Imagine a place where outstanding faculty, a rich educational tradition, and an ideal location combine to educate talented, diverse students for the world's good...

The College of Communication and Fine Arts (CFA) aims to be the destination of choice for talented students from richly diverse backgrounds. Our programs in theatre, communication studies, music, dance, studio art, art history, and marital and family therapy (clinical art therapy) are grounded in a rich Jesuit and Marymount educational philosophy still relevant and compelling in the 21st century. Our exceptional and dedicated faculty is well prepared to nurture and challenge students to realize their full potential to enjoy lives of meaning and purpose. CFA is ideally located in Los Angeles, home to 61 museums and more than 1,000 performing arts venues, more than any other U.S. metropolitan area. Los Angeles attracts diverse people in communication, media, commerce, the arts, social and political change agents -- assuring abundant opportunities for student learning and career development. Situated on a campus overlooking the city and the Pacific Ocean, we gather remarkable people to a close-knit community that supports their best thinking and prepares them for lives distinguished by creative and compassionate responses to a complex and needy world.

To accomplish this vision, CFA must recruit exceptional students, enrich their learning opportunities, and take full advantage of our ideal location, enabling us to continue a long tradition of serving the larger community with intelligence, compassion, creativity, and insight.


Campaign Goals

Recruiting exceptional students -- $7 million

Our students are distinctive. Many come to CFA passionate about music, dance, theatre, or the visual arts. Others are driven by deep curiosity about how human communication creates opportunities for people to make sense of their lives. What President Robert B. Lawton describes as "particular perfection" characterizes these students whose passion for the arts or interest in human communication compels them to express themselves, respond critically to the expression of others, and discover ways to create a more good, beautiful, just world.

We must endow scholarships for students whose talents will enrich the world if brought to fulfillment through an LMU education. The highest campaign priority for the College of Communication and Fine Arts, therefore, is the creation of a significant endowment fund to support our students, selected for their distinctive talents and significant potential, shaped by a passionate engagement to their chosen fields: communication study, the visual and performing arts, and clinical art therapy.

Enriching student learning -- $5 million

To assure that our intellectual and artistic work has the larger social impact it deserves to enjoy, we must refine and share the work of our students. Ample and varied occasions for students to perform, participate in juried exhibitions, study abroad, and test their skills through competitions are integral to their education.

Imagine the value of studying sculpture in Tuscany, singing in an Italian opera training program, participating in national and world debate competitions, playing in guitar master classes, working in Bali with a gamelan master, working collaboratively with art therapy students and clinical practitioners in Mexico, studying dance in the Alvin Ailey summer program in New York, or touring with the choruses. Consider the obvious benefits of completing an internship at major government bodies, galleries, museums, performing arts centers, law firms, mental health agencies, and communication and media organizations.

These unparalleled, often life-altering, opportunities to enrich learning should be available to LMU students regardless of their socio-economic status. An endowment to expand the breadth of distinctive opportunities will enhance student potential to become accomplished, reflective, creative, resourceful, and ethical professionals.

Attracting extraordinary visiting artists and lecturers -- $3 million

With an enviable location in Los Angeles, LMU should expand and endow its Visiting Artists and Lecturers Series to capitalize on the large number of renowned scholars and artists who gravitate to this region but whose professional lives preclude them from accepting permanent, full-time academic positions. This series of master classes, visiting lectures, workshops, and other innovative engagements between accomplished artists and scholars and CFA students will enhance both the educational experience for students and the university's connections to the larger community.

An endowed fund will ensure that these rewarding partnerships are more fully realized, bring to fruition our plans for an ongoing series on communication, media and ethics, and foster greater participation in the Marymount Institute for Faith, Culture and the Arts, and the Bellarmine Forum.

Serving the community -- $1 million

Community-based learning opportunities educate students more deeply while addressing the needs of the larger community. CFA seeks to expand service learning by ensuring endowed support for Arts Pro Bono initiatives including the ARTsmart program, which provides art education to children in underserved elementary schools. We also aim to assure support for the Helen B. Landgarten Art Therapy Clinic on campus which provides therapeutic services for individuals whose lives may be made more satisfying and productive through art therapy.


Contact
Barbara J. Busse
Dean
310.338.7430

Tara Flynn Frates
Director of Development
310.338.3093
tfrates@lmu.edu