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NEWS
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News Release |
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New ‘neighborhood’ for students interested in the arts BOWLING GREEN, O. — Bowling Green State University’s Arts Village is welcoming its first students this fall. Housed in the
Chapman section of Harshman Quadrangle, the living/learning community is for all students who are interested in artistic pursuits,
according to its Director Mary Natvig, an associate professor of music. “They don’t have to be art majors,” she said.
“The Arts Village is a real, living symbol of the arts being an integral part of the campus,” adds Dr. Katerina Ray, director
of the School of Art. Ray, along with Natvig, is one of the core faculty for the village.
Arts Village students take one course a semester from a selection of four, plus a one-credit course that focuses on experiencing
the arts first hand. Throughout the semester students will go to art galleries, plays, music and dance performances and other
arts-related events, followed by group discussion.
“It’s a good balance between the arts and taking classes at the University. There are other students also living in Chapman,
so our students will have plenty of interaction with others,” Natvig said.
Natvig is teaching a music appreciation course and Ray is teaching an art appreciation course in the Arts Village space as
part of the BGeXperience values initiative. Other courses taught by English and theatre faculty emphasize the arts.
“These are general education courses (students) would be taking anyway,” Natvig said, “but they will be adapted to focus on
the arts. In English composition, instead of writing an opinion piece, for example, they might write a critique of a poem
or a performance. We want to focus on the interdisciplinary aspect of the arts. What can a potter learn from a dancer, and
what can a painter learn from a musician?”
Her own course, titled “Masterpieces of Music,” uses the book “First Nights” as its text. Students study the premieres of
operas, ballets, symphonies and more, learning about the works themselves, their historical context and how they were received
at the time.
Ray, an architect by training, describes the Arts Village as a “little neighborhood. It’s a more contemporary model of living.
Just as in the United States we celebrate differences, I think this celebrates the difference art makes.”
She likened the experience of living and teaching right next door to studio space to the way most artists arrange their living/working
arrangements. “Students can not only study and work on art but discuss it with one another where they live. It’s a really
interesting experiment,” Ray said.
The two-year program can accommodate 76 freshmen this year and an equal number of sophomores next year, Natvig said. The sophomore
curriculum will include courses in diversity in the arts, creativity across disciplines, and creative writing. It is completely
self-funded. Participants pay an additional $150 per semester to live and learn in the village.
(Posted September 08, 2003 )
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