How can we encourage college students to use their Radical Imagination? 

By Jordan Campbell

On June 10, 2022, Jeff and I moderated and participated on a panel entitled “Learning in Liminal Spaces: Arts Integration from the Student Perspective,” at the A2RU@10 Symposium What’s Next for Arts Integration? hosted by the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. We were joined by two panelists, both of whom have interacted with higher education arts-related programs in various capacities, shared their ideas and reflections about a carving space for unique scholastic journeys in the higher education ecosystem.

The Panelists

Gabrielle Piazza, who is currently the Assistant Director of the EXCEL Lab in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance at the University of Michigan, talked about her multihyphenate path to her current role, including as a theatre maker and arts administrator. It was inspiring to hear her speak to the challenges she faced - and overcame, through her own mindful maneuvering - and how she has now taken on a professional role that enables creative students with unique trajectories just like her. 

Donald Rabin, who is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Flute Performance and a Master of Arts Leadership at University of Houston, spoke in similar terms about his own barriers as he was finding his way. He also shared a story of how, when he lost his $22,000 instrument on a train, the spirit of community - even in a giant city like Chicago - helped him see the multidimensional power of his music career on community endeavors.

Asserting one’s own Radical Imagination

During the conversation, Jeff and I interrogated the panelists’ path to their “Arts Hybrid” identity and, perhaps more importantly, posited how we might decrease barriers in higher education so that the pathways to interdisciplinary work with an arts focus is possible for a wider range of students. 

The idea that continuously came up during this panel and throughout the conference - whether mentioned explicitly or implicitly - was around radical imagination. At Creative Generation, we talk about employing radical grace in the work that we do, but radical imagination felt like a new, profound, exciting takeaway. What would it look like to allow students in university settings to integrate the arts into their curriculum? Is there a way we can break through the “silos” that often separate us? Can university departments financially manage dropping course requirements to encourage cross-pollination between domains and - maybe, just maybe - allowing for innovation at the intersection of the creative fields and another area? 

Why This? Why Now? 

These can sometimes feel like pie-in-the-sky, navelgazing conversations. Yet, when we look at the looming issues facing our global societies today, we can’t deny the challenges ahead. Global climate change. Increasing nationalism. Fossil fuel depletion. Cyber warfare. Poverty and hunger. As we know, our systems often do not allow for the most innovative solutions due to a million different barriers that are essentially made up. 

What if we could allow…

  • artists to interact more with the climate scientists? 

  • cultural workers to collaborate with community-based health services? 

  • creatives to convene with engineers?

It’s in our institutions of higher learning - designed essentially to be laboratories of imagination - where we can spark this type of change. 

As always, I leave you with a call to action:

  • If you are an educator, where do you see possibilities for these types of integrated practices? 

  • How can you - in this very moment - further enable radical imagination?