The School of Arts and Communication is home to three departments: art & design, communication & theatre, and music

We offer professional training to artists and communicators within the framework of a liberal arts education. Our community of artists and scholars is encouraged to pursue their work in an environment that challenges complacency, nurtures personal growth, and maintains a strong culture of collegial integrity.

art & designBachelor of Arts in Art HistoryBA in Studio ArtsBFA in Studio Arts ceramics graphic design painting photography printmaking sculpture

musicBachelor of Arts in MusicBachelor of Music in Performance composition instrumental performance organ performance piano performance vocal performanceBachelor of Music Education Bachelor of Musical Arts

communication& theatreBachelor of Arts in Communication conflict & global peacebuilding journalism public relations & advertisingBA/BFA in Acting/DirectingBA/BFA in Design/Technical Theatre

art historystudio artspublishing & printing artscommunicationtheatre

dance performancebusiness - specializedmusic - generalmusic - specialized

At Pacific Lutheran University you will be challenged to achieve at the peak of your ability, given support to meet that challenge and, as a result, find success both in college and in your chosen career. You will receive individual attention and be challenged to explore beyond the textbooks, to seek life’s purpose. You will be prepared to lead and to make a difference in the world. It’s a special kind of success.

Challenge. Support. Success. This is the PLU experience.

Recent alumni are performing and creating on Broadway (Next to Normal), TV (Glee, The Mentalist, NCIS: LA), Film (Lord of the Rings), as well as on stages and concert halls locally, regionally, and nationally (Metropolitan Opera), and at news and media organizations throughout the region (News Tribune, King Broadcasting, Kiro TV).

Angela Meade, ’01 (vocal performance), is an award-winning American operatic soprano who performs regularly with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and around the world. Less than five years after her professional debut, she has quickly become recognized as one of the outstanding vocalists of her generation.

Louis Hobson, ’00 (acting/directing), has starred in several Broadway productions including Leap of Faith, Bonnie & Clyde, The People in the Picture, and Next to Normal. Hobson credits his experience at PLU with helping him make it to Broadway. While at PLU, Hobson helped plan the Night of Musical Theater, participated in the opera program, and performed with Choir of the West.

Artistic Achievement Awards are offered in renewable amounts ranging up to $12,000 per year. Awards are available to students in: Art & Design Music - Auditions Feb. 8-10, 2013 Dance Theatre: Acting - Auditions Feb. 9-10, 2013 Forensics (Speech & Debate) Theatre: Technical

Students are eligible to apply for awards in multiple areas.To be considered for an Artistic Achievement Award, please complete both an admission application to PLU, as well as a scholarship contact form. You DO NOT have to be admitted to PLU to apply for an award.

Application Deadline: February 1, 2013

For more information visit: www.plu.edu/soac/scholarships

scholarships

Karen Hille Phillips Center for the Performing ArtsFully completed by summer 2013, the newly renovated Karen Hille Phillips Center for the Performing Arts includes two performance spaces - the mainstage and studio theater, as well as a scene shop, art gallery, costume design shop, dressing and make-up rooms, and faculty offices. While the mainstage lends itself to large productions, the studio theater, a black box style performance space, is ideal for small, intimate settings. Both theaters boast top-of-the-line technology with new lighting systems, state-of-the-art control boards, and LED lights.

Ingram HallIngram Hall holds a variety of resources including a communication computer lab, MediaLab studio, forensics squad room, and studio classrooms for painting, graphic design, ceramics, letterpress, sculpture, photography, and printmaking. Ingram features two gallery spaces, the University Gallery, which hosts exhibitions from students, professional artists, and faculty, and Wekell Gallery, which is used as a teaching space.

A Global Experience

PLU places a premium on global education. About 40% of PLU’s graduates study off-campus at some time in their academic career compared to a national average of 3%. Our art and design students visit museums in London, paint street scenes in Paris, and learn about news media in Dubai. Our music ensembles routinely travel internationally, just recently to Germany, France and the Great Wall of China. Our conflict and global peacebuilding students study in Oslo and Northern Ireland while our media students study communication practices in Australia.

Mary Baker Russell Music Center

The acoustically impressive and renowned Lagerquist Concert Hall houses the Gottfried and Mary Fuchs Organ, the largest University-based organ on the West Coast. This building also features the Amphitheater, which is the perfect location for outside concerts.

Learning from the past, creating for the future

Students use methods ranging from a ten thousand-year-old pot-making technique to cutting-edge, industry standard technology for generating high-tech computer images. Below Steve Sobeck, art instructor, fires up an experimental wood-fire Japanese Kiln, where students have placed pots in the final step of the ceramics process.

Jp Avila, Department Chair

Concepts are rapidly changing. New media is emerging daily. Because of this, a wide variety of experiences and creative flexibility for the artist and the designer is emphasized. Students are prepared to meet the modern world with both technical skills and capacity for innovation.

The art and design programs at PLU stress individualized development in the use of mind and hand. Students at PLU are able to chart their own path through a variety of artistic styles and media.

The art and design faculty believes individuality, creativity, and freedom of expression are integral to the success of our students. The various fields of art are competitive and demanding in terms of commitment and effort. Instructional resources, when coupled with dedicated and energetic students, have resulted in an exceptionally high percentage of PLU art and design graduates being able to satisfy their vocational objectives.

Visit www.plu.edu/artd for more information and to view some of the artwork featured on our campus.

MediaLab - a new way of learningMediaLab is an award-winning student-faculty research program consisting of highly motivated students skilled in mass communication. MediaLab has developed partnerships with businesses, media outlets, nonprofits, and other entities. Such relationships give MediaLab students unique opportunities for hands-on learning in a pre-professional environment.

Application beyond the classroom

All of our students complete at least one internship with many completing more than one. Through service learning, students use what they learn in the classroom to solve real-life problems. They not only learn the practical applications of their studies with guidance from an instructor, but they become actively contributing citizens and community members through the service they perform.

Michael Bartanen, Department Chair

Communication is a constantly evolving field. PLU communication graduates succeed through their mastery both of the theories and best practices of the field and by having real-world opportunities to work directly with employers through internships and other collaborative learning opportunities. We are preparing the journalists, conflict practitioners, public relations and advertising specialists, bloggers, social media practitioners, and people whose communication-related profession has yet to even emerge. Our majors learn to write for every platform, including print, television, radio, and digital.

Our many co-curricular opportunities include: Forensics (speech and debate); Society of Professional Journalists, MediaLab, and an array of student media - The Mooring Mast newspaper, LASR radio, KCNS television, and other specialty media outlets. We also have numerous study away programs in locations such as Norway, Northern Ireland, and New Zealand, among others.

Visit www.plu.edu/communication for more information and to explore student media.

We have a regular international and national touring schedule for all major music ensembles. Recent tours include our choirs and orchestra in Germany and France and our wind and jazz ensembles in China.

David Robbins, Department Chair

Great People. Great Place. Incredible Music.Distinguished teachers, talented students, supportive public: these are the people who make the Department of Music at PLU a nationally recognized center for musical learning, serving, and sharing. A talented, cohesive faculty of performers, composers, and authors, drawn from the nation’s finest conservatories and universities, work to develop the whole person in the context of a caring academic community of outstanding students and enthusiastic audiences. The music program at PLU strives to provide every student at the university with a meaningful and enriching arts experience, ranging from non-major private lessons or ensemble participation to core courses within four distinctive academic majors and two minors.

Mary Baker Russell Music Center, with its exquisite Lagerquist Concert Hall and state-of-the-art rehearsal and learning facilities, is an architectural and aesthetic jewel carefully set amid majestic trees.

More than 140 concert performances every year present students, faculty artists and exciting guest performers with an incredible array of musical styles and media. Choral, band, symphonic, operatic, solo, chamber, jazz ‒ we’ve got it all. More than a dozen performing groups tackle music of all eras and styles. Whether it’s Bach, Beethoven, Bernstein or Basie, you have an unforgettable hands-on experience.

We offer as much music as you want: formal degree programs, music minors, or just a great lesson every week. If you love music, you belong with us!

Visit www.plu.edu/music for more information, to hear past performances, and to watch live streaming concerts.

Did you know?

25% of all PLU undergraduates participate in the music program annually.

The Department of Music has been accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) since 1978.

Student a cappella club PLUtonic made it to the quarterfinals of Season 5 of “America’s Got Talent”!

Our internationally renowned Choir of the West is considered one of the most outstanding collegiate choral ensembles in the country.

Music education graduates have a 100% placement rate for the past two years.

Michael Bartanen, Department ChairJeff Clapp, Artistic Director of Theatre

The theatre program is a community of artists, teachers, scholars, and students committed to maintaining a collaborative environment, which is intellectually safe, rigorous, and artistically supportive. Our purpose is to nurture the holistic growth of students as both artists and citizens and promote the highest professional standards of artistry to encourage the appreciation of theatre as a critical tool of understanding our world and ourselves.

We take great pride in our intimate and challenging theatre program. We train students in all aspects of theatre art - from acting and directing to technical theatre and design. In addition to a vigorous course load, we produce five featured productions a year. Students also produce a musical review, a one-act play festival, evenings of improvisation, and various other off-the-mainstage productions.

We trust students with a great deal of responsibility and leadership in their individual fields. This gives junior and senior level students a challenge while providing first and second-year students with a substantial learning opportunity by working with their more experienced peers.

Our dance program provides opportunities in performance, composition, choreography, dance history, dance production, dance technique, movement for actors, yoga, ballroom, and healing arts of mind and body. Students are able to minor in dance as well as participate in performing groups.

Students are given numerous opportunities to explore each facet of the production process. Graduates of the program boast having tried their hands at acting, directing, building and painting sets, designing and realizing sound and lights, creating costumes, gathering props, working backstage, and stage managing. While each student explores the entire production process, we encourage students to delve deeply into their specific area of interest.

Visit www.plu.edu/theatre for more information and to see photos and videos of previous productions.

Department of Art & Design253.535.7573artd@plu.edu Jp Avila, Department Chair

Department of Communication + Theatre253.535.7761coth@plu.eduMichael Bartanen, Department ChairJeff Clapp, Artistic Director of Theatre

Department of Music253.535.7602music@plu.eduDavid Robbins, Department Chair

Scan with your smartphone for a list of upcoming events or visit www.plu.edu/soac/events

253.535.7150soac@plu.edu

Cameron Bennett, Dean

www.plu.edu/soac