In
the Kitchen With Linda Weintraub
Emerging
Arts at Oberlin: In A Class of its Own
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The
Way She Moves: A first-year dancer shows her stuff
at the Freshman Talent Show. (photo by Claire-Helene
Mershon)
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Professor Linda Weintraub is the head of Oberlin Colleges
Emerging Arts department. The program consists of experimental courses
designed to cultivate creativity relevant to contemporary modes
of artistic inspiration.
Julie
Johnson: I looked up the Emerging Arts Program in the catalog, and
it isnt under arts. Where is it in the catalog?
Linda
Weintraub: It is its own entity. It is not a part of anything else.
The way I am structuring it is that I try to create programs that
are relevant to many different arts programs, and even going beyond
art disciplines. Anybody who is interested in what is happening
is welcome in from all the other departments.
I have not made an effort to attach myself to anyone, I am free
floating. Thats why I call myself a free radical. The metaphor
is actually quite appropriate. What Im here to do, like what
free radicals do in nature, is to instigate change, to introduce
possibilities, and those possibilities arent connected to
any particular discipline.
JJ:
When you say the program goes beyond art, what do you have in mind?
LW:
Im working with professors from environmental studies, some
biology, essentially what we are dealing with is how to develop
the whole person to explore the creative process. One course focused
on the definition and the identification of inspiration does
inspiration come from within the individual or is it a challenge
that is presented from outside in the world? These are the kinds
of issues that cross all kinds of activities and though I think
the arts pay attention to them a lot more they certainly a component
of whatever we do, and whatever one does if we do it with this kind
of willingness to consider options, to go beyond expected ways of
functioning.
JJ:
When did this program start? Is it new this year?
LW:
Last September, its one year old. Here I am, a whole department
of one.
JJ:
Is this completely your brainchild?
LW:
No, the school received a grant form the Henry Luce Foundation to
have a professor of the Emerging Arts. The idea was
to not focus so much on the skills related to any particular discipline
or the traditions related to any particular discipline and to think
more broadly. It was necessary to establish a different structure.
JJ:
So this is part of a wider movement within the arts outside of Oberlin?
LW:
There is in the practice of the arts today a great deal of activity
involving visual artists working with sound and dancers working
with text. And of course when you come to something like video and
film, like opera, all the different art forms are integrated. That
is very much like what our world is like. Even if you think about
the technologies that give us our information, they are not isolated.
Its not so easy to isolate movements of the body from movement
of the brain any more. The arts always reflect the nature of the
world in which they are created, and the connection between different
sensual experiences, different parts of the body different parts
of the mind.
We
have to think about how were training our students for this
new world. and perhaps the old academic model needs to be expanded.
And so this is an experiment.
JJ:
What did you have in mind while you were developing the curriculum
for this program?
LW:
The way I have defined my own responsibilities, since there is nobody
to give me an assignment, is to do things with significance beyond
benefit to the fifteen students in my class.
My second order of priority is to share, for instance, guests and
activities with as many students as possible.
My third is to work with professors who are interested in exploring
alternative ways to teach and the different kinds of content for
their classes.
My fourth is to create some kind of document that can be shared
with professors on campuses everywhere. My goal is to use this privileged
position at Oberlin as some kind of catalyst to jumpstart activities
everywhere. We are deeply committed to this.
The
workshops I am conducting right now that Philippe Petit is a part
of are all being videotaped because Petit, like my other guests,
are so amazing in their ability to be innovative in their own art
forms, and they are so committed to sharing their philosophies and
their insights, that they are equally committed to teaching. But
their method of teaching is just as innovative as their method of
being artists. So Oberlin is supporting this endeavor to bringing
people to campus to videotape their interactions with Oberlin students.
In addition, we are going to be creating a DVD set that well
be disseminating to campuses across the country.
JJ:
Are these types of integrating programs happening on other campuses?
LW:
There are lots of reconsiderations going on in the arts departments.
You will find departments of interdisciplinary arts or you will
find courses in thematic material that then will involve writers,
actors, musicians, whomever. But I dont think theres
been a campaign like this to really focus on the problems and to
harness some resources and truly try to do something that is capable
of being shared.
The next thing were going to do after all this, a year from
this spring, is run a conference so all that has happened in the
previous three years at Oberlin will be discussed. Well be
bringing back Petit and many of the other participants. Were
going to have a major opportunity to share ideas, Ill be showing
the videos of all of their workshops.
Essentially when people ask me why is this necessary, what is going
on, I try to explain that the arts today include everything. There
is no tradition that is not relevant, there is no material that
is not appropriate for art making, theres no format. Theres
nothing that cant happen.
Professors
are dealing with a situation: if everything can be relevant, what
do we teach? There is a real dilemma that we are confronting. There
has been isolated activity on individual campuses with maybe one
or two professors trying to consider this, but there has been no
concerted effort. Thats what were trying to achieve.
What is so personally thrilling is that someone is paying me to
explore things that I am really interested in exploring, things
I cant presume to be an expert in. Every semester is a brand
new experiment. Ive decided to never to the same thing twice
while Im here.
JJ:
Its a real gift that you are able to do this.
LW:
Its a privilege.
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