An Interview with Johanna Keller, Director of the Goldring Arts Journalism Program Syracuse University

Question: How do you define "arts journalism"?
Johanna Keller: During the two years we developed this program, we held a series of conversations with Syracuse University faculty and administrators, media professionals, arts administrators, artists and arts journalists, to develop a philosophy and a pedagogical approach. One of our first tasks was to define and title the program. We decided to use the word journalism as opposed to criticism because we teach a variety of writing approaches that are all part of journalism. That is to say, students will be learning to write investigative articles, profiles, essays, and memoir, in addition to learning to write cogent and informed criticism or reviews. They will also learn to write for a variety of audiences - for the readers of newspapers, online sites, general interest magazines, trade magazines, literary journals, and books.

Question: How do you define "arts"?
JK:We identified core disciplines—architecture, film, music, popular culture studies, television, theater and visual arts—that corresponded to areas of strength at Syracuse University. At Syracuse University, each of these areas has a nationally recognized program and renowned faculty who will teach and advise the arts journalism students. Since the beginning, the focus for the program is on contemporary arts and culture, and on writing about these subjects in many contexts—social, political, economic, and aesthetic.

Question: Given the decreasing nature of what can be termed "cultural coverage," why establish this new program?
JK: Is cultural coverage really decreasing? A couple of years ago, The New York Times went on a hiring spree in the culture department! But yes, in some narrowly defined areas, we can trace a contraction. For instance, the newspaper industry is contracting and there are fewer full-time arts writers on newspapers across the country. At the same time, newspapers have begun publishing regional magazines and expanding online. So the coverage is shifting and how it all will settle down is anyone’s guess. Some subject areas, such as traditional classical music, seems to be less in demand while the interest in architectural criticism is booming. The perceived decrease is not entirely across the board, but we are certainly seeing changes in how the arts are covered.

One fascinating development is that a number of daily and weekly newspapers across the country have started special tabloids aimed at the younger generation of readers. The sections are often heavy on culture and arts coverage; consequently, these newspapers are looking for young, well-trained writers and editors. This is a national trend that means there may be more jobs for our graduates, not fewer.

That's not to say we are not concerned about the job market for our graduates. The Newhouse school has achieved an extraordinary statistical record in helping its graduates find employment. Every Newhouse student in every program makes use of the Newhouse Career Development Center (CDC), which is a terrific resource. But we think that the needs of arts journalists may be slightly different. So on a very practical level, we established a new position here at the Newhouse school, the Goldring Career Development Coordinator who will individually counsel each of the Goldring students. We will be very proactive in promoting our program's graduates.

Of course the focus of the program is education to prepare students to meet the needs of today's employers. More and more, newsrooms demand that arts journalists and editors cover many art forms, so we will be training our students in cross-discipline writing. This is even more essential when you consider that a great deal of contemporary work freely incorporates different art disciplines; a theater work that uses music and dance may be a major challenge to a critic lacking cross-disciplinary experience. Also, the writer must be able to use the technical language appropriate to the reading audience, which may be different in a daily newspaper than in an arts journal.

In developing the intellectual and philosophical core of this program, I have been assisted by the strategic thinking of many members of the Syracuse University administration, especially the dean of the Newhouse school, David Rubin, who is himself a fine writer on music and an arts proponent.

Question: How will the program be structured within the SU system?
JK:Luckily, at Syracuse University the various components, the different schools and colleges, are, well, collegial! The program has been a happy and enriching joint venture among four schools: the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, the College of Arts & Sciences, the College of Visual & Performing Arts, and the School of Architecture, and takes advantage of the strengths of these components. Newhouse, one of the top journalism schools in the country by any measure, is the "school of matriculation," meaning that the M.A. degree earned will be from the Newhouse school. Those who have worked within a large institution with constituent parts will appreciate how unusual it is when I say that the four schools are working together with great enthusiasm on this project; there is a sense across the campus that the new arts journalism program will benefit all the arts, the field of journalism, and even the university. Faculty members from all disciplines have been extremely supportive and excited to participate and welcome these new students.

Syracuse University has a strong emphasis on good teaching practice and student advising. The faculty members spend a lot of time with each student. For the arts journalism program, each student will have two advisors - me as the overall program advisor and a faculty member in the specific arts or culture discipline that the student has declared (architecture, film, music, popular culture, television, theater or visual arts). Working with these two advisors, students will assess their strengths and weaknesses, and devise a curriculum of arts and journalism courses that will challenge them and help them achieve their goals.

Question: Why does the program last 12 months? What are the benefits of such concentrated, intensive study?
JK:The 12-month graduate program has been a recent and welcome development in American university education. As we all know, the cost of education continues to rise and it is a major investment in one's professional future. For graduate students, in addition to the cost of tuition and living expenses, there is the cost of taking off time from employment, which can be onerous for a two-year degree. For ambitious and disciplined students, a very concentrated 12-month program can be a cost-effective way to earn a master's degree.

Can we teach everything about writing arts journalism in a year? Of course not! It's not even possible in two years. The fact is that any profession demands lifelong learning. What we can do is build skills, create a knowledge base, teach critical thinking, and give students the tools to enter the field and to continue to develop as arts writers.

Question: Who will be teaching the students and how will you utilize the expertise of visiting lecturers and working journalists in the various fields of study within the program?
JK:As I mentioned before, students will study with the associated faculty of the Goldring Arts Journalism Program and will also take arts and journalism classes with Syracuse University faculty members who are artists, practitioners and academics, often nationally and internationally recognized in their fields of specialty. The Newhouse faculty is an extraordinary collection of journalism teachers with gold-standard professional credentials.

Syracuse is only a four-hour drive from Manhattan, our nation's culture and media capital. As is often done at Newhouse, we will be inviting guest speakers and professional journalists to travel from New York City and other major cities to Syracuse to conduct classes. And we go to Manhattan for the 10-day arts immersion course, during which the students will attend theater performances, film screenings, concerts, operas, and gallery shows, and visit museums and architectural sites. We will attend rehearsals, get backstage tours and meet with administrators and artists of all kinds, as well as visit major news organizations. The students will be writing reviews and articles on what they experience. During the arts-immersion class, students will get feedback in writing workshops with top writers and editors (listed in the faculty section of the website). And students have held very high level internships in New York City during the course of the program, which we encourage.

Question: It sounds like there is a lot of going to New York City. Why be in Syracuse?
JK:Because Syracuse and the Central New York region provide the perfect testing ground for developing arts journalists. This will be particularly helpful for those of our graduates who find work in communities of this size. However, having lived in the center of the arts world in Manhattan for 25 years, and now spending most of my time in Syracuse, I have come to the realization that the vitally important issues in the arts—economic, political and so forth—encountered in a community of the size of Syracuse are different only in scale from those in urban areas like New York or Los Angeles. And our interest as journalists should be in ideas and issues.

The city of Syracuse itself plays an important role in the program. The Goldring Arts Journalism program classes take place downtown in the Warehouse, an extraordinary new facility opened in 2006 that houses the School of Architecture, an art gallery and arts organizations. The Warehouse is connected by shuttle bus to the main campus and is part of an accelerating trend of downtown development transforming Syracuse. The program’s participants have front row seats to observe the relationship between urban development and culture, one of the most important current issues. The Goldring program has this downtown focus because our work as arts and culture writers should take us directly into the center of things. At the Warehouse, we are a short walk from the local newspaper, the art museum, art galleries, the performing arts center, and the downtown shopping and restaurant district.

The Central New York area has a fascinating history: there is the story of boom-economy in the development of the Erie Canal, and the story of social progressiveness in the region's role as incubator for feminism and suffrage. There is a vibrant Native American culture, with several indigenous nations in close proximity. Many fine painters live in the neighborhood and there is a burgeoning art gallery scene. The city has excellent arts organizations such as the Syracuse Stage theater company, Syracuse Symphony, Everson Museum, Syracuse Opera, Open Hand Puppet Theater, and an hour away is the Glimmerglass Opera. These established organizations are being augmented by new ventures such as the Redhouse, a cutting-edge Syracuse art house in the revitalized downtown district. We use the local community and the Central New York region as a kind of test tube. Students get frequent assignments to cover local artists, arts organizations, and cultural issues and they write, edit and produce a special arts publication distributed to the region.

Question: Finally, five to 10 years from now, what do you hope the profile of the program will be - what do you hope to have achieved?
JK:First of all, I hope that we will provide the very best education possible to our graduates and guide them to find their way into the arts journalism profession. I fully expect that they will write engagingly about the arts and create a body of work that will make an important contribution to the arts and to the endeavor of journalism.

Next, I hope that by developing and even broadening the scope of arts journalism, we create a national dialogue about the arts and arts journalism that will increase awareness in the media and the public. The arts are essential; and arts journalists are the bridge between the arts and the public.

Finally, I hope that by establishing this program we will be leading other universities to take arts journalism seriously as a profession and that a new area of university study and training can develop on a national scale.