Fairfield has launched an arts initiative to further the University’s mission to be a destination for arts and culture.
Recently, and with Philip Eliasoph, PhD, at the rudder, the University launched a newly focused Arts & Minds initiative — an innovative framework that will bring all of the University’s arts and culture programming, resources, and academics together in one place to enhance Fairfield’s engagement with the local community and to better educate and inspire the student community as well.
Fairfield Arts & Minds intends to define the University as the region’s destination for theater, music, dance, talks, fine art, and community programming — with a mission to deepen human connectedness at a time when the world needs it most.
Dr. Eliasoph, a longtime professor of art history and visual culture, serves as special assistant to the President for arts and culture, a role that began at the start of this academic year. Working as a member of the University’s senior leadership team, Dr. Eliasoph is charged with spearheading the University’s efforts, working with partners across campus to enhance the quality of the overall Fairfield undergraduate experience, and more sharply defining the profile of the arts at Fairfield.
“The energies, the synergies, the excitement about our arts and minds initiative looking outward is a significant step forward in how we’re envisioning the potential and full promise of a Fairfield education,” Dr. Eliasoph said.
Since 1942, Fairfield University has included arts and culture, and the humanities, as integral to the curriculum. In addition, for decades, the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts has presented high-caliber artistic programs to the public; the Fairfield University Art Museum has inspired curiosity through its exhibitions, programs, and the collections in its care; and various academic centers, like the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies and the Center for Catholic Studies, have presented significant writers and thinkers to the campus community.
But, there has not been, traditionally, one entity that has unified these programs in such a way that they express an intentional vision, nor has there been an institutionalized connective tissue to link the University’s arts programming to student life and academics.
