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DanceAfrica to Move to DuSable Museum

After 15 years of producing DanceAfrica Chicago (DAC), the largest festival of African and African-American arts and culture in North America, Columbia College will transfer presenting responsibilities to the DuSable Museum of African American History in the coming year. “The size and scope of this program is no longer sustainable in its present form by the college,” said President Warrick L. Carter, adding that the college believes “this kind of community arts and cultural program is best ‘owned’ by the community itself.”

The festival has cost the college more to present than it has brought in for the past four years, which led administrators to the decision that those resources might better serve students and the college mission in other capacities.

DanceAfrica Chicago Artistic Director “Baba Chuck” Davis, DAC festival 2004.

Following the distribution of a request for proposals to invited community organizations last spring, an advisory panel of college representatives, DAC community leaders, funders, and community volunteers reviewed submissions from groups willing to assume presentation responsibilities for the year-round program and festival. The DuSable Museum emerged as the strongest candidate to continue DAC’s mission and presentation.

“It is our expectation that the DuSable Museum will retain DanceAfrica Chicago’s unique spirit of engagement with the community,” said Carter, “but we also believe they will transform the cultural celebration and find innovative ways to preserve and maintain the vitality of the festival.”

The college will remain a financial sponsor of the festival and assist the new DanceAfrica presenter in making an effective transition. Dr. “Baba Chuck” Charles Davis, who is also the inspiration and creative force behind the Washington, D.C., and New York versions of DanceAfrica, is expected to continue as its artistic director.

Fire Destroys Historic Sullivan Building; Disrupts Classes, Displaces Faculty and Staff

A five-alarm fire destroyed the historic Wirt Dexter Building on Wabash, shutting down two Columbia buildings for several days. Photo by Josh Culley-Foster.

The college evacuated five of its academic buildings north of Balbo Drive on Tuesday, October 24 as a five-alarm fire raged through the vacant Wirt Dexter Building at 630 South Wabash Avenue, across the street from two central academic buildings. The building that burned, built in 1887 and designed by noted architect Louis Sullivan, was not a Columbia property. It was completely destroyed.

The fire appeared to start slowly at around 3:00 p.m., but grew in intensity throughout the afternoon and evening, keeping firefighters working for nearly 24 hours straight to battle the blaze. The evening of the blaze, five academic buildings were closed, affecting 209 class sections. By morning, all campus buildings except 619 and 623 South Wabash had reopened. Closures of those two buildings, however, continued to affect up to 200 class sections daily, until they could be safely reopened the following Monday. More than 900 college employees were displaced from their offices.

The building was the second historically significant Sullivan structure to be lost to fire this year (along with Pilgrim Baptist Church on the city’s South Side). Known as the George Diamond building for the famous steakhouse it once housed, the six-story structure had been deteriorating since Diamond’s death in 1982. The college had explored the possibility of acquiring it several years ago, but determined the asking price was unrealistically high given the building’s condition.

College Forms Student Alumni Association

One day you’re a student; the next day you’re an alum. To promote a greater sense of connection between the two, Columbia’s offices of alumni relations and student leadership have formed a new joint organization, the Student Alumni Association (SAA).

The Student Alumni Association executive board, from left: Erin Nathan (’08), Peter Catrambone (’07), Courtney Wylie (’07), and Jeff Garceau (’08). Photo by Vanessa Torres (’06).

“We wanted to increase the level of engagement of our alumni with the school,” said James Kinser, associate director of alumni relations. “The Student Alumni Association is a way of creating that—we have a student population here that is engaged and excited about the school, and we thought they could help generate that engagement among our alumni as well.” 

The SAA is already working to bring students and alumni together at college events such as the “Conversations in the Arts: Up Close With…” lecture series, events at the Portfolio Center, and others, giving students an opportunity to network through alumni channels as well as giving alumni a glimpse of the college today. “Columbia has a rich history that a lot of current students don’t know about,” said Kinser. “The SAA can help bring that history to life, to create a bond between past and present, and connect current students with a tradition they will always be a part of, and can return to in the future.”

For information about participating in the SAA, contact James Kinser at 312-344-8640 or jkinser@colum.edu.

Minority Student Enrollment Increases

The college saw a significant increase in overall enrollment this fall, with numbers up 6.1 percent from fall 2005. This jump was accompanied by an increase in minority student enrollment, an area that has challenged the college in recent years. Columbia saw increases in minority applications for fall across the board: 20 percent for African Americans, six percent for Latinos, and 14 percent for Asians/Asian Americans. This increase in applications translated to increased enrollments as well, with a 4.1-percent increase in the number of African-American students enrolling this fall, a 2.7-percent increase in Latino student enrollment, and a 9.1-percent increase in the number of Asian students.

Board Approves Exploration of State Street Property Acquisition

At its October meeting, Columbia’s board of trustees authorized the college to begin the acquisition process for a vacant, city-owned property at 1632 South State Street to accommodate anticipated campus expansion. The authorization allowed for the expenditure of earnest money reflecting the college’s intent to construct a state-of-the-art media production center (MPC) on the 40,000-square-foot site. The proposed MPC would include sound stages, a motion-capture studio, and production and administrative facilities to support the college’s moving-image programs in film and video, television, and interactive multimedia. Students in disciplines ranging from dance and theater to arts management, art and design, and cultural studies would have use of the facility as well.

The college is expected to appear before the City’s development commission in early 2007 to present its plans for the site as part of the formal process by which the City sells lands. No terms of the proposed land sale have been released.

CCAP Awarded $2.9 Million to Create a Statewide Parent Information Resource Center

Columbia’s Center for Community Arts Partnerships (CCAP) was awarded a grant under the United States Department of Education Parent Information Research Center Program (PIRC) totaling $2,975,559 over five years.

Over the past five years, CCAP has established arts-based Community Schools partnerships in six Chicago Public Schools, developing and implementing programs designed to meet the needs of students living and learning in high-risk urban environments. CCAP’s proposed PIRC will utilize this successful structure to provide opportunities to parents of children in these communities and to address the underlying issues that form barriers between families and schools.

In addition, this grant, which involves a partnership between CCAP and the Department of Early Childhood Education, will support documentation and distribution of the methodologies the college develops, ensuring that educators and families throughout Illinois can access the resources created through the project to develop their own site-specific strategies to improve student achievement statewide.

Columbia Partners with Nano TV to Produce Hollywood's First Wireless Film Festival

Fashion Design student Crystal Hughes (’08) screens a film on a handheld device for David Kronke of the L.A. Daily News at the Third Screen Film Festival. Photo by Lee Salem.

Bridging leading-edge technology, creativity, and education, the Third Screen Film Festival (TSFF) debuted on dozens of tiny screens at the Museum of Television and Radio in Beverly Hills in October, and on more than a million others over the past few months. A new partnership between Columbia College and Nano, America’s first short film channel available wirelessly on MobiTV, TSFF showcased films produced for the “third screen”—mobile phones and other wireless hand-held devices. The festival, directed by Jon Katzman, head of Columbia’s Semester in L.A. program, allowed one million-plus viewers to vote for their favorite film as part of a contest that was open to student filmmakers, amateurs, and professionals alike.

In addition to providing a new forum for filmmakers, the festival put the Columbia name in front of millions of film lovers and introduced a crowd of industry executives to the college’s innovative Semester in L.A. program. The festival drew the attention of the Hollywood Reporter, Daily Variety, The Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times online. Among the attendees and panelists at the October 26 awards presentation were David Gale, executive vice president of new media with MTV Networks; Virginia Heffernan, television critic for the New York Times; and Suzanne Zizzi, senior vice president of Lion Rock Productions. Panelists also included James Choi, manager of movies with IFILM; Chris Gore, founder of FilmThreat.com; and Daniel Tibbets, executive vice president of GoTV Networks.

From June through October, nearly 1,000 filmmakers submitted entries, which could then be viewed on Nano-equipped cell phones, portable devices, or online, and shared via email or blogs. Viewers had the opportunity to vote online or via text messaging, powered by Mozes.com. On award night, a panel of judges viewed finalists on cell phones at the Museum of Television and Radio, text messaging their votes in real time to award the $3,000 jury prize to Matt Paige of Santa Fe, New Mexico, for his 90-second film, Pumpkin. The festival’s top prize—a $10,000 filmmaker grant—was awarded to Todd Spence of Glendale, California, for The Lost, which garnered the most votes overall. Other winners included Tim Saccardo of Hollywood for Slideshow, and brothers Pedro and Ramiro Castro of Chicago for The Great Poker Chase. Winning films may be viewed at the TSFF website.

Columbia Ranked Among Top Colleges for Entrepreneurship by The Princeton Review

In a recent survey published by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine, Columbia was ranked among the top 25 undergraduate schools in the country for entrepreneurs. Criteria used to determine the rankings—in a survey of more than 700 colleges and universities—included the entrepreneurial emphasis of the curriculum, mentoring, experiential learning, faculty credentials, and the success of graduating students and alumni. Columbia, which offers its Arts Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management Program through the Department of Arts, Entertainment and Media Management, is the only institution to make the list that does not offer its program through a school of business. The complete rankings (Columbia is number 16) were listed in the October issue of Entrepreneur.

Art + Design to Launch M.F.A. Programs Focused on Sustainable Design

Responding to changing best practices in the larger architecture and design community, Columbia’s Department of Art and Design will refocus its M.F.A. programs in Architectural Studies and Interior Architecture, beginning in fall 2007. Reflecting evolving practices in the architecture and design community and recent shifts in municipal building codes and industry standards from the federal level down, the program aims to educate future designers to understand practices of sustainability and the belief that sustainability is paramount to current practice of architecture and design. 

Chicago has positioned itself on the leading edge of sustainable design, with several architectural firms among the most respected practitioners in the field, enhancing the value of the program’s location at Columbia. “The new program benefits our students and the community in so many ways,” said Sabina Ott, chair of the Department of Art and Design. “Not only will they encounter a rigorous curriculum, but the program will operate much like a laboratory within Columbia and the city. Students will be working with our own Office of Campus Environment to develop green buildings on campus, and communicating with the city’s Department of the Environment, as well as with other schools and community organizations. We see our graduate students working in the field as they actively participate in the ‘greening’ of America.”