Dear Moore Community,
In this time of off-campus learning and teaching, we embrace the paradox of distance and community, exploring new ways of “coming together” through forms of engagement, participation, communication and collaboration. Imagining the improbable into reality is what creative individuals and communities do—and what we do each day at Moore, wherever we are physically at the given moment.
On Tuesday, April 21, Moore held its first online Honors Convocation to celebrate the achievements of students, in the midst of a “Spirit Week” of activities and events leading up to Sarah Peter’s birthday bash on Friday, April 24. Currently, a working group led by The Galleries at Moore is planning a web-based 2020 Thesis Exhibition, while Students Affairs and the President’s Office plan the college’s first virtual Commencement on Saturday, May 16, including a series of career focused/future-thinking workshops with Creative Capital founder and 2020 Honorary Degree recipient Ruby Lerner.
As our spring semester draws to a close, summer 2020 planning is in progress. Accepting that programs and activities cannot happen on campus, exciting alternative plans have been developed by Continuing Education and Academic Affairs. Here are several highlights!
- The Summer Art and Design Institute (SADI) will be a four-week online program that, we expect, will draw students from across the nation to engage in a quality Moore experience of immersive courses in art and design taught by Moore’s stellar faculty, with virtual special projects, presentations and other enrichments.
- Our summer Youth Arts Workshop (YAW) for rising students grades 9-12 will run concurrently with SADI, with collaborative programming and alignment, including high-level creative opportunities and portfolio development for college-bound students.
- Moore’s distinctive Master of Arts in Art Education with an Emphasis in Special Populations, typically a hybrid program of two successive on-campus summer terms with online courses in the fall and spring semester, will be online for continuing (and graduating) students, as well as a cohort of new graduate students from around the nation. A festive celebration and farewell for graduating MA students is planned for the conclusion of the summer term.
- Moore’s commitment to Adult Continuing Education courses and certificate programs continues online during our upcoming summer session, taking place July through September.
As we look ahead to seasonal transitions at Moore, a deep commitment to the success and persistence of current and incoming BFA and graduate students is absolutely core to the College’s mission. With many of our rising seniors (Class of 2021) in search of summer internships (challenged by the social and financial implications of COVID-19), the College has developed adjusted internship policies, thanks to a hard-working “posse” of department chairs, Locks Career Center staff and Academic Affairs leadership, to support and assist students with internships and/or equivalent alternative experiences. Academic Affairs, Students Affairs and the Locks Career Center will work with the newest Travel, Leadership and Internship Fellowship recipients who may have to adjust or delay their summer plans and proposals.
Moore continues to embrace and advance its aspirational mission, always looking to the future, even when the present feels uncertain—and especially at this time. We will extend expectancy and opportunity with generosity for each other and the many communities in which we live and participate. As we know and as history confirms, in times of radical change, artists and designers are the ones who continue to shine as inventive and persistent guides to new ideas and unimagined possibilities in the unknown.
You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
—Maya Angelou
This is Moore’s mission—and our moment.
All best wishes,
Patti
Patricia C. Phillips
Chief Academic Officer
P.S. Thoughts on Fall 2020 are forthcoming!
