COURTNEE CESTA
Special to The Leader
On July 1, SUNY Fredonia opened its doors to the new College of Visual and Performing Arts as the first of its kind in the entire SUNY system of liberal arts schools. After months of planning, Fredonia combined the School of Music with the departments of Visual Arts and New Media and Theatre and Dance to create one larger, more extensive art program.
At the top of the program sits Dr. Ralph Blasting who was hired as the new dean of the equally new college. He started his position in early April and already has full support from the faculty around him.
“Dean Blasting is quickly establishing himself as a knowledgeable and respected leader,” said Dr. Karl Boelter, music composition faculty and Director of the School of Music. “He is active in setting up his procedures and operations, and he communicated his intentions and decisions thoughtfully.”
Set up for success
Blasting’s job as dean is, at its highest, to care for Fredonia’s extensive art program. According to his colleagues, he proves to be an appropriate choice to oversee around one thousand students who major in fields within the Departments of Theatre and Dance, Music, or Visual Arts and New Media, as well as the nearly 120 staff and faculty members. It’s been just over five months since Blasting was officially named dean on April 2, but, already, an expansion for the campus’ Rockefeller Arts Center has been in the works (see “New, Big visions”).
Coming into his new position, Blasting brings knowledge and experience to help Fredonia build on some of its positive attributes; he is no stranger to visual and performing arts. Blasting comes straight from Siena College in Albany, where he held a high-profile position as dean of the College of Liberal Arts since 2004. There, he managed 1,300 students within 11 departments and, in almost a decade, saw the college welcome new tenure-track faculty, establish new academic programs and partnerships with area cultural organizations and build new academic facilities, among other extensive advancements.
Before his position at Siena, Blasting was a member of the Department of Theatre Arts at Towson University in Baltimore from 1989 until 2004 and sat as chair of the department starting in 1997. He hails from Herkimer, New York and graduated with a bachelors of fine arts in scenic design/technical theatre from Wayne State University in Michigan before he went on to receive a masters degree in theatre history from the University of Michigan. He didn’t stop there; Blasting continued on to receive a doctorate degree in drama studies from the University of Toronto.
The idea for a new College of Visual and Performing arts at Fredonia surfaced in 2008 as a recommendation by then-Vice President Horvath. It wasn’t until 2011, however, that the decision was made to proceed, and the dean’s search began.
A committee of faculty, staff and students reviewed dozens of applications in a long and tiring operation, trying to find just the right candidate. It was a long search, but the end came with reward.
“The most exciting part of the whole process was meeting people in person when they came for the final round of interviews,” said Carl Lam, a School of Music student who was on the search committee for a new dean. “The candidates all had such a vision for the arts and a vision of where they wanted to take this college.”
The committee was looking for a candidate who would care about SUNY Fredonia—someone who already had a vision they would aspire to achieve. But from the beginning, Blasting met and surpassed the committee’s expectations.
“Dean Blasting truly is someone who cares about our college and this university as a whole,” said Lam. “During his on-campus interview, I was actually running a couple minutes late for the meeting. When I walked into the room, he addressed me by name, which was so impressive to me and that means he clearly did his homework.”
Blasting has proven not only to become a positive member of the campus, but of the Fredonia community as well.
“Believe it or not, it’s exciting to live in Fredonia,” Blasting said. “We bought a house in town, and I can walk to work, to the Opera House, the the Farmer’s Market—to all the events and festivals going on.”
New, Big Visions
Even before they created a College of Visual and Performing Arts, SUNY Fredonia realized the potential of such a school. A specific “Visioning Committee,” made up of faculty from the Music, Theatre, Dance and Visual Arts programs, as well as from the Rockefeller Arts Center, met to solidify a unified vision of how they wanted this new program to thrive. Their main focus: even greater student achievement for students that are a part of departments in which Fredonia is already strong.
SUNY Fredonia is home to an already world-renowned School of Music, and equally as acclaimed departments of Theatre and Dance and Visual Arts and New Media. The new College of Visual and Performing Arts, however, will put forth an even greater effort on training students to reach their full potential as artists, but also as scholars and Fredonia students.
“We have to do everything we can to provide our students with the best faculty, the best facilities and the best opportunities to learn and practice their crafts,”said Blasting, ready to build up SUNY Fredonia’s already strong reputation.
“Every program in the College of Visual and Performing Arts is designed to help students develop their skills, expand their creativity, connect them to other artists on our campus and in the professional art world and help them to become responsible entrepreneurs as they develop their careers.”
Nothing will change within the university’s programs except the hierarchy of administration. There is, however, talk of a few physical projects in the making.
The first project on the list of improvements is a $40 million, 40,000 square-foot expansion to the
Rockefeller Arts Center Performing Arts Complex. Two additional stories will be built to house three dance studios, two acting classrooms, photography labs and darkrooms and a number of new studios for ceramics and sculpture classes. Starting in May, construction companies will begin working on the addition to the building, which should be ready to open in fall 2016.
Yes, art students will still have to take the CCC classes and venture outside of their “home building” just like everyone else, but, whereas each art-centered department was isolated before, they are all now integrated, making communication and collaboration easier.
SUNY Fredonia is known for the art and artists it produces and the creation of the College of Visual and Performing Arts brings even more room to grow.
“To me, it’s all potential at this point,” said Boelter, “and will be a joy to see it come to fruition as we respond to the new opportunities that will occur.”
The College of Visual and Performing Arts is a unity among Fredonia’s artists and artist programs that were formerly remotely isolated from one another. With this new alliance, the program has nowhere to go but up.