Muldoon to head proposed arts center

Pulitzer Prizewinning poet and humanities professor Paul Muldoon has been named the inaugural chair of the University's new Center for the Creative and Performing Arts.

"It's an opportunity to do something we've never quite managed before: to get our programs going in the same direction, under the same aegis, under one form of leadership," Muldoon said in an interview Thursday. "I think, in many ways, that the focus this will give us is going to allow us all to give the students a much better service."

The new center is part of the University's ambitious plans to bolster up its support for arts programs. The initiative, announced Jan. 20 by President Tilghman, will be funded by a record $101 million donation from University trustee Peter Lewis '55.

The plans call for expanded course offerings in the arts, more artists teaching classes and the construction of an "arts neighborhood" near either McCarter Theatre or 185 Nassau.

In a University press release announcing Muldoon's three-year appointment, Tilghman said she was "delighted" that he had accepted her invitation to take the post and called Muldoon the "ideal person" for the job.

Muldoon, who said he was only offered the position last week, noted that "it was decided early on [that] a practicing artist would be the initial head." He said he has plans to continue teaching — though perhaps only one class while the center is in its infancy — and writing poetry.

Muldoon takes office on April 1, which he laughingly called a "famous choice of date." The date is well in advance of any concrete plans — architectural or otherwise — for the new center.

"I think they wanted to get things going pretty quickly," he explained. "There's a sense that the opportunity is here now."

"The center only exists in a metaphysical sense at the moment," Muldoon added. "There are no bricks and mortar involved now. And indeed, in a strange way, I'm rather glad that it's not related to a specific building; in some way, I don't think it ever can be. I think there's going to be an expansion and a consolidation so that arts aren't ghettoized in a single building, but can instead interact across the campus."

Muldoon did not give a specific vision for the center's role in University life, saying that the future planning was "part of the excitement." He did mention a few possibilities, however.

"It's quite possible that in terms of admissions, that we will focus somewhat more than we have previously on students who have an interest in writing or music," he said.

Muldoon also agreed that more interdisciplinary work in arts would be possible with the new center's creation.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

"Perhaps we'll see poetry students in the typography studio setting their poetry, or music students who might want to be involved in a production with some theatre students," he said.

Muldoon stressed the importance of the strengthened art program's relationship to the rest of the University, especially those not considering a future centered on performing or creative arts.

"Of course, one may not end up as a poet or a painter, but on the other hand, one will perhaps end up as someone working in finance who is coincidentally an enthusiast for fiction. Or as a systems analyst who might have an interest in street theater."

"We've never quite been turning out artists; artists are turned out in lonely rooms or art colleges or conservatories," he said. "That's not part of our plan, and frankly, it shouldn't be. Our plan is [for] students [to be] exposed to all these possibilities."

— University to create arts 'neighborhood' (Feb. 9, 2006) — Groups react to Lewis donation (Feb. 8, 2006) — Lewis '55 donates $101 million (Jan. 23, 2006)