David
School
Keane,
of
Music
Professor
(uCen'
S
University
Kirigton, Ontario, I(7L 3N6
telephone:
?
:613) .45-2066
email: KEANE
@ QUCDN
i ?
Academic Merit
The program
proposed
by Simon Fraser University would provide a valuable
option for young c:nadiar, artists. The opportunity for serious advanced
study
in
a freely and genuinely interdisciplina
r
y environment is
potentially available at the Banff School
of Fine Arts, but
probably not
el eswhere in
the
country at prsent
?
While there
are
major
di f ferences
in the proposed program and
that at
Banff, there are some marked ri.mjnc'n
objectives that call for
at
least a brief comparasort. One can certainly
ar
g
ue
that young artists
should have opt i oris without
havin g to leave
Canada. but the value of a program
such
as that proposed by SFU goes
beyond 5tmp1y offering an alternative. The lo,;at; ion of the University in
a major metropolitan centre
......
.
one which
is noted for Its fresh and
lively activity in all the arts - offers an experience with an entirely
different complexio n
from the wilderness isc•).at ion (which has its own
groat values, of s:c
'
urse) of Banff. And, despi
te
the strong
focus
on the
practical side
of art
makin g
, the SF'UJ program is nevertheless an academic
course leading to a degree.
The fact that
faculty research projects have, in past
years,
promoted
interdisciplinary cooperation with Communications, Engineering,
c:i:ttnputer
Science, and other departments within the racu:L ty of Arts provi. des
an
excellent basis for
the
graduate program. I
would
urge that, in
preparing the graduate course, efforts to extend and expand
this
cooperatio
n
be commensurate with those to integrate the fine an; areas.
A breadth of
knowledge, especially
in technological
areas, is essential
for today's artists. It is certainly important that the artist-teachers
offering
the Masters program be informed and experienced in the
technologies that relate to their respective artistic work,
but it is
equally important that the students also have alternatives to the filter
of their
immediate
instructors. The fourth paragraph under section III.,
1. in the Proposal does stress the intention of those
administering the
Mastirproiram to draw upon the
"fields
that lie outside the normal
accomplished is not explained, where, on the other
hand,
there
is
extensive explanation of how the program will operate from within the
ar t
S.
One or the most
difficult
problems for
instruction in an
interdisciplinary environment is the
issue of level of
instruction.
If
the students are a mixture of experts from a variety of areas,
they are
.

 
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J ?
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.010 04D 00i:1l:1 ?
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also, inversely, non-experts in the majority
of
areas with which an
interdisciplinary course must
deal. Maintaining an academic level
appropriate to
a graduate degree
program while straddling the expert i e
and inexperti
SF?
of the class u,tui,bers in any given area is a formiclible
task.
?
It is there
fore
not comforting
to
the reader of the Prop'::
, sal
to
see that FPA 01 1/812, Xriterdi: ipi i inry Graduate Seminar does not yet
have a designated instructor 1 I . e. the new graduate program director
will
teach the course, and that person is not identified in the document 3.
It is clear
that the compilers of the Proposal intend that FPA
811/012 be
the
corne
rstone of
the Graduate Program. And it is
equally
clear that
there
has
been some serious thinki ny about the difficulties of the
interdisciplinary approach. The concerns raised by the ambiguity of the
staffing are more
than offset by
the imagination
and thoroughness of the
various proposals for this course. With the possible except i on of too
narrow a
focus
on American work
in
the
second of the proposals, the
pY
opc.sal s are excellent. The third
proposal is
certainly
intr
iguing,
though one would like to see more coverage of
the
body' implications in
rnuic. The Partch topic is an interestin g
one, but
there
surely
is a
good deal more that might be b
y
oucjht
into
balance with the more
ext
e
n
s
i
ve
c
'
:;
'
nsi derat i
c'ns of the other areas. For example, the
work of Eaton
and
R':.se,,bc,c.n in musical biofeedback,
or the various influences of Tibetan
musical pra
'
:t i ':es (espe': i al 1 y those coririe
' :teJ with breathing) on 20th
century contemporary
music
might be included.. The first of the three
proposals is exceptionally good and the wealth of
entirely
workable foci
for
int1 legent and effective interdisciplinary
instruct ion
in all the
proposals suggests
that
the problems can be masterfully
overcome.
The program structure is
quite loose
,
and flexible, as it should
be for
the
kind of work it sets out to do, but there is sufficient
integrity in
the stru': iw
e to allow the student, who une5 his/her time carefully
and
intelligently, to
gai
n
a ooc'd deal
from the program. Early in the
proposal there is
considerable emphasis
on
the stress of practical
considerations in the program • I was p1 eased to see,
however, that
the
theoretical foundations will not be neglected. Aesthetics issues, for
example ? appear
as
important c.::.mpc
'
nents of i,c'i only the seminar c':.urse
mentioned above, but in
the majority of course
proposals.
II . Adequacy
of the Resources
I :'j and admire
my
musical •
:ol ]. eaqes at Simon Fraser; Martin Bartlett',
Barry Jr uax , and Owen Underhill. Each haso very different approach to
music and the musical community from the other, but each makes
particularly siurmi licant and notable cc
' ntributions to
the field
nationally
and internationally. Even the local act i vi. ti.s of each at EW1J
and in the Vancouver area are
sufficiently
important that
that these
often have national and international impact . There is no doubt in my
mind that SF(J has more than sufficient staff resources in the music area
to offer an effective procram.
?
1)
I am
not acquainted with the
work of the other staff out5ide
(fly
own area,
with the exception of Iris Oar land whose work I v ei: all from the time I
was briefly associated with Simon Fraser (1969-70). i have no reason t

 
0
.
.
dOUbt, however, that the staffi
?
ng
o
f the other disciplines is inferior
to
that in
?
muic.
s
i::ertainly, at the time I worked at SE1J, I
was impressed
with the caliber of both the
staff and the students asso
'
: i
ated with the
Centre: for the Arts.
I would draw further upon my
exper I en':e at Si mon
Fraser
to
say that ti
le
-
Centre for
tile Arts is an ideal envi r cirierit
for
the pr c.posed
i nterdi s': i ]. I nary
?
.:ourse
Although
WC At
L.!L(E'CII '
5
have aspi
rat
ions
to
dcii nq Of
fe
' :: t I
y
e work in the area of j ntGmrated media i nstrLict ion, we
have some cs::,nsiderabi e cii sacivantacles. }Zi r'
q
an oX der
university with an
evolved stru
' :
ture,
the arts
deparlmerlts
(1-
Fine
i im,
Art, Drama,
and the
Sch':'ol c' f Musi :, operate
ent I
reX y
independent i:'f •::,
'
ne
.ano4;
her
and are
var ic'usl y answer able to two Assc": i ate Dearn
within the Faculty.
The
departments are physi':ai ly widely separated and there is nottiinf. in the
environment to encourage
.
: s
;ioperat ion
e'::ept the will
of
the
L ndi v.iduai
S
concerned
?
I think that if Queen's is iiüt typical, it actually has
a somewhat more coi:
'
perckt I
y
e si
tuat
ion,
than many uni
versi ties in this
country. The sL;ru': ture,
and the e't
ended
exper
I eii'_:e of that structure,
found iii the
Centre for the
Arts at Simon Fraser i ideal for providing
ease of a':cess
to staff
fac:
I ]. t.& e and fe3. low students
from
other
di s': ipi I nes.
?
ii; is esseiit i al that
both
the theory and the pr:t ice of
intordi s
'
: ipl i nary a:
i
:ess be unccsmpi i
'
:ated and immedi. ate arid T. think that
ttle ':.ntre
for
I;he
Arts
offers tiii s.
What I know of
.
...
.
e physical fa'; iii ties i. n the Centre fc
'
the Arts through
vlsi t s to the
Si mont Fraser
c
ampus every t we:.'
or three years, is su f f is: i ertt
to be con ficlent
that these res::'urCeS are appropriate, for the
program ?
I
am a
?
ware
o
f particularly go:Icl
?
I ri
music te
'
::hnol •:
s gy ?
New to me,
however, is the estabi I hment
f the
e d
' ; '
wnt own exh lb I t ion and research
space.
This is
an
excel lent move On the rc.r t i:'f Si mon
Fr.
aser ?
The arts
?
need
to
be ani':'ny people. Whi Xe u.n versii;y staff and
students are
certainly people, they are a
r
at he special i ud
sampi.
0
1
An urban
exhibitiOn spa':e is an i. rival
uahl e asset
for
the
program
f
.
--•r
providi rig
exposure of student (arid staff, prewnab1 y)
work to a general public
and for all owl ny the impact of that exposure tc. ref 1 ect back upon the
work.
The only serious reser vat 1 on aboLit resources that I am i:ompel led t c
'
cite
is an echo of
the
sentiments
Indicated in the library report. I have no
faini 1 iarity with the holdings f
the Simon Fraser ii brar I es, but I am
very sensitive to the
g
reat need for lequate library resources for
artists. BeCaL'SC the
aesthet i.:s, the practice, and the te
'
:hnc'i ociies of
the arts now develop with astc'ni shiny rapidity arid are 9erirat(?d from ••
Wi. de
g
ran
e of sour': * arn':srig an enormous inter nat i onal communi
t
y, it 2
abs':'l ut ely essent I aX that tuden1;
s
and t all have the means to
?
?I.J ?
thernsei
y
es i ri formed. Of part i cul or i mportari':.e are the periodicals.
EJoDkS cannot be published with Sufficient speed to maintain cur r ency.
CcinsCqL.tentlY, it is veEy important that national arid int;ernati':'r"l
periodicals, broadly cover Lug
the field, be at hand.
while I am nt qual i f i ed to pass •:o,nment
on the? recommended .journ].
subscript ions in the i:utheI areas, I would venture to say that the t it 1 es
suggtecl in the music area are certainly esent i al ones. I dcs ni:'t know
what subscript 1 oris are already supported by SFU, but if there are not

 
V
1
1
I
4IL11
OV
?
j;:
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tj
?
4jux,. ?
u.js.'u ?
V11
T i '
?
tJ
•-' •-''- ?
'I
.
it ?
rci,,abl
and that this
monographs
And
acquisitions is
present subscriptio
ns
to these rei:cinrnencJc1 publications,
lv
'
)
assume that the current subscriptions are quite modest
list
IS
also quite spartan.. Given the high cost of both
per
iodicals, r
would venture that the proposed budget for
certainly rea5onabley
if not actually too ii ttica.
III.
Est
i mate of Demand
for
the Program by
Prospective
student
We at Queen's
?
seeing definite increases i n the number of our
?
graduate5 sr I cusi y interested
in
integrated media and who are looking
for a course of the type
proposed. Mor
eOver
i
the fact that Simon Fraser
is already unf fi ci al 1 y offering the prUpiDsc?d program under the Special
Arrangements M( certainly demonstrates that there is a market for what
FtJ has to offer.
I am familiar with the work of
at least .::'ne artist who
has completed this program In
the
music area (Paul i)oi den)
?
His ?
achievements in the field, despite his youth, are already
•:.::iiisiderabie,
and I have good reason to bel I
eve' that
his expefience at SFU has
contributed not
insignificantly. I
am
ais
'
:
'
aware that
one of my own
current
students (one of the most promising that
I have encountered in
years at Queen's) is quite interested in continuing
his studies at SFU
for the
very values that are offered
in
the Masters cleçiree proposal
I have no doubt that the program will
easily
reach its target
enrol liner'
V. Estimate
of
Demand for Graduates
o
f
the F:r,:,p, DS
pd Program
The demand
for
graduates of an interdi
sc
iplinary arts program, to be
quite honest, is not large
........
at ].
east in the sense i:::'f avai 1 iabl i ty of
well-paid positions waiting for the new
professionals prc.dw:t•d by the
program.
But
the arts function in a very different way from most
occupations. Artists tend to invent their
'
Dun mode of money making.
While a few will earn their future income through teaching,
most
will
st r
uç4g l
e for years for any substantial sort of
recognition aril, even
then,
may not have subst anti ]. income. Whether successful or not, the
artist is likely
to be self-employed, in the mains
The lack .:.1 well-paid Jobs, however,
is
no reason
not to of
fe y
high level
training to .rt I sts. The training would be valued by the artists, and in
many cases thc: artistswill be valued by society. The fact that our
society has not yet determined an ef fect i
ye
way of encouraging and
rewarding artists should
not daunt educational
institut
i
ons. The more
well-trained, ::apab].e artists
we
have among us, the greater the chance we
will find the means of correcting the situation. The "demand" is in the
form of society's need f.::'r artists. And that need is, and always will
be, great.

 
.
VI. Conclusion
Tho program am proposed is promises t
o
be valuable addition to the
edu':t i oni.1 opportunities for yowiçj artists in Canada.. I sincerely hope
that Simon Fraser University will fully support
the st b]. I hm€nt of this
program and I am looking
forward
with great interest to the future
graduates.
-
?
Davici Keane
Professor
King5tonp 23 Mr:li, 1909
C

 
r
.
p ..,.
The Canada Council Conseil des Arts du Canada
March 15, 1989
ACNR89B3
W2210
CAN OF
GRADUATE ?
-
STUDIES OFFICE
?
J
B. P. Clayman
Dean of Graduate Studies
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B. C.
V5A lS6
Dear B.P. Clayman:
I am pleased to assist
y
ou with the review
of
the
proposed Master of Fine Arts graduate program. Iwill
attempt to give you my views on the proposed program
based on the information you sent and my knowledge of
interdisciplinary and media art activity in Canada.
I would agree that the establishment of the proposed
program of interdisciplinary studies at a graduate level
would be unique in Canada. There are more and more
artists working in interdisciplinary ways. Your
undergraduate program is commendable because it includes
an interdisciplinary direction to which many contemporary
artists can relate more meaningfully. Interdisciplinary
work is a fact of life in many university art departments
and art schools but it is rarely recognized as such with
the realism as examplified at SimOn Fraser. I think it is
very timely to introduce a graduate program based in
interdisciplinary studies.
To address the specific points on the proposed program
that you raise in your letter:
- the academic merit and structural integrity of the
proposed program -
The proposed program is a logical and meaningful
outgrowth of the direction of the existing fine and
performing arts programs at Simon Fraser. It is not
merely a good idea; it is integral, serious and relevant.
The undergraduate programs have a strong
interdisciplinary component which should give students
applying to the new graduate program an excellent
grounding in these concerns.
.
S
99 Metcalfe Street
Post Office Box 1047
Ottawa,
Ontario
K1P5V8
Telephone (613) 237-3400
Telecopier (613) 598-4390
99, rue Metcalfe
Case postale 1047
Ottawa (Ontario) KIP 5V8
Téléphone (613) 237-3400
Télécopicur (613) 598-4390

 
.
?
.../2
I think the proposed courses of studies and the balance
between studio or practical work and academic or
theoretical work is sound. The focus on the practicing
serious artist is clear and worthy.
Interdisciplinary studies, by their very nature, are very
demanding. In order to grasp a number of disciplines and
master them enough to be able to work with them, the
student will need at least the 40 required hours to
graduate.
The proposed program's three main goals and the course
work to support them:
a) the development of craft and technical skill. -The
development of skills would probably take place mainly in
FPA 883 and 885, the studio courses. This seems well
conceived. The interdisciplinary work of a large number
of artists today also involves the use of new
technologies. This is certainly not always the case but
for those that do or want to, what will the graduate
program be able to offer students who want to develop
their skills with the new technological equipment. I
?
?
realize that the music area is well equipped in this
regard at Simon Fraser, and of course film and video are
available but it is not clear from the information I have
if there is a concerted plan to augment your
technological environment. I noted in the budget
projection a fairly small allocation assigned to
equipment but no details. I also noted in the description
of FPA 837, Electronic Cinema and Video Production,
"Particular attention will be paid to the deployment of a
microcomputer-based 2-D, 3-D and animation system, with a
view to integrating synthetically generated imagery with
the more traditional film and video-based imaging
systems." I do not get the sense from that statement that
the computer imaging system is in place yet. A high
definition system with the necessary peripheral equipment
could be fairly expensive. Computer graphics work for
film and video is very time intensive and it is unlikely
there would be available time for students other than
those working with film and video. An additional system
with image capture and film recorder equipment might be
necessary for those who want to work with graphics
programming and still photographic images. In the
performance area, there is a lot of activity using
various technologies and within electronic environments.
It is not clear from the proposal if or how this kind of
work can be supported. I am familiar with the planned
0

 
./3
Centre
Centre
could
for Image-Sound
well answer
Research.
many of the
When
needs
established,
I have
the
?
S
questioned above as the proposal suggests in the budget
notes.
b)
the furthering of artistic creativity. Judging from
the examples given for FPA 887 and 889, these courses
• of directed study and selected topics should develop
the student's awareness and concepts of creativity.
The student will have the opportunity to explore
particular issues, writers and .artists within
disciplines as well as carry out experiments. There
was no suggested example given for FPA 889 but I
assume it will be similar to 887, only self-directed
under faculty supervision.
c)
the development of a critical awareness of the
position of the arts in contemporary society and
within the historical perspective. The
Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminars, •FPA 8-li and 812
will be the principle vehicule to promote this goal. I
have a little difficulty with some of the examples
given in relation to the stated goal. It seems to .me
that some of the topics suggested could just as easily
fit into FPA 887, Selected Topics, and that the
majority of the examples given might weigh the
Seminars too singularly as studies in art history.
The goal as stated would seem to imply a closer
connection between the need to investigate
contemporary phenomena and the arts along with its
historical roots and nostalgia and the need for the
student to make critical artistic decisions. At a
graduate level, I feel it might be more rewarding to
situate the topics of the seminars as "problems" and
the students in the seminars as "artist/analysts" and
"problem solvers". Interdisciplinary studies, by
definition, attempts to grapple with broad topics and
problems and it might be useful to express this more
directly in the intended course definitions. Without
taking the time to consider fully or discuss what
topics would best outline these goals, Ican venture a
few suggested topics which might indicate better the
points I have raised. Some examples off the top of my
head are: "the problem of art and desire in a consumer
society"; "the problem of the role of the artist and
art in relation to institutions and legislation"; "the
problem of culture, technology and the idea of
progress"; " the problem of
mind/concept/design/illusion versus
0

 
body/feelings/improvisation/reality", etc. This broad
type of topic could then draw upon history, theory and
individual writers and artists ("theory of the
avant-garde and avant garde art practice", "Roland
Barthes", "Frankfurt School", "Vienna and modernism in
the late nineteenth century", etc.) to illuminate and
situate the problems in terms of the student's critical
awareness and practice.
d) The graduating project should enable the student to
bring all the parts together, to forge the goals
together to produce coherent artistic statements. The
examining committee, particularly with the addition of
an outside faculty member to compare the student's
level of achievement with other MA programs seems
seems very well conceived.
- the adequacy of the Faculty and other resources
available to the proposed program for achieving its
intended goals -
The Centre for the Arts has a very respected art faculty.
They would be most capable in all aspects of the proposed
?
graduate program.
With only one new faculty position planned to organize
and lead the graduate seminars, the existing faculty at
the Centre for the Arts would have a fair amount of
additional teaching and supervising. I may be
overestimating, but I roughly calculate that with the 21
existing faculty members, 15 of them would need to double
up for the necessary 36 faculty needed for the 12
students anticipated and their 3-member supervising
committees. In addition, 12 faculty would be needed for
the studio courses and 12 for the Directed Study courses
if it is planned that each student have a faculty tutor.
Probably less faculty would be needed for the Selected
?
Topics and visiting faculty and sessional lecturers would
be able to help in the other courses as well. A new
faculty member, in addition to the one already planned,
would likely be welcome to lighten the increased load on
existing faculty. The probability of graduate students as
teaching assistants in the undergraduate programs should
also help to free some faculty to devote more time to
graduate teaching.
... /5
0

 
•. ./5
Increasing the library resources to provide more research
depth for the graduate program is essential. As I have
already noted, equipment resources might need to be
increased further but this may not bea problem if the
planned Centre for Image/Sound Research can meet this
need in most respects.
The facilities at the Centre for the Arts and at the
downtown campus should be adequate to accommodate the new
graduate program without the need for additional space.
- the demand for the proposed program among prospective
students -
With the strong undergraduate program at SFU and its
commitment to interdisciplinary courses, I would think
that the majority of applicants to the graduate program
would come from SFU. Others applying may be at some
disadvantage. Not having had such interdisciplinary
courses as the "Arts in Context" historical courses in
particular, in a student's undergraduate years, may make
it necessary for applicants from outside the university
to take further instruction to catch up. In spite of this
possible problem (the lack of suitable interdisciplinary
studies at other learning institutions), I feel there
will be a strong demand on the proposed program from
outside SFtJ. Just as ecology or the interpenetration of
the sciences has become a prime concern in terms of the
condition of the environment, I am aware that
interdisciplinary work has become very important to
artists in their efforts to express the condition of art
and life today. There are not many figures on
interdisciplinary activity that can be reported but I
have a few which might help to give an indication of
possible demand or interest. In my Section, Media Arts,
at the Canada Council, one of the areas we fund is called
"Research and Production Grants in Computer-Integrated
Media. This is the most interdisciplinary of the areas
we fund. In 1987 - 88 we received 68 applications and
awarded 24 grants to artists in this category. In the.
Explorations Section they estimate that 10 - 15% of their
grants are for interdisciplinary projects, which works
out roughly to about 30 - 45 grants a year for
individuals and groups. In 1986-87, with a one-time only
fund, the Canada Council accepted applications for
"Interdisciplinary Projects (Fund)". There were 128
applications accepted and another 55 transferred to other
programs. Of the 128 applications, 48 received grants;
40.1% of the grants went to Ontario, 30.9% to Quebec,
.../6 ?
0

 
15.5% to British Columbia, 4.9% to Alberta, 2.7% to
Manitoba, and 5.8% to the Maritime Provinces. There were
17 grants to individuals and the remaining 31 went to
organizations. Many of the organizations were small and
based in collaborative work and it is likely that a
number of artists in the organizations could be regarded
as potential candidates.
- the demand for graduates of the proposed program -
Beyond self-employed artists wanting to work in
interdisciplinary modes, it is difficult to estimate the
demand for graduates of this proposed program. I would
assume, however, that there would be as much demand at
-
universities, colleges and art schools for graduates from
this program as there would be for graduates of other MFA
programs. Because artists themselves are increasingly
working in interdisciplinary ways, there should be an
increasing demand for teachers who have addressed it in a
more formal manner. A degree in interdisciplinary studies
should enhance this prospect. In this time of financial
restriction, universities and schools may indeed be
• ?
seeking teachers who have a grounding in more than one
discipline in order to have more flexibility over
teaching assignments and the possible reduction in costs.
My general feeling is that this will be a good program
and I am very happy that interdisciplinary concerns are
going to be addressed in such a serious manner. These
studies are crucial in our present age and there is a
real need for discourse on the subject. A graduate
program as proposed will certainly promote these aims.
I hope I have been able to address the points you raised
in your letter satisfactorily.
I will be in Vancouver from March 16 to 29 to meet with
our clients there and have a short break over Easter.
hope to visit Simon Fraser during that time. I will be
contacting Martin Bartlett to arrange a time for my visit
(at the moment I am trying for Tuesday, March 21, in the
afternoon). If you wish to discuss any of my comments
further, please let Martin know so that we can meet
during my visit.
Yours truly,
Glenn Lewis
Head, Media Arts

 
ACNGP-89-B4
DIVISION OF DRAMA
AY 2 193
.!AN
OF
C:
$11iDES C-..
27 March 1989
15?
Professor B.P. Clayman,
Dean of Graduate Studies,
Simon Fraser University,
Burnaby, British Columbia,
Canada V5A 1S6
Dear Professor Clayman,
Enclosed, at long last, is my review of the proposed Master of
Fine Arts graduate program at Simon Fraser University. My
apologies for the delay in
,
getting this to you. In addition to
my "normal" university responsibilities, I have been interrupted
during this period by two trips abroad, consulting at. a sister
institution in California, preparations for USC "Southern African
Semester" in the Fall and the consideration of an offer of a
major position at another institution for the arts. All this in
an intensive, almost breathless, couple of months.
In any case, I do hope this review is of some use to you. My
apologies if it seems a.bit rambling in structure. I did. wish to
give the proposal serious and considered thought., for I believe
that the university and Grant Strate are undertaking a most
important program. The overall impact. will, in the long run, be
far greater than any of
U
.
S
can anticipate.. I never cease-to be
stimulated by Grant's fertile, imaginative and innovative:, mind.
I wish you well. If there is anything else that I can to do
assist the SFU Centre for the Arts, please do not hesitate to
call on me.
Sincerely yo s,
tt
Herbert Shore
C
.
[)RAMA CENTER • UNIVERSITY OF SOUTI'IERN CALIR )RNIA • LOS ANGELES, ('ALIR)RNIA 9OO89O7)I • (211) 74-170

 
.
?
Simon Fraser University, Center for the Arts,
Prop
osal for a Graduate Pro
g ram in Interdisciplinary
Fine and Performing Arts Studies (M.F.A.)
I shall try to focus my remarks around four main concerns:
1.
The academic merit and structural integrity of the
proposed program.
2.
The adequacy of the faculty and other resources
available to the proposed program for achieving its goals.
3.
The demand for the proposed program among prospective
students.
4.
The demand for graduates of the proposed program.
INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS
A study program of this kind will genuinely introduce
artists to two of the most powerful driving forces of
transformation affecting culture and creative expression in this
last decade of the 20th century.
--multi-culturalism, meaning not only recognition,
identification and mutual appreciation of diverse cultures,
locally, nationally and globally, but also the understanding of
the dynamics of cultural interaction (the manner in which the
interaction and mutual influence of cultures takes place). It
also means the fine tuning of the student's understanding of what
we mean by cultures when we speak of "multi-cultural" and
"cultural interaction"; an understanding that although culture
means ethnic differentiation, it is by no means limited to that.
Groups, societies and individuals create cultures, aesthetics,
creative processes and semiotic contexts around locales, regions,
the work processes, the workplace, the home and family, patterns
of urban and rural living, etc. as well around ethnic identities.
All these interact with, influence and have impact on the
creative processes, methodologies, approaches and even the media
with which the individual artist or artistic group is involved.
These have a great deal to do as well with the context within
which meaningful artist-audience relationships are formed and
take place.
--the impact of technology and scientific
concepts on the
creative process, on the forms and genres of art and on the
.
04

 
manner in which the artistic experience takes place for both
artist and audience.
?
This includes considerations in the
curriculum and the degree program itself of such matters as
computer literacy, the sound/sight media, the impact of image
processing, image enhancement and holography, the interaction of
live performers and the filmic or electronic image,, robotics and
intelligent behavior, the impact of technologies on modes of
perception and reception, sense responses and sensory emphases,
changes in patterns and processes of cognition, the nature and
characteristics of the "artistic experience," and the use of
technology in the teachin
g
of the arts as well as in the creating
and performing of the arts.
If the M.F.A. is a new degree to Simon Fraser University, then it
should consider the meaning of this degree carefully. In the
United States, and I presume at other universities in Canada, it
is considered a degree which marks the completion of the artist's
university studies or the "terminal deg:ree,"for graduate artistic
study.
In that sense in the world of the artist's studio, the
performance stage, the concert hail,and the film and television
studio, it is considered the artistic equivalent of' the Ph.D. It
is not
.
a research degree, but it is one that, couples' advanced
artistic training, the development of specific. professional
artistic skills, with mature intellectual development and
achievement.
It involves the ability to plan and conduct research,use critical
and analytic tools as well as artistic skills,, to understand the
relationships of theory and practice. Theoretical, critical and
historical issues are pursued in interaction with creative
artistic work. In this sense, it is already an interdisciplinary
study, coupling the practice of art with history, philosophy,
social sciences, humanities and even the natural and, physical
sciences.
The proposal makes reference, to the fact that: the M.F.A. is
"customarily a two year program," but the trend in the United'
States and in similar programs abroad is toward a three year
program for this degree, coupled. with a "thesis project", an
artistic work of professional excellence, evaluated by a team or
committee of internal and external examiners,and. a written essay
that involves the use of historical, analytic, theoretical and/or
critical disciplines.
.
.
2

 
.
The rapid proliferation of M.F.A. programs in the United States,
the limited number of quality faculty available and the two year
time span have combined to make these vocational training
programs. This has lowered the quality of education involved.
The highly-regarded programs now involve three academic years.
The third year is often spent, in whole or in part, off-campus,
working under guidance and supervision in a professional
environment. If this is found to be true for discipline -based
arts education, how much more it seems to apply to those programs
which are interdisciplinary, to avoid either cafeteria-style
fragmentation or superficiality.
Art disciplines are indeed subjects of serious inquiry beyond the
undergraduate level, and it is increasingly recognized that the
processes, forms and methodologies of artistic creation are
themselves modes of serious inquiry, comprehension and
understanding.
The Center's proposal recognizes the need for new
• interdisciplinary studies to deal with the changing world in
which we live, recognizing that the degree program must reflect
the fact (maybe more than "reflect", it must come to terms with
the fact) that contemporary social, cultural and technological
changes are giving rise to new synergies, new kinds of artists
and new modes of art-making and art-experiencing which question
the boundaries of the arts as they exist today, provoke complex
and stimulating relationships within and among the fine and
performing arts,and raise new issues in the relationships between
the arts and other intellectual disciplines. What is happening
among the artistic disciplines today is analogous to a process of
boundary dissolving that has taken place in the sciences since
World War II. Interestingly too, this interdisciplinary concept
is fundamental to the arts as they are found in traditional
societies and cultures.
It is important, therefore, that even as the program focuses upon
the interdisciplinary study of the the arts that it is
intercultural as well, recognizes the vital role that cultural
interaction plays upon the generation of new genres, new modes of
art making and of art presentation. Issues involved here are
matters of cultural identities, processes of acculturation within
the individual as well as groups and societies, the processes of
rupture and evolution by which new

 
S
synergies take place.
?
These too are issues that "can most
?
suitably be examined and acted upon within the university."
The claim that such a graduate program would be " a natural
outgrowth of the research and teaching presently being carried
out in the Center for the Arts" is borne out by an
examination
of
the existing undergraduate programs and activities, although it
should be pointed out that some internal programs of the Center
are stronger (music, film, dance) than others (theatre, visual
arts). The establishment of an M.F.A. in interdisciplinary FPA
studies would, therefore, not only mark the completion of its
curricular goals at this phase of its history, but might well be
an impetus to further strengthen the programs in undergraduate
studies.
The
relations
record
and
of
engaging
the Center
in
for
interdisciplinary
the Arts in
maintaining
cooperation
strong
with
other departments of the University is impressive, and could,
through the graduate program in interdisciplinary studies, be
extended further to include English (especially creative writing
and literary studies), modern languages, anthropology/sociology,
architecture and urban
planning, communications
and others. It
would also strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration among the
discipline-based programs within the Center itself.
I admire the perception, the sense of vision. (and practical
vision it is too) and the courage of Grant Strate and his
colleagues to pioneer in this direction. I find no program
similar to this at any other
Canadian
university, even in the
proposal stage. And most interdisciplinary programs in the
United States are still in rudimentary or exploratory stages,
although the direction is beginning to
.
take shape at some major
centers. For example, interdisciplinary and intercultural,
framing form the bases for new directions at the California
Institute of the Arts, and here at the University of Southern
California, I have been responsible for setting up the Divisions
of Inter-Arts and Cultural Studies.and of Performance Media, and
for creating courses throughout the arts curricula which enable
select graduate student.
, s to create individualized
interdisciplinary programs for themselves under faculty
sponsorship and supervision, both for the M.F.A. and for the
various doctorates that are available in the arts. In proposing
this M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary FPA Studies, the Center for the
.
.
4

 
.
Arts has placed itself once more at the cutting edge of advanced
education in the arts, will attain rapid recognition as an
international as well as a national pioneering center, providing
a focal site for fulfillment of an important need, placing itself
in a position to have an important impact on the arts in Canada
and in other parts of the world, similar to the significant role
played by such centers in the past as the Bauhaus and Black
Mountain College, and contributing most substantially to the
rep
utation of Simon Fraser Universit
y
as an institution of
innovative curricula, research, faculty and methodological
approaches.
I think that Grant Strate and his colleagues are to be
congratulated for the leadership, thorough thought, research,
planning and the confrontation with practical realities that have
gone into this proposal. It augers well for the successful
implementation of this degree program, and I urge that the
Committee for the Assessment of New Graduate Programs grant its
approval.
• ?
With that strong and unhesitating endorsement, I should like to
make some further specific comments dealing with the academic
merit and structural integrity of the proposed program and the
adequacy of the faculty and other resources.
CURRICULUM
In conception, the curriculum is both carefully structured and
simultaneously flexible. It allows for individual "tailor-made"
programs to suit the needs and desires of the student, allows for
a wide range in substance and method, and at the same time avoids
the random "cafeteria" approach that characterizes so many so-
called interdisciplinary programs. It is clearly oriented toward
specific educational goals. A great deal, however, depends upon
the faculty involved, and the Center's proposed program at the
graduate level genuinely demands a highly capable faculty, each
of whom is interdisciplinary in orientation, background and
experience (both educational and artistic). Such faculty are
rare and hard to find. They need either to be carefully sought
out by the Center or specifically nurtured and developed. To be
successful, a program like this, it seems to me, needs a well-
thought out and active faculty development program accompanying
it. The fact that no one presumes to know what the definitive
subject matter for the seminar is or ought to be,is a clear
.
I
5

 
indication of how necessary continuous faculty development and
collaboration will be. No indication of faculty development plans
are included in the proposal, although I am certain that these
have formed an important part of the discussions that led to the
proposal and are probably on-going even now.
The intei-disciplinary seminar
's, a the proposal indicates, are
indeed the conceptual core of the program. it is here that the
student explores the nieaningof interdisciplinary creation, the
nature of the arts and artistic boundaries, the relationship
between the arts and other disciplines, the historical evolution
of artistic disciplines, media, genres and forms, the
relationships between the arts and the societies and cultures of
which they are a part, etc. Unless the graduate students
entering Simon Fraser University are far more mature,
experienced, knowledgeable and brilliant than those whom I have
encountered in the United States, I doubt whether two one-
semester seminars will do any more than simply scratch the
surface-- unless, of course, the student comes to the program
with a solid undergraduate degree in interdisciplinary studies.
I would recommend that this seminar be taken in
each semester
throughout the program. After all, it is here that the student
comes to understand art-making beyond the single art discipline
as defined today. It is here that the groundwork is laid for the
development Of analytic and interpretive concepts and vocabulary.
Here, the student begins to discover what "interdisciplinary"
means, how individuals, groups, Oultures and societies approach
and have approached the cOncept, and., to see the interdisciplinary
And cross-disciplinary posibilitiés of his or her own art.
The organization and substance of the seminars are intensely
Eurocentric, and narrowly focused within the European framework.
They are organized more like advanced undergraduate courses than
graduate seminars. Why the split le'cture/ dIscussion pattern?
Why not make 'these genuine seminars, So that each student must
prepare thoroughly in advance. ?
This means reading, the ?
preparation of seminar presentations, and -being solidly prepared
for discussion. If there is need for lecture-type material,
organized by the faculty conducting the seminar, then, in a
program like this, why isn't that material banked in an
interactive computer program and access provided for the student
in a lab outside of the seminar hours.
.
6

 
In this age of technology, a great deal of material which in the
past
had
to be presented in the classroom, can now be available
to the student on the computer, on video tape and on interactive
video disc. It would seem to me that a high-tech
interdisciplinary program such as this would want to make use of
these opportunities.
This latter comment applies not only to the seminars, but to a
variety of other courses, both discipline-based and
interdisciplinary, in the arts. Courses in theatre, for example,
could offer a large body of material in stagecraft, dramatic
structures, directing, etc. on interactive video disc, computer
graphics, and other modes that can be set up and used - like
language labs are today, demanding a great deal of individual
initiative from the student. But a genuinely innovative program
such as this should be highly selective in its choice of
students, and those selected must be capable of this kind of
commitment and initiative. In addition, any program which
intends to be deeply involved with technologies, must itself use
those technologies in the teaching of its courses.
. ?
DEGREE REQUIREMENTS
?
-
The course work load for the M.F.A. seems lighter than it ought
to be. In a disciplined based two year M.F.A., such as ours at
U.S.C., the load is 40
plus
the Project which is considered the
equivalent of a thesis. Sometimes it runs as high as 45 units
plus thesis. Where the M.F.A. is athree-year degree, the course
load is even higher.
I can appreciate the value of
maintaining
the "possibility of
more research-oriented projects",but these must be rare
exceptions and a rationale must clearly be developed and defended
for them. Otherwise the focus of the M.F.A. as a degree for the
practicing studio artist could be blurred and the distinction
between the M.A. and the M.F.A. (as a terminal degree for
artists) be lost. In many places, the candidate is required to
do both a creative project and a long paper of a theoretical,
speculative, historical and/or analytical nature which sets his
or ,
her work in some larger research context. This prepares the
candidate further for the oral defense examination.
I
7

 
Degree requirements such as these bring the M.F.A. more in line
with the conception, procedures, processes and standards for a
terminal degree in other disciplines. This enables universities
throughout the country to accept the degree with confidence as
"the artist's Ph.D."
DEMAND FOR THE PROPOSED PROGRAM
Indications are that there is already a substantial interest
among prospective graduate students in programs such as this.
The interest exists not only throughout North America, but in
Europe and the Pacific Rim as well. We at USC receive
approximately 40-50 inquiries per year specifically requesting
information concerning interdisciplinary programs in the arts
and/or individualized degree programs. These have come from
France, Great Britain, both Germanies, Poland, Hungary,
Australia, China, Bali, Japan and
Oanada,
as well as the United
States and parts of Latin America.
There is a rapidly rising interest in programs in music and
theatre (not musical theatre); dance, music and theatre; visual
arts and theatre; theatre, cinema and video; video and dance;
etc., each with a special interest in new technologies and in
cross-cultural studies. The writer of today seems to sense that
he or she will be writing for a variety of media and in a variety
of genres and forms. The actor/dancer, the movement artist, the
raconteur, the sound designer, all these and more are recognized
valid artistic professions. The ability of the professional,
self-employed artist to combine his or her artistic work with
other forms of educational, cultural and social employment is
becoming more and more important at this stage of society. And
equally important, the artistic process and the work of art
itself are coming more and more to be recognized as forms of
knowledge.
In time, there will be even more demands and opportunities for
the interdisciplinary trained artist than for the single
discipline-based artist, for cooperative and collaborative
talents, for diverse and flexible skills not previously
incorporated within a single program.
S
S
8

 
RESOURCES
Faculty
Most of the faculty in the Center for the Arts are themselves
practicing artists, known for their work beyond the boundaries of
the campus of Simon Fraser University and the city of Vancouver.
They form a strong core with which to launch a graduate program
such as this. Nevertheless, in the process of evolution, so that
the program does not suffer from the very success which I would
anticipate for it, that faculty will need strengthening. The two
strongest faculties for graduate study of this kind seem, at
present, to be music and dance. Film (and, I would presume,
video) and Visual Arts seem to be in the process of growing
strength, and Theatre seems to be the weakest of the areas. (This
is not meant to be a commentary on the quality of the existing
faculty members, but rather to point to the need for growth and
development for this kind of education, especially at the
graduate level.
The hiring of a Senior Faculty member to supervise the graduate
• program, organize the graduate seminars, and oversee the
evolution of the program is an important first step. In time
there will be a need for additional faculty to strengthen
graduate teaching and research. These can include, but should
not be limited to, Visiting and Sessional faculty, and the role
of the latter must be clearly defined.
It is important to initiate, develop and maintain this as a
graduate program and not simply an enlargement of an
undergraduate program, as has been the case in many institutions.
It should also be recognized as a university program and not
simply that of a separate professional conservatory or non-degree
training center. It must also be recognized that the M.F.A.
degree is a more-demanding graduate degree than an M.A. and is
not the traditional Ph.D. research-oriented degree. It demands
the dimension of research, but research conducted (and
consciously conducted) through the processes, methodologies and
techniques of art. I would suggest that the number of higher
degrees, experience in interdisciplinary studies and work, and
the years of professional experience before coming to teaching,
all need to be strengthened. Indications are that Grant Strate
and his colleagues are aware of that and that this process is
already underway.
1^1
9

 
Library Resources
Although my knowledge of the library resources at Simon Fraser
University, at the Center for the Arts and in Vancouver
(including the libraries of U.B.C.) is limited, my impressions
accumulated over several years is that their holdings in the
areas of interdisciplinary studies and intercultural studies in
the arts are very limited. Granted the access to interlibrary
loans, these holdings would have to be increased and strengthened
and the access to interlibrary systems, especially in the arts,
would need to be strengthened. For artistic holdings, this would
mean not only such traditional items as books, journals, prints,
etc., but also the greater systematic use of computers, video,
audio cassette, discs, interactive video disc systems, etc. and
access memberships in such systems as the Lincoln Center in the
U.S., the U.S. Library of Congress, the Unesco Cultural Data Bank
Systems, etc. as well as resources in other parts of Canada. This
should involve making the holdings accumulated at Simon Fraser
University available to this network flow. It also means
committing a great deal of work generated in the courses and
projects of the graduate program to video disc, interactive
programs, tape, etc.
Other Resources
The Praxis Film Development Workshop is an important resource for
the graduate program and plans must be developed for its use so
that it does not become an area of adversarial conflict between
film and interdisciplinary students and faculty.
The projected Center for Image-Sound Research is absolutely
essential to the meaningful success of the graduate program in
interdisciplinary fine and performing arts.
?
Without it, this
kind of graduate study would be crippled. Therefore, the
installation and equipping of this Center should be given the
highest priority. I would suggest further that the new Director
and some other members of the Center staff be made faculty in the
interdisciplinary graduate program.
Other technological resources and labs need to be established,
developed and maintained for teaching courses in the graduate
program, for student use in the learning processes and even for
strengthening the work of the traditional disciplined-based arts
C
10

 
-4
4
.
programs; e.g. computer graphic labs for lighting, design,
staging, etc. in theatre, graphics programs for the teaching of
dramatic structures, etc.
Antici pated
External Funds
I would suggest that in addition to those outlined in the
proposal, that the Center for the Arts think about corporate
sources as possible donors of equipment, systems, software, as
well as funds, donors of technical assistance, space research
agencies for access and use donations, individual donors whose
names might grace the various labs and centers, and special
donors of scholarship and financial aid assistance in their names
of the type that might make the explorations of the program more
intercultural, including cultural divisions of foreign
governments for specific projects.
To undertake a program such as this takes a genuine vision, a
sense of responsible leadership for arts education, the courage
to undertake innovation, pioneering exploration and meaningful
risk. For this Simon Fraser University, the Center for the Arts,
. and especially Grant Strate are to be congratulated. You all
realize, I am sure, that what you are undertaking will in time
transform both graduate and undergraduate education in the arts,
and will make of the Center for the Arts a magnet for students
and art educators around the world. Congratulations.
0
MI

 
19
?
':33
?
I0:43
?
FIR')Il I_I ')!':
t'IiiIL
UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA
P.O. BOX I7( VICTORIA; SIC.. CANADA V8W
2Y2
TELEPHONE 04) 72-7211. TELEX 049.7222. FAX (6()) 72I-3
-
?
BY FAX TO (604)
ACNGP-89B5
iI
'
Of.
1!-
. nsUP''
OfVICE
!
F 'UbVYOF FINE ARTS?
OFFICE OF THE DEAN
?
721-77155
291-3851
.
19. May 1989,
Dr. B.P. Clayman
'an of Gradu1t .'udie
£ -
?
'r Uni.versit'
Burnaby, B'. C. V5'A 1S6
Dear I)e.fl Ciayirtaii,
After far too long a delay I am replying to ..your letter of
February 21 concerning the proposed Master of Fine Arts
graduate
program at
Simon Vkaeor.
I
apologi7P f-hat it hn taken me so
long.
The rationale for the new program is well-stated and
accurate, and the proposal itself is moderate and sensible. It
is based
on the well-known and considerable strengths of the
faculty in the interdisciplinary study of the arts. That Simon
Fraser
has
established a very credible undergraduate program in
this
area and
has
been successfully admitting and training
graduate students by special arrangement are persuasive arguments
for making the graduate program regular. The program is
responding to the interdisciplinary nature of some contemporary
arts,
and I would assume that graduate students from this program
would become either, independent artists or might be sought by the
employers suggested in the proposal.
It is evident that the University should be ready to commit
additional funds for the library and other essential resources in
order to make the program as effective as possible. The proposal
does not conflict with our M.F.A. 'programs in Visual Arts and in
Theatre. Indeed, it would be unique in B.C.,, and, as far as I
can tell, in,
Canada as
well. I trust that Simon Fraser
University will give it the support that it 'needs to grow and
flourish.
Thank you for seeking 'my opiniOn.
AnthonyUl'e ich
Dean
.
L-1

 
- ?
ACNGP-89-B7
.
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
?
CENTRE FOR THE ARTS
MEMORANDUM
TO: B.P.Clayman, ?
FROM: M. Bartlett,
Dean, Graduate Studies
?
Centre for the Arts
SUBJECT: MFA Proposal
?
DATE: June 6, 1989
Thankyou for the opportunity to respond to the concerns
-
raised by -
the Assessment Committee for New Graduate Programs and the
external evaluators of the M.F.A. proposal.
In general, I am gratified by the assessors' responses. All of
them feel that the proposal is academically sound, practical, and,
above all, needed. Several comments stress the proposal's vision
and Its uniqueness in the Canadian university scene. I agree with
many of the concerns the Assessors have raised but do not think
they should stand In the way of the implementation of the
0.
proposal, basically as written.
I would like to comment first on the phrase "artist's Ph.D.",
(Prof. Shore) which I feel Is a dangerous catchword. The M.F.A.
degree has in common with the Ph.D. the fact that it Is oftena
terminal degree, that and no more. If the M.F.A. is an artist's
Ph.D., then perhaps we should refer to an M.B.A. as a
businessman's Ph.D., or a B.C.I.T. diploma as a plumber's Ph.D.
The point here Is that the Ph.D. is a research degree, and the
time-table for academic research is considerably different from
that for artistic production. So also the need for "academic
content", which I presume means formal course work, is different.
We must remember that Professor Shore is writing from the
standpoint of a very large American university. Please do not
forget that our proposal anticipates initially accepting a maximum
of six students per year. Such a small number of students will
receive much more individual attention than is possible in a large
Institution where there may be thirty or forty M.F.A. students.
It may be true that "the trend in the United States.., is toward a
three year program for this degree", however in Canadian
universities the
M.F.A.
program is Invariably two years. A new
master's program conceived on a three year basis would be at a
disadvantage in attracting students in the Canadian context. It
may well be that some students would prolong their studies into a
.
third year, as has been the case with some of our Special
Arrangements students, but I feel strongly that this should not be
the decreed norm.
As to the balance between studio work and academic content, while we
cannot predict at this point that we have got this exactly right,

 
-J
we are basing our plans on our experience with Special
Arrangements graduate students.
?
Speëial Arrangements has a much
smaller "academic component" (no graduate seminars at all) than
the M.F.A. proposal, yet several students have done very well in
the program and one recent graduate has had no difficulty in being
accepted into Ph.D.
?
programs at two major universities, with
offers of financial assistance.
?
It was strongly felt at
discussions at the Department level that students must not be so
encumbered with course requirements that the main goal of the
program, ?
the development of artistic excellence, would be
frustrated. ?
We envision our graduate students as being involved
with adventurous, complex and time-consuming artistic projects and
the research required to support them.
?
Experience with
undergraduate Directed Studies projects and those undertaken by
Special Arrangements graduate students, particularly in the area
of art and technology, has shown how demanding such projects can
be.
?
We may find it advisable in the future to require the
Graduate Seminar in more than two semesters, but if so,
?
it will be
easier to add to the current requirements than to legislate a
heavier course load now (with its attendant problems of support)
and find a need to cut back in the future because students and
faculty are overburdened.
?
Our present plan seems very viable:
?
we
can teach the Graduate Seminar once in each calendar year (in the
fall, say) and have the faculty and resources to offer the
Selected Topics course (also an academic component of the program)
in the other winter semester.
?
To be obliged to offer the Graduate
Seminar in every semester would make additional demands on faculty
time, disproportionate to the scale of the program as proposed.
Professor Shore comments about the substance of the Seminars (I
note that he finds them "too Eurocentric", while Professor Keane
points out "too narrow a focus on American work"); we emphasize
that the course outlines given are examples only. Professor Shore
would like to see the lecture-type material "banked in an
interactive computer program".. So would I; perhaps at USC such
facilities exist--again there is a difference of scale.
Incidentally, the development of such a program would be a good
project for the Centre for Image-Sound Research, with some of our
graduate students working on It as research assistants.
Given the importance of the Graduate Seminar, several reviewers
refer to the need for faculty development plans to Identify the
kind of scholar needed to teach it and to direct the program as a
whole. There is a double-bind here, since we clearly cannot
search for faculty for a program which has not been approved,
while on the other hand the approval of the program seems to
depend on having particular faculty members available to teach.
Informal discussions have of course taken place. The Assessment
Committee should know that funding for the Centre for Image-Sound
Research proposal has been committed by the Western
Diversification Fund, an Acting Director (Mr. Tom Sherman,
formerly of the Canada Council) apppointed, and it is expected
that a search for a Director
1
Research Director, and other staff
for this Institute will begin soon. A new Director of the Centre

 
.
for the Arts has just been appointed, Professor Rudolf Komorous, a
distinguished composer with many years experience teaching
graduate students at the Masters and Ph.D. levels. A new
Associate Professor in Film, Jacqueline Levitin, formerly chair of
the film program at Concordia University, will be joining the
faculty in September 1989. A new position in Theatre has been
approved. And finally there exists the possibility that a present
faculty member may bea candidate for the position of Graduate
Director. I hope this will be considered evidence that faculty
development is an important concern of the Department.
To address some smaller points: Dr. Benjamin (UBC) questions
whether "the intention is to permit essentially disciplinary
theses, as well as interdisciplinary ones". The answer-to this-is
no, the program is conceived as interdisciplinary, though the
broadest possible interpretation may be given of that word. Mr.
Lewis (Canada Council) finds it unclear "if there is a concerted
plan to augment your technological environment". This is a
project to which we are absolutely committed, and we are
progressing as rapidly as funds permit. In the past year, for
example, our inventory of video equipment has more than doubled.
An important concern raised by several assessors is the condition
of the Library. The proposal is frank in acknowledging the need
for resources in this area, and the need for much greater
periodicals support is particularly pressing. These matters are,
however, beyond the control of the Centre for the Arts; we can only
hope and urge that in the recently improved economic climate they
will be properly addressed.
In conclusion I find that the letters of the Assessors are in fact
extraordinarily supportive and the criticisms point out problems
which are generally acknowledged in the proposal. The program is
innovative, and therefore unlikely to be perfect at its inception.
Undoubtedly the experience of running the program will produce
adjustments. I do believe, however, that in the absence of major
substantive criticism the proposal should be implemented in its
present form without further delay. The time is right, the Centre
for the Arts has never been stronger, and the need is
acknowledged. Let further changes to the format of the M.F.A.
degree come as the result of experience
?
d not hypothesis.
cc. Grant Strate,
0 ?
Director, Centre for the Arts
-a.-.-

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