This is another exciting year for the Online Arts Administration program. We admitted our third entering class, this time with 25 students who came to campus during the second week of Fall term for a brief but very intense residency. Our incoming class is another talented and varied group, with backgrounds in all of the performing arts, visual arts, art history, and other fields. Geographically, about half the class comes from the Delaware Valley, and about half from around the country. Just a few of the states represented are Florida, California, Arizona,Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina.
In late September, the online and campus programs jointly sponsored a reception with guest speaker Tom Kaiden, President of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. Tom's talk not only reminded us of the increasing importance of research, but also of the vibrancy and challenges of the arts and cultural sector in Philadelphia and beyond. Many thanks to the AAGA for their active support of this event, and for warmly welcoming the online students into the fold. We look forward to continuing to increase the involvement of the online students in the AAGA. I encourage all online students to find ways to get involved with AAGA, whether you can come to campus or not.
Since your last Artsline, the online program has been very proud to announce its new Online Arts Administration Award for Academic Excellence. This award is given to the three students in the online program earning the highest GPA. Students must have completed 24 credits toward their degree to be eligible. Congratulations to our first year winners: Susan Matyas, Stephanie Roberson, and Audrey Szychulski. The second round of awards will be announced at the end of May 2011.
The past few years have been difficult for many who work in arts and culture, but I see the field as being in a time of great innovation and opportunity. Technological innovations are changing the way we do many things, including producing and consuming the arts. We're doing more online, we're finding new ways to make use of online tools, and we're using the Internet and mobile technologies to find new ways to foster creativity and sharing of creative work. Just a few examples are the flash mob events developed by the Opera Company of Philadelphia (www.operaphila.org), and the Internet2 project that will take place at Drexel this April. As part of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, new music group Relâche will perform newly commissioned musical compositions to accompany a series of silent French films from the 1920s, and the entire performance will be broadcast live via Internet2 to audiences in France and elsewhere. I hope to be able to establish an Internet2 connection from Hanoi University so I can join you on April 17!
Just in case you missed the news, this summer the Department of Performing Arts reorganized, so the Arts Administration programs are now part of the Department of Arts and Entertainment Enterprise. We say thanks to Lin Yeo for her past work in support of our programs, and good luck in her new role as Department Administrator for Performing Arts. And we thank Bridget Lynch and Lisa Matthews for their continuing excellent work on our behalf.
Dr. Jean Brody
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