Interdisciplinary Arts
Welcome to the Interdisciplinary Arts Department
The Interdisciplinary Arts Department has a sustained commitment to excellence in graduate arts education that has shaped the development of eminent arts professionals for over thirty-three years. We believe that interdisciplinarity is a defining characteristic of contemporary art practice, and a necessary prerequisite for those artists who will shape the future of creative practice,
catalyzing radically new inquiries, methods, and forms. Interdisciplinary Arts is a fluid term, meaning different things to different artists. Rather than try to define it, we ask that students think about where interdisciplinarity is located in their work. Is it at the level of research, through historical, sociological, or environmental investigations that inform their art? Does it reside in the theoretical or conceptual strategies that are the foundation of their artistic inquiry, drawing on ideas from outside the field of art? Is their interdisciplinarity process based, where they work with artists from other mediums or non-artists in other fields in creating the work? Some draw on techniques and tools from other art mediums or non-art disciplines. For others the final artwork itself is interdisciplinary: an artist book, an installation, a sculptural work incorporating sound, an interactive video, or anything else they can conceive. The definition of interdisciplinary is limited only by the artist’s imagination. Our goal is to provide a graduate education that cultivates the expertise necessary to give our students the foundation to create provocative lines of artistic inquiry as demonstrated through a sustained, cohesive, and substantial body of work.
–The InterArts Faculty, May 2009
DEPARTMENTAL CONTACT INFORMATION
Department Chair: Michelle Citron
Graduate Contact: Kris Johnson
Office Information: 916 S. Wabash Bldg. Suite 203
Phone: 312-369-7669
Email: kjohnson@colum.edu
The Interdisciplinary Arts Department has a sustained commitment to excellence in graduate arts education that has shaped the development of eminent arts professionals for over thirty-three years. We believe that interdisciplinarity is a defining characteristic of contemporary art practice, and a necessary prerequisite for those artists who will shape the future of creative practice,
"Educational Development" by Interdisciplinary Arts and Media MFA Joshua Siegal, 2007
catalyzing radically new inquiries, methods, and forms. Interdisciplinary Arts is a fluid term, meaning different things to different artists. Rather than try to define it, we ask that students think about where interdisciplinarity is located in their work. Is it at the level of research, through historical, sociological, or environmental investigations that inform their art? Does it reside in the theoretical or conceptual strategies that are the foundation of their artistic inquiry, drawing on ideas from outside the field of art? Is their interdisciplinarity process based, where they work with artists from other mediums or non-artists in other fields in creating the work? Some draw on techniques and tools from other art mediums or non-art disciplines. For others the final artwork itself is interdisciplinary: an artist book, an installation, a sculptural work incorporating sound, an interactive video, or anything else they can conceive. The definition of interdisciplinary is limited only by the artist’s imagination. Our goal is to provide a graduate education that cultivates the expertise necessary to give our students the foundation to create provocative lines of artistic inquiry as demonstrated through a sustained, cohesive, and substantial body of work.
–The InterArts Faculty, May 2009
DEPARTMENTAL CONTACT INFORMATION
Department Chair: Michelle Citron
Graduate Contact: Kris Johnson
Office Information: 916 S. Wabash Bldg. Suite 203
Phone: 312-369-7669
Email: kjohnson@colum.edu