Vision

The College of Creative Arts will advance creativity as a powerful thread to link the visual and performing arts, design, and multimedia across disciplines, bringing the voice and imagination of the arts to all corners of our diverse and global society. By integrating disciplinary expertise with the liberal arts, we will educate the next generation of architects, artists, designers, performers, teachers, and scholars for leadership in their chosen fields and in new and emerging creative industries.

Mission




The College of Creative Arts cultivates and sustains a community that is centered on creativity and where the integration of liberal education and the arts shapes our identity. Our efforts are realized through degree offerings in the departments of Architecture and Interior Design, Art, Emerging Technology in Business + Design, Music, and Theatre and through programs of the Miami University Art Museum and Performing Arts Series that enrich academic and cultural experiences across campus and throughout the region.

It is our mission to prepare students for global engagement as practitioners, educators, creators, advocates, and patrons of the arts. We foster the development of professional skills and intellectual growth necessary for the pursuit of creative and scholarly inquiry by extending artistic traditions while embracing a culture of innovation and change.

Through the transformative power of the arts, our departments and programs serve as a window to an ever-changing and diverse world, providing the knowledge and resources for our constituents to engage in their professions and in society as both artists and citizens.  

A.S.C.E.N.D Strategic Plan 2021

Artists, Scholars, Creatives Explore New Directions

#s indicate Miami RISE strategic recommendations. 

Goal 1: Enact a "Future Forward" Mindset

Objective 1: Collaborate with internal and external colleagues (#2, #3) to create partnerships that will allow us to be on the avant-garde of industry and pedagogy

• Strategy: Prioritize joint hires.
• Strategy: Explore more cross-listing of courses, interdisciplinary programs with existing resources (e.g., Art Therapy), and Miami Plan Signature Inquires that involve cross-College and cross-divisional alliances.
• Strategy: Explore the benefit of micro-credentials across the division.
• Strategy: Build industry and not-for-profit partnerships by 20%

Objective 2: Create Curriculum (#17, #19, #20, #21, #22) that prioritizes diversity, technology, and interdisciplinarity (health, business, design), and that prepares students for a rapidly changing world.

• Strategy: Integrate technology across the college, embedding it in curricular modules and introducing new software to make sure that all students are conversant in the most contemporary tech practices
• Strategy: Implement and assess the following new programs: BA in Art, AME,      Entertainment Design
• Strategy: Implement recommendations made by the CCA Arts/Design + Health Task Force    and the FLC
• Ensure future interdisciplinary programs are flexible for students, emphasizing established courses and low credit hours

Objective 3: Explore alternative Configurations (#16) for the CCA relative to its structure that would introduce synergies and collaborations that are inhibited by our historical silos. The following are possible strategic reorganizations:

• School of Design, Architecture & Art (Arch/ID, Art, ETBD)
• School of Music
• School of Theatre, Dance, Film, and Media Studies
• School of Digital Tech, Entrepreneurship, and Management (AME, ETBD)

Objective 4: Interface with Communities through innovative programming locally (#14), nationally, and internationally and thus increase visibility:

• Strategy: Enhance our presence in Cincinnati, Dayton, and Hamilton (SW Ohio) through partnerships with arts institutions. This might include programming such as the MFA show at the Contemporary Art Center or Miami Takes Music Hall
• Strategy: Place CCA faculty/administrators on non-profit arts boards
• Strategy: Enhance our presence in Oxford through storefront installations, pop-up galleries, exhibitions, concerts, coffee houses, escape room

Objective 5: Incorporate the lessons/impact of COVID

• Strategy: Enhance traditional programming with continued virtual programming (e.g., Digital Fringe Festival, streamed performances, online exhibitions, Zoom workshops, alumni Zooms)
• Strategy: Use technology to bring more diverse voices to students (e.g. remote speakers, classroom guests, adjunct faculty, event participation)
• Strategy: Continue to offer virtual advising sessions and/or faculty office hours
• Strategy: Leverage virtual events as an additional tool for recruitment and yield
• Strategy: Evaluate certificate and/or masters programs with more flexible residency requirements that could reach international students, non-traditional students, and other new audiences

Goal 2: Engage in the Work of Anti-Racism

It is the intention of this strategic plan to move the CCA beyond goals and strategies about inclusion to goals and strategies that are actively anti-racist.

Strategic Goal Implementation

The CCA will create a permanent, standing committee within the Division—the CCA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee—the purpose of which is to support and assess the implementation of the goals created by the CCA Strategic Justice Task Force. The Committee will work with the Dean to make sure there is annual progress made on the goals within this plan.

• Create a timeline for the annual implementation of various goals each semester, with the overall objective being the completion of said goals within five years’ time. If metrics or assessment measures are helpful for implementation, create these metrics.
• Work with Departments to create their own DE&I goals and a mechanism (report card) for assessing said goals.
• The DE&I Committee will consult with BIPOC visiting artists/industry specialists to help them accomplish CCA DE&I goals.

Recruit and Retain BIPOC Students

Create strategies/best practices for aggressive recruitment of BIPOC students and develop systems and strategies to support them to graduation.

Recruit and Retain BIPOC Faculty and Staff

The CCA will establish comprehensive faculty and staff recruitment and retention strategies that support a diverse learning and working environment.

Pedagogy

The CCA will establish anti-racist and DE&I best teaching practices, and offer ongoing resources, training, and support for faculty.

Curriculum

CCA will increase strategies across the college to advance a learning environment that provides forums for the cultivation of mutual respect of differences and cross-cultural knowledge and understanding.

Programming

CCA will increase strategies across the college to foster the creation of a culture where its performances, productions, exhibitions, events, and creative/intellectual activity provide forums for the cultivation of mutual respect of differences and cross-cultural understanding.

Climate and Culture

Advance efforts and initiatives to create and foster an inclusive and equitable culture within the College of Creative Arts that is characterized by accessibility, respect, and support for diverse people and ideas. By creating and enhancing an inclusive culture, the CCA will be recognized as a leader on diversity issues within Miami University.

View the full CCA DEI plan on the CCA DEI web page here.>>

Goal 3: Ensure Sustainability

Objective 1: Recruit to ensure all programs in the CCA are at their capacity

• Strategy: Advance K-12 relationships in Ohio schools and increase the number of high school visits
• Strategy: Implement faculty Masterclasses at both the SCPA and in Dayton
• Strategy: Ensure we are involving alumni in recruitment efforts where appropriate

Objective 2: Gain national visibility through faculty expertise & program rankings (#4)

• Strategy: Ensure UCM and CCA Marketing Director has the latest information on faculty accomplishments
• Strategy: Enhance/sustain rankings in the following programs: Architecture/ID, ETBD (Games), and Music
• Strategy: Support Performing Arts Series and Museum on regional and national visibility efforts and employ their accomplishments to in turn help boost rankings
• Strategy: Employ more arts management students in marketing efforts

Objective 3: Meet Comprehensive Campaign goals with University Advancement (#12)

• Strategy: Prioritize scholarships, facilities, programming

Objective 4: Implement new programs/IP that will generate net new revenue for the CCA (#22) and for student/faculty artists.

• Strategy: Increase ETBD Capstone and Highwire revenue
• Strategy: Create a taskforce to implement the mART (students and alumni)
• Strategy: Pilot a “cameo”-like service using performing artists

Goal 4: Enable Creatives

Objective 1: Support research (especially cross-disciplinary) for faculty (#3)

• Strategy: Create a permanent E&G line to support faculty development
• Strategy: Build incentives into faculty loads to foster interdisciplinary collaborations (#8)
• Strategy: Increase external grants for faculty research and creative work (#9)
• Strategy: Implement an annual grant workshop for faculty

Objective 2: Strengthen the #thrivingartists/#careersforcreatives career-readiness programing

• Strategy: Increase internship participation by 10% across the CCA [connected to 1.4]
• Strategy: Explore a permanent staff position (full or part-time) for an Internship Coordinator
• Strategy: Involve alumni in virtual career fairs and panels
• Strategy: Increase the number of students who receive a mentor in the #thrivingartists network

Objective 3: Support Staff Development

• Strategy: Offer monthly divisional support for classified staff to engage with university platforms
• Strategy: Create a shared CCA Google Drive for staff that provides instructions for systems
• Strategy: Investigate resources at HR to ascertain their relevancy or efficacy for CCA staff
• Strategy: Work with Department Chairs/Directors to create content for HR to aid classified staff (i.e. Adobe Creative Suite) with job enrichment

Objective 4: Increase Advocacy for the College of Creative Arts

• Strategy: Educate/raise awareness at a local level about what goes into  teaching and programming in the arts
• Strategy: Hold quarterly meetings with CCA Senators to develop talking points for advocacy.
• Strategy: Involve the Student Advisory Council in advocacy exercises
• Strategy: Expand participation in state and national arts advocacy programs