Fine and Performing Arts

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Ned Kirk, D.M.A., Chair

The Department of Fine and Performing Arts provides a vibrant, creative environment for students with opportunities to cultivate aesthetic diversity and enrich cultural awareness. Programs are offered in Studio Art, Graphic Design, Music Education, Music Performance, Music Business, Music Production, Music Entrepreneurship, General Music, Dance, Acting/Directing, Theatre Design/Technology, Musical Theater, and Theatre Studies.

The department is unique in that it stresses collaboration and cooperation over competition. Excellence is achieved through cooperative effort, mutual support, and the experience of peer mentorship and leadership. The fine and performing arts faculty are active professionals and nurturing mentors for students. The pursuit of excellence is predominantly a process of individual discovery and measurement against one’s self. The faculty serves to guide and advise in that process, but ultimately each student is responsible for their own growth and learning.

The department prepares students for entry-level positions as well as entrance into graduate-level studies. Through its course offerings and productions, the department consistently and consciously promotes a nourishing, diverse, and innovative artistic environment at the Winona campus with a commitment to inspiring a life-long pursuit of art, dance, music, or theatre as a profession, avocation or a source of delight and entertainment.

Saint Mary’s University is an All-Steinway School.

General Department Goals

Engagement with the department’s curriculum and production program facilitates the development of students’ knowledge, skills and dispositions in these areas:

• Cultural awareness and sensitivity: the student will understand the way their artistic discipline functions within particular historical and cultural contexts.
• Problem solving and critical thinking: the student will study and analyze relevant disciplinary works and literature for interpretation, production, performance and/or scholarly research.
• An aesthetic sensibility: the student will engage in the practices and processes of production, performance, and critical analysis.
• Research and communication skills: the student will engage in effective and ethical research on various topics of their chosen artistic discipline.
• Specific knowledge: the student will develop a broad understanding and knowledge of their chosen artistic discipline through the study and practice of technical skills and creative practices.

Art and Design

The Art and Design program provides a creative environment for Saint Mary’s students to cultivate aesthetic diversity and enrich cultural awareness. The program offers one major with two distinct tracks: Art with Art Studio Emphasis, and Art with Graphic Design Emphasis. The Art Studio track focuses on those who wish to pursue a traditional hands-on course of study like painting, printmaking, ceramics, or sculpture. The Graphic Design track prepares students pursuing a career in visual and web design. Each track offers the opportunity to ‘cross over’ to the other track and broaden the skill set of each.

General Program Goals

Art and Design majors will:

• Practice critical and creative thinking.
• Analyze works of art and design, using correct terminology and proper art criticism criteria.
• Demonstrate a working knowledge of design fundamentals, and incorporate these visual communication skills into their personal work.
• Identify and discuss major uses of the visual arts in our society: communication of information, transmission of religious/spiritual values, social/political action, utilitarian design, personal expression, and environmental enhancement.

Music

The Music program offers a challenging and enriching curriculum for music majors and minors, as well as students wishing to pursue music as an avocation. The program offers three majors with seven distinct tracks: General Music, Performance, Music Education (vocal and instrumental), Music Business, Music Production, and Music Entrepreneurship. A popular option for music education students is to complete the bachelor’s degree with a major in either general music or music performance and then continue at Saint Mary’s in the Master of Arts in Instruction program; in a total of five years and one summer session qualified students may attain both their bachelor’s and master’s degrees and Minnesota teaching license.

General Program Goals

Music Majors will:

• Practice critical and creative thinking.
• Explore the connection of music to various cultures and historical periods, and develop the basis for life-long participation in the arts.
• Demonstrate knowledge of music history, including western music, world music and contemporary musical styles.
• Relevant to a specific track, be able to analyze music from most historical periods.
• Demonstrate performance skills appropriate to their major with their primary instrument or voice.

Dance

The Dance program provides a comprehensive foundation in classical and contemporary dance technique and theory for majors, minors, and students who wish to continue dance practice for personal wellness. The program offers a Dance Track to the Theatre major and a Dance minor. In addition to dance technique training, students study dance history, choreography, anatomy, and dance teaching methods. Students have numerous opportunities to perform and create in theatre and musical theatre productions, faculty/guest artist dance concerts, a biennial production of the full-length ballet, The Nutcracker, student-choreographed dance productions, and the American College Dance Association’s annual festival. For those students who wish to focus primarily on ballet and pointe, Saint Mary’s University has one of the only university programs in the Midwest, and the only program in Minnesota, that allows dancers the opportunity to take pointe technique and variations, advanced ballet technique, and to perform on pointe in classical or contemporary ballets every semester. Dance track students and Dance minors can also choose to study abroad for a semester in London.

General Program Goals

Dance Track students and Dance minors will:

• Practice critical and creative thinking.
• Develop a working knowledge of dance vocabulary and technique in a variety of concert dance forms.
• Demonstrate knowledge of dance history, including both concert dance and world dance forms.
• Identify and apply knowledge of anatomy and efficient movement practices.
• Demonstrate performance and choreographic skills appropriate to the area of focus.
• Explore teaching methods for dance in today’s dynamic and diverse settings.

Theatre

The Theatre program seeks to foster an understanding and appreciation of the theatre arts consonant with the mission of Saint Mary’s University. The program offers one major with five distinct tracks: Acting/Directing, Dance, Design/Technology,  Musical Theatre, or Theatre Studies. The program produces four theatre productions and two dance productions on the Winona campus annually as well as one theatre production in London each fall. This includes a range of periods, genre, and styles, as well as student-generated work. A variety of additional performance and design/technical opportunities for students include the Second Page Improv Troupe, graduation projects, and student-directed or choreographed work.

General Program Goals

Theatre majors will:

• Develop problem solving and critical thinking skills by analyzing dramatic texts for interpretation and production.
• Gain cultural awareness and sensitivity by understanding how theatre functions within a particular historical and cultural context.
• Demonstrate an aesthetic sensibility and appropriate technical skills to areas of theatre practice by engaging in the process of theatrical production.
• Explore meaningful application of dramatic theory and criticism to theatrical production.
• Engage in effective and ethical theatre research and demonstrate oral and written communication skills on topics of theatrical relevance.
• Prepare a pre-professional portfolio of work in an area or areas of focus.

Stefanníe Valéncia Kierlin Theatre Program in London

Theatre majors who meet institutional requirements and who are in good standing in the department are expected to participate in the London theatre semester in London, England in the fall semester of their junior year. The program is open to all Saint Mary’s students. The London theatre experience, under the guidance of Saint Mary’s University faculty, includes:

• Attending classes in theatre and dance, as well as courses focusing on broader enrichment.
• Attending numerous performances in London’s West End, Off-West End, and Fringe theatres.
• Fully mounting a student production in a London theatre
• Studying at Dublin’s renowned Gaiety School of Acting.
• Traveling to various sites in the United Kingdom as well as additional travel in Europe.

Programs

• Art: Art Studio Track, B.A.
• Art: Graphic Design Track, B.A.
• Music Industry: Music Business Track, B.A.
• Music Industry: Music Entrepreneurship Track, B.A.
• Music Industry: Music Production Track, B.A.
• Music: Classroom and Instrumental Education Track, B.A.
• Music: Classroom and Vocal Education Track, B.A.
• Music: General Track, B.A.
• Music: Performance Track, B.A.
• Theatre: Acting/Directing Track, B.A.
• Theatre: Dance Track, B.A.
• Theatre: Design/Technology Track, B.A.
• Theatre: Musical Theatre Track, B.A.
• Theatre: Theatre Studies Track, B.A.

• Art Minor
• Dance Minor
• Graphic Design Minor
• Music Minor
• Musical Theatre Minor
• Theatre Minor

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