One artist may use a computer to draw and compose music. Another may combine a radio documentary with an interactive online photography exhibit. Other students in Duke's new Master of Fine Arts program may pursue other paths when the program launches next fall.
Sound experimental? That's exactly the point, says Tom Rankin, director of the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) and one of the new program's directors.
"Experimentation is at the root of all creation," Rankin says. "Documentary artists have regularly been some of those experimenters, attempting to communicate through new forms, with new media, spanning new audiences. We want to explore that in this program."
The program's full title -- Master of Fine Arts in Experimental and Documentary Arts -- reflects its unusual approach.
Drawing faculty, courses and other resources from Duke's department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, CDS, and the program in Arts of the Moving Image, the new MFA is a key addition to the university's growing arts portfolio, which has been a major focus of its most recent strategic plan. Other recent initiatives in the arts include the establishment of the Nasher Museum of Art, a revitalized Duke Performances, the evolution of the Arts of the Moving Image program and the creation of the Visual Studies Initiative (VSI).
VSI has brought renowned new-media artists -- including Bill Seaman, Mark Hansen and N. Katherine Hayles -- to Duke's faculty and emphasized collaboration across the arts and humanities, engineering and computation sciences.
A similar confluence of expertise and cooperation in diverse disciplines will help differentiate Duke's new MFA program from traditional fine arts degree programs, says Hans Van Miegroet, VSI director and chair of the department of art, art history and visual studies.
"The premise of the program is that the relationship between documentary practice and experimental production, including computational media, is of great critical and aesthetic importance -- and that a new generation of professional artists capable of engaging rigorously with these matters is needed," says Van Miegroet.
The new degree program also reflects the artistic growth and synergy occurring beyond Duke's campus in the surrounding Durham community.
Local tobacco warehouses that actually held tobacco a decade ago are now home to artist studios, gallery spaces and performance venues.
Shelly Green, president and CEO of the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau, attributes the artistic revival to Durham's unique strengths, saying "Durham is very creative; it has a passion for being innovative."
Statistics back her up. From 2002 to 2008, when the National Endowment for the Arts measured a decline in arts participation nationally, Durham saw significant percentage increases in attendance at art museums and performing arts venues such as the recently opened Durham Performing Arts Center.
Experimental filmmaker and North Carolina native David Gatten, who spent last spring at Duke as a distinguished visiting filmmaker, says returning to Duke allowed him to witness firsthand this "art and cinema renaissance" on campus and in the surrounding community.
Pointing to the presence and growing reputation of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and CDS at Duke, Gatten describes the local arts scene as "filled with great promise and potential."
"Right now is a chance to ‘get in on the ground floor'," he says. "The first class of MFA students will have the chance to make substantial contributions to the ways in which the program itself and the arts in general at Duke and in Durham will grow over the next few years."
Accepting applications in January 2011 for a first cohort of 15 students, the program is looking for accomplished artists seeking experience producing innovative photographic, spoken-word, film, video and computational digital arts along with the study of philosophy and critical theory.
The terminal, two-year degree program includes 14 courses over four semesters, culminating in a written thesis and final project to be featured in a spring exhibition. Graduates are expected to continue with careers in higher education or as creative artists.
During the program, the students will be an active part of Duke's ongoing commitment to the arts, taking full advantage of the artistic resources available in and around campus, says Rankin.
"The documentary arts are, at their foundation, about engagement with community life and issues," he says, "and our MFA students will be active artists and citizens at Duke and in Durham."