{"id":13204,"date":"2024-09-19T17:20:19","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T17:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/?p=13204"},"modified":"2025-04-02T19:24:28","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T19:24:28","slug":"a-life-changed-through-the-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/2024\/09\/19\/a-life-changed-through-the-arts\/","title":{"rendered":"A life changed through the arts"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\"Two
Chris Houltberg<\/strong> (left) with a Design & Agency student (Photo by Courtney Perry)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jasa McKenzie \u201914<\/strong> didn\u2019t know much about art when she arrived in Minneapolis from rural South Dakota for college in 2010. For that matter, she hadn\u2019t known much about Augsburg University before crossing Riverside Avenue on a whim after a University of Minnesota campus visit. A generous scholarship offer led her to enroll at Augsburg.<\/p>\n

The art program convinced her to stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I came to school, even though I didn\u2019t know anything about art, I figured that people don\u2019t know how to be a doctor, and they go to school for that. I don\u2019t know how to be an artist, so I\u2019ll go to school for that,\u201d she said. \u201cThe Augsburg art program scooped me up and set me off in the art direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

After pursuing curatorial opportunities in New York, Southern California, and Germany, McKenzie is back in Minneapolis, where she now works as the producer of The Great Northern festival. She regularly crosses paths with former professors and colleagues from Augsburg in the vibrant Twin Cities arts scene. When Associate Professor Chris Houltberg<\/strong> shared the news about a gift to establish a named art school at Augsburg, she was thrilled.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny success I have\u2014and even just the fact that I know about curating as an option\u2014comes from Augsburg,\u201d McKenzie said. \u201cI feel like if I mention Augsburg, people might think of the nursing program, or maybe science. I\u2019m always like, \u2018No\u2014the art program!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
John Schwartz \u201967<\/strong> (Photo by Rebecca Slater)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An Augsburg arts school<\/h2>\n

The Augsburg Schwartz School of the Arts, first announced in April 2023, brings together the performing, visual, and narrative arts into a single hub of creative exchange at Augsburg. This new administrative structure includes existing programs in art and design, creative writing, film, music, music therapy, and theater, as well as new opportunities to innovate across disciplines.<\/p>\n

At a time when access to arts education is increasingly jeopardized across the United States, creating a new arts school might be a countercultural move. But leaders at Augsburg see it as the perfect time to double down on creative expression.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re staking a claim that the arts matter, the arts are essential for everyone, and that in a world moving toward automation, we need creative thinkers and creative problem solvers,\u201d said Houltberg, who was tapped to lead the Schwartz School as its inaugural director. \u201cWe\u2019re going to need the outcry and the ability to articulate the human experience, which art has done in all its various forms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Group
Augsburg College Choir: 1965 European Tour (Archive photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Schwartz School was made possible through a transformative gift from Regent Emeritus John Schwartz \u201967<\/strong>, for whom the school is named. A longtime supporter of Augsburg music students, Schwartz sang baritone and toured Europe with the Augsburg choir as an undergraduate\u2014an experience that ignited a lifelong love of choral music. His time at Augsburg indelibly shaped his worldview and his leadership approach over a four-decade career as a healthcare executive.<\/p>\n

In many ways, he is the model for the goal Augsburg\u2019s faculty has adopted for the Schwartz School: \u201ca life changed through the arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough his career was outside of music, I think John Schwartz exemplified the greatest hope we have for liberal arts students: that they have a love and appreciation for the arts, even if they go and do something completely different,\u201d Houltberg said.<\/p>\n

Designing from scratch<\/h2>\n

Two of Augsburg\u2019s defining attributes\u2014the diversity of its student body and its location in the heart of Minneapolis\u2014make it a particularly exciting place to establish a destination arts hub, according to faculty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe arts constitute one of the most vital economic sectors in the Twin Cities, in turn one of the strongest creativity markets in the country,\u201d said Kristina Boerger<\/strong>, the John N. Schwartz Professor of Choral Leadership and Conducting. \u201cServing our students\u2014many of whom have not previously been privileged with access to quality arts education and training\u2014means making strong arts education available in the heart of this metropolis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Artists\u2019 ability to adapt to change and to work with fluidity makes the arts an ideal testing ground for a new, interdisciplinary school, added Houltberg. Twenty-first century artists are required to move between disciplines in a way that has only accelerated in recent years. Today\u2019s students are arriving eager to collaborate, already innovating across genres, technologies, and boundaries.<\/p>\n

The challenge has been coming up with a structure to facilitate and sustain this type of creative exploration, not constrain it. Over the past year, Houltberg has led the arts faculty in a collaborative process to develop a vision for a unified arts school with a distinctive Augsburg flair.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_images_carousel images=”13355,13356,13357,13358,13359,13360,13361,13362,13363,13364″ img_size=”full” autoplay=”yes” title=”The Arts at Augsburg Slideshow”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The faculty sorted into five working groups focused on intersections, identity, structure, curriculum, and \u201cbig ideas\u201d for the Schwartz School. \u201cI had always been apprehensive about trying to get consensus amongst faculty, because it\u2019s challenging,\u201d Houltberg laughed. \u201cThey\u2019re all very intelligent, autonomous folks. And then if you have artists on top of that, they\u2019re really independent thinkers!\u201d But, he said, what quickly emerged was a powerful blend of creativity, openness, and camaraderie.<\/p>\n

The working groups tackled big structural questions\u2014not in the sense of a new building or physical location (neither of which is currently planned)\u2014but in terms of how students spend their time and how the curriculum can be reimagined to facilitate interdisciplinary cross-pollination. New \u201con-ramp\u201d and \u201csampler\u201d courses are being developed to lower barriers to exploration for majors and non-majors alike. Parallel scheduling for lab time across programs will make it easier for students to work together\u2014for example, writing original music for a theater production or collaborating on a film script\u2014and for students from any discipline to attend events with local creatives.<\/p>\n

There is also abundant opportunity to build on the strengths of existing programs in a multidisciplinary context. Rachel Bergman<\/strong>, the Leland B. Sateren \u201935 Endowed Professor and Chair of Music, noted that in addition to performance, the music department offers a variety of degree types, including music business, music therapy, and music education. \u201cOne of the things we\u2019ve been talking about in preliminary conversations is how to broaden that to look like arts education or arts administration, so that it\u2019s more comprehensive than just music,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Bergman added, \u201cI\u2019ve been at several different institutions. It\u2019s really refreshing to see how grassroots this process has been, in terms of the faculty having the opportunity to come together and figure out what we want the Schwartz School to look like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning by doing<\/h2>\n
\"Three
Behind the scenes of Augsburg\u2019s <\/span>2023 production of \u201cThe Clockwork Professor\u201d by Maggie Lee, directed by Beliza\u00a0Torres\u00a0Narv\u00e1ez<\/strong>\u00a0(Photo\u00a0by\u00a0Courtney\u00a0Perry)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Augsburg\u2019s signature commitment to hands-on learning is perhaps nowhere more salient than in the arts. So it\u2019s no surprise that even the process of developing the Schwartz School has been a site for collaborative learning and creative exchange.<\/p>\n

As a film production and history double-major, Ellis Garton \u201924<\/strong> is intrigued by the ways film directing leverages different skill sets: storytelling, photography, screenwriting, and more. He learned of the Schwartz School through a documentary film production class last year, when the rationale for the school became immediately concrete.<\/p>\n

Part of a team tasked with shooting a promotional video for the Schwartz School, Garton found himself working with a creative writing student on the assignment. “I kept thinking, this would have been helpful before now!” he said. \u201cI could have known this person long before and developed a relationship, where we could have worked on projects together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Darcey Engen \u201988<\/strong>, professor and chair of theater arts, pointed to this type of collaboration as the greatest promise of the Schwartz School. In an interview for the short film created by Garton and his teammates, she said, \u201cWe know that when students graduate, they tend to stick together. They call each other to work on projects. Your colleagues at Augsburg become your colleagues in life.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, with the Schwartz School of the Arts, these students will leave with a music colleague, an art and design colleague, a film colleague, and that\u2019s going to propel them forward to create really complex, culture-specific art in ways that we haven\u2019t seen here at Augsburg before now.\u201d<\/p>\n

From trust to belonging<\/h2>\n
\"
Schwartz School brainstorming (Courtesy photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One after another, the faculty working groups zeroed in on the fact that arts \u201cclassrooms\u201d permeate much further than the boundaries of campus. From concerts and exhibitions to performances and publications, the arts require public-facing engagement.<\/p>\n

How do you foster the courage for students to put their work out into the world? By building trust\u2014in themselves, their craft, and each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that John [Schwartz] described to me in great detail was when he was singing in a European church,\u201d Houltberg recounted. \u201cHe said, \u2018I just remember thinking, I shouldn\u2019t be here. I\u2019m a small kid from a southwest Minnesota town.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to amazing opportunities like singing in European churches, music gave him identity and belonging. Oftentimes, I think our students think, \u2018I don\u2019t belong here.\u2019 But we know that they do. They just need the space and the time and the place and the opportunities to experience it.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKenzie found that sense of belonging in her design classes, as an intern in the Augsburg Galleries, and now as an alum, where she\u2019s come full circle to partner with Houltberg and other Augsburg colleagues on a multidisciplinary project that will explore themes of climate change for The Great Northern on campus this January. She is delighted by the idea that the Schwartz School will bring a level of recognition to Augsburg\u2019s arts programs that is commensurate with their quality.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, my life was changed by the arts,\u201d she said. \u201cBy the arts at Augsburg.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more about the life of John Schwartz \u201967.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Top image: Augsburg students in a paper making and marbling art class (Photo by Courtney Perry)<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Jasa McKenzie \u201914 didn\u2019t know much about art when she arrived in Minneapolis from rural South Dakota for college in 2010. For that matter, she hadn\u2019t known much about Augsburg University before crossing Riverside Avenue on a whim after a University of Minnesota campus visit. A generous scholarship offer led her to enroll at <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":13339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[238],"class_list":["post-13204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-stories","tag-fall-2024"],"wps_subtitle":"Augsburg\u2019s new Schwartz School of the Arts embodies the belief that the arts are for everyone.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13204"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13690,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13204\/revisions\/13690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}