Creative Arts Council at Brown University
Creative Arts Departments
David Winton Bell Gallery
The David Winton Bell Gallery opened in 1971, and has since presented a varied and innovative selection of exhibitions and programs of international scope. Through its exhibitions, programs, and collections, the Gallery serves as a vital link between the University and the local and national community.
The Gallery presents six major exhibitions concentrating on contemporary currents in 20th- and 21st-century art in the main gallery space each year. Most featured artists present programs in conjunction with their exhibitions; several artists produce work specifically for exhibition at the Bell Gallery.
The Gallery maintains a permanent collection of more than 4,500 works of art encompassing the period from the 16th century to the present, with particular strength in works on paper and 20th-century art. The collection is open to the public by appointment and is available for use by classes.
Program in Literary Arts
The Program in Literary Arts is a branch of the Department of English and is organized around four genres: fiction, poetry, playwriting, and electronic writing.
Annually, the program offers more than 30 readings as well as numerous literary festivals, the Spring New Plays Festival, and six week-long residencies by notable writers.
Modern Culture and Media
The Center for Modern Culture and Media was established in 1987 and was granted departmental status in 1995. The production component of the department is actually older than that having begun with the inauguration of 16mm film production courses in the late 1970’s.
Many MCM concentrators do extensive work in production courses, which serve to maintain the focus on the relations between image and sound production on the one hand and equally on theoretical inquiries into the ways in which images and sounds circulate within culture. As digital technology and internet culture grow, MCM forms the obvious location for their study, both in theory and in production.
Rites and Reason Theatre
Rites and Reason Theatre, a research component of the Department of African Studies, develops only new work by playwrights of all descriptions. Its trademark is its unique Research to Performance Method (RPM) of play development. Plays developed by Rites and Reason have had subsequent productions on Broadway and in both regional and national tours and theaters.
The Theatre prides itself on its partnerships and collaborations in the community. Since its founding, thousands of students have participated in the projects and productions of Rites and Reason, often working side by side with professional and community actors, writers, directors, designers and dramaturgs.
Department of Theatre, Speech, and Dance
The Department of Theatre, Speech and Dance has a core of twenty faculty members, most of whom are engaged in both practical theatre (acting, directing, design) as well as in scholarship.
The department curriculum stresses the balanced approach of the faculty and includes courses in history, literature, theory, modes of performance (acting, directing, dance, choreography, self-presentation) stagecraft, and design. A special strength of the program is the integration of dance into the curriculum. Brown is nearly unique among its sister institutions in this regard.
A new consortium of Brown and the Trinity Repertory Company and Conservatory has just been founded to provide graduate education in acting, directing, and theatre arts with future plans to include RISD as well as the Rites and Reason Theatre and the Creative Writing Program at Brown.
Read about the American Dance Legacy Institute
Read about the Brown/Trinity Consortium
Department of Visual Art
The Department of Visual Art offers students a rigorous and broad art education conceptually integrated within the philosophy of a liberal arts university. It is this combination of intellectual breadth with artistic practice, which differentiates the study of Visual Art at Brown from that which is offered by a professional art school. The major areas offered include painting, sculpture, printmaking, art of the book, installation, performance, digital art and photography.
The department provides courses which accommodate over 800 enrollments annually.
Music
The Department of Music gives vocal and instrumental instruction and to both individuals and ensembles, and includes the major curricular subspecialties of musicology, ethnomusicology, theory/composition, computer music/multimedia, and performance.
All faculty are professionally active--composers are performed worldwide, scholars regularly publish in the leading journals and academic presses, conductors lead and perform internationally in a variety of ensembles, both educational and professional.
The department sponsors over 100 events yearly including student and professional concerts, symposia, workshops, and master classes.
Creative Arts Departments
The Creative Arts Council is made up of representatves from each of the arts units at Brown, plus the David Winton Bell Gallery and Rites and Reason Theatre.
Use the links at the left for more information on any of the creative arts units at Brown.