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The Future Is Bright For The Arts At BC

October 10, 2009

By Heights Editorial Board

The Issue: Arts events are coming into their own on campus

What we think: Student and faculty enthusiasm is essential

In his last memoir before passing, Kurt Vonnegut proclaimed, "If you really want to hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way to make life more bearable." Throughout this fall, into next semester, and stretching into the 10-year Master Plan, student and faculty artists and architects alike will make life not only more bearable, but inspired. The Boston College arts community is budding and worthy not only of recognition but campus-wide patronage.

From theater to sculpture to literature, creation and performance are encompassing the Heights in a sprawling and vibrant array. Earlier this month, BC theater professor and '91 graduate Luke Jorgenson wrote and directed the wacky, multimedia-laced musical Code Monkey. Crafting a production featuring monkeys, zombies, and Freemasons, Jorgenson described the process as "some strange and incredibly fun combination of writing, doing a crossword puzzle and a Sudoku while organizing a party." With such a bizarre and unorthodox style, Jorgenson, the theater department, and the Robsham Theater Arts Center took a laudable risk in producing the play, and it paid by spawning hoards of intrigued fans.

The novelty continues this week with the recreation of the Berlin Wall in the Dustbowl. To commemorate the fall of the wall 20 years ago, the German Embassy has selected BC as the only Boston-area school to host the demonstration. Erected only on Monday, students have already covered every inch of the wall in art.

As outlined in the University's Master Plan, BC will erect an entire fine arts district, complete with a relocated McMullen Museum of Art, an auditorium, and an arts-oriented academic space. No longer will bands have to huddle within the steam rooms of Lyons, no longer will dance troupes fight to book nights in the Eagle's Nest dining hall. In the near future, arts groups will congregate in a center created for them. Such a concentrated community will foster more creativity, more arts groups, more inspiration.