CRAVING A CULTURE

Joan Didion is sitting across from me. One of the greatest living American writers is sitting across from me, and I have her full attention.

We're waiting in a second-floor Sanford Institute of Public Policy office while my co-chair finishes up preparations for Didion's reading for the Archive Literary Festival. In person, Didion looks like a tiny doll, buried beneath an Anna Wintour-haircut and dramatic angles of black fabric. She is undeniably New York.

"So tell me: are you a writer?" Didion says, smiling (which, if you've ever seen her read, you know is rare).

As I explained to her then, creative writing has been the major theme of my Duke career. And with experiences such as this, it's hard to look back on my time at Duke and find complaint-I've had superb mentoring from writing professors, met famous and award-winning poets and authors, and was guided to produce a full-length manuscript.

But despite Duke's many virtues, students and faculty are aware of the challenges-and possible solutions-the University faces as it looks forward toward placing a greater emphasis on the arts in the future.

The arts at Duke. It's a simple phrase and a popular topic of conversation on campus-and we're not just talking about parties at the Nasher Museum of Art. We're talking about the real arts-the artwork that students create and perform, the craft and theory that the dedicated few spend hours and years studying and practicing.

Of course, Duke is not meant to be a conservatory, but until recently, it wasn't always the greatest place to be an artist.

"There had long been recognition that the arts departments had been the orphans on campus," says Scott Lindroth, vice provost for the arts-a position created to advocate for these departments. "Duke always had very talented students, but the facilities weren't good."

But despite increases in funding and support, many arts students say a real sense of community has failed to take hold, and that beyond events at the Nasher, many students don't seem invested in arts culture.

"People are receptive of art here, people absolutely appreciate creativity-they just don't foster it as a daily community function," says senior Alice Zimmermann, who is completing a creative thesis in visual art.

Zimmermann sets up paintings and a few works-in-progress for me along a wall in her apartment. Beautiful and intricate, her work is multilayered with paint, string and tape, and glitters in golds, blues and reds. She adds that her background in neuroscience has greatly influenced her choices of subjects and styles.

Zimmermann is the perfect example of an arts student at Duke. She's multidisciplinary; she's actively involved in both arts and non-arts activities; and she has a lot to say about the challenges artists face at Duke.

"The professors have given me a lot, and I have an intimate feedback relationship with these professors, but they have lost hope in any synergetic student culture of experimental expression," she says. "I have definitely lost hope."

Zimmermann is one of two students doing a distinction thesis in visual art this year. This fact has double-sided consequences: On the one hand, she gets more individualized attention and has been offered gallery space to display her distinction project. On the other hand, she feels very isolated as an artist.

"Everyone feels they're kind of in their own boat," agrees Summer Robins, a senior studying dance and psychology. Duke students, she says, often view their artistic classmates as people who happen to like art as a hobby-not as student artists.

"People sometimes feel that their outside talents besides academia are belittled here," she continues, explaining that interest in art is viewed as a novelty and not a legitimate pursuit. "I'm sometimes known to my friends as 'the girl who dances.'"

Nonetheless, Duke (and Durham) attract some of the country's most impressive artists and writers. But anyone who has attended more than a few events can't help but notice the often-lackluster turnout of undergraduates.

Maria Kuznetsova, a senior English major who is pursuing an MFA in fiction when she graduates, lists off the names of the writers she's seen at Duke and in Durham: Jonathan Safran Foer, Mark Strand, Gary Shteyngart, Edward P. Jones, Joshua Ferris, Ann Beattie, Grace Paley-some of the brightest names in modern literature.

"When Joshua Ferris read, they made a joke about how there were no undergraduates there," she says of a reading at the Regulator Bookshop. "It's just kind of embarrassing."

Kuznetsova says she has loved Duke's academics and resources for writing, but has primarily been disappointed by the lack of a writer's community.

"I definitely feel like there are certain people I just can't talk to about literature," she says. "On a daily basis I feel like I'm surrounded by econ majors. I feel like other campuses are a lot more artsy."

Still, not everyone has the same complaints. Senior Shaun Dozier, for example, says the theater department's sense of unity actually encourages students to stick with the program, and he's made some of his best friends in theater productions.

But unlike many other programs, theater requires unity for its performances. And for those who are dissatisfied with Duke's arts community, the question remains: how can we foster a greater appreciation for the arts?

One idea is recruitment. In the past few years, Duke has begun to more actively recruit high school seniors with a demonstrated interest in the arts.

Between 1,000 and 1,500 applicants submit supplemental art, videos or music every year, says Dean of Admissions Christoph Guttentag. Arts departments then evaluate these supplementals, and the most talented applicants receive greater preference in admissions.

When an arts student is accepted, his or her arts information is forwarded to a department. It is then up to the discretion of the arts program to try to entice that student to come to Duke.

But Guttentag notes that these efforts are only the beginning, and that more could be done to bring student artists here.

"I'd like us to be more active and searching more aggressively for students who have a commitment to the arts and whose quality and creativity as an artist is high," he says. "We don't yet know what exactly the best way is to do that."

In his role as arts advocate, Lindroth has proposed several ideas. One is to create an arts-focused event to bring high school students on campus and see the resources Duke already has to offer. Another option is to reserve exclusive space in publicity materials for the arts.

Students also stressed that facilities could be improved-or better utilized-to support arts services.

At present, there is only limited studio space for visual artists to work on and house their artwork. And though student gallery space is available, like in the Smith Warehouse, students said there could be more locations on campus that display their art in areas frequented casually by undergraduates. Providing a forum near dining areas or study space to display student work would make their art more public.

There is also a concern that no central area exists for artists to come together in one unified space; arts departments are scattered throughout all of Duke's campuses, and many of them have limited real estate. Lindroth, however, says this could change when Duke constructs its new Central Campus.

"My hope is that with the new campus, we can bring several of the arts programs in close proximity that may help begin to make it easier to establish or achieve that kind of unity that is lacking right now," he says.

Many students seemed most enthusiastic at the idea of a unified arts facility, a visible place on campus where arts students could come together to work, socialize and display their products.

"Having a central lounge area, not in Edens [Quadrangle], not off campus, where people could get messy, would be great," Zimmermann says.

Although challenges remain, all student artists underscored their appreciation for the opportunities Duke has given them. When I reflect on my own four years of "arts experience," it's surprising to realize how drastically the University has shaped my development as a writer.

Surely, without the dedicated mentorship of faculty in the English department, my writing would not have developed as much as it has over these four years.

And plus, I've had more than a few good stories to tell to my writer friends at other schools. At what other institution could an undergrad sit and chat one-on-one with Joan Didion about writing?

I can't think of any.