Montserrat president sees arts as vital to economy

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December 21, 2011

By Will Broaddus Staff Writer The Salem News Wed Dec 21, 2011, 05:02 AM EST

BEVERLY — In this troubled business climate, a lot of people have the creative economy on their minds. One of them is Stephen Immerman, president of Montserrat College of Art, who recently argued in the New England Board of Higher Education's New England Journal that the vaunted STEM curriculum (science, technology, engineering and math), touted by many business and education leaders as key to the economy, should really be a STEAM curriculum, including the arts.

Immerman, who spent 30 years as an administrator at MIT before taking the helm at Montserrat two years ago, talked with The Salem News about his ideas on the creative economy.

The creative economy is usually defined as including both abstract, intellectual work like research, and also the kinds of things artists do and produce. How do you define it?

It depends on with whom you're talking. If you look at Creative Economy Association of the North Shore, they define it very broadly — anything in the design area, architecture, computer programming, as well as consulting and so forth. I'm not all that constrained by its definition, and the reason why is that design thinking is the same regardless of how it is applied.

So you define it in terms of an intellectual process, rather than by what is produced?

My motivation came out of how to explain what Montserrat does, especially to folks who are new to the intense academic rigor of an art college, and to parents who are wondering whether or not this is a good thing for their son or daughter to do at college. My experience at MIT is that engineering creativity is not appreciably different. It's about learning fundamentals very strongly, practicing them, using them, applying them, to tell stories.

What do you mean by telling stories?

If you think about it, our business is about an idea, conveying an idea. You remember that age-old question, from Aristotle forward, about what's good art. Part of it is the execution of the object. The second is the meaning. You've seen things done well that didn't work. That meaning piece is important, how I explain it to folks. It's about the notion that everything is designed.

Design communicates? Design is a kind of narrative?

Everything is dependent on visual communication. Translating those visual images in a way that is digestible for me is a problem that people trained in art handle well. It's not, in terms of process, different than thinking about an etching, painting, capturing a successful photograph. It's all about how you communicate and solve problems. Our challenge at Montserrat is to challenge students to develop tools in areas of problem-solving that we can't even imagine today.

What's an example of how design tells a story?

The idea is very simple. I was at a luncheon with a gentleman I know, and he was quite skeptical. He had on a beautiful suit with an equally remarkable tie and cuff links.

I said, "Why did you buy that suit and that tie? They all work that way. It's because of design — your economic choice was driven by design, the message that design delivers to you."

And it's the same whether you're talking about a suit or a computer?

Think of all the variety we place in the actual design. Take that idea to electronic communication. The challenge on hand-helds, (how to) translate what we were seeing on the screen in hand-helds, was a huge design problem. Take that to aesthetics of buildings, architecture — it's endless. (Things are) beautiful because they're exceptionally well-crafted and make sense to us. Those visual elements add depth and complexity.

Your suggestion with STEAM is that the arts are just as important as the other parts of the curriculum?

STEM and testing go hand in hand. There's no debate whatsoever on how much the curriculum has driven economic development in the country. My pitch is, the funding for STEM, obviously it's important. But you cannot forget the design component. It's a major force in our economy and our quality of life.

What are some examples of design's contribution locally?

You have to look at, in Salem, how much impact PEM had on both its identity and its commerce. If that isn't all about design and the creative economy — every one of those jobs at the museum. Or think of the restaurant scene in Salem, how much that is about design, creating an ambience. Design is a huge economic engine that drives not just the economy, but the quality of life as well.

Is there enough support for arts programs at the earliest, grade-school levels?

You hear the mythology about the first thing to get cut, in terms of how people think. (But look at) Jack Meaney at the Y and the things the Y has tried to do to incorporate more arts in the programs. I think he has an incredible vision on this. I don't want to put words in his mouth, but not every kid is going to play basketball. We need to address the full range of human development.

How does Montserrat prepare its students for the creative economy?

Freshmen have to take a full year of foundation before they're allowed to think about concentrating, so there's a lot of cross-discipline interaction. So much of what is happening now is interdisciplinary. (And) we complement all the traditional courses by professional preparation both inside and outside the classroom. So they have a mental map beyond what they have (learned) on the campus.

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