Columbia Basin College Arts Center: Education, creativity take center stage at CBC

I believe we are all aware the arts are constantly evolving. Yet, one constant is our CBC Arts Center students; they are in our courses, our plays, our concerts, our gallery events and our debate tournaments.

Their education is the core mission of the CBC Arts Center and they are the focal point of what we do. These same students are active as artists in our community; involved in community productions, playing at wineries and eating establishments, and working with community partners. They are the CBC Arts Center and they make our community a better place to live.

The list of CBC student success in the arts is long and impressive. I can think of Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival award-winning actors and designers, Grammy Award winners and working visual artists with a long list of honors who have all been students of ours. I only wish I had the print space to personally applaud each one individually.

And like all areas of higher education, the CBC Arts Center continues to redefine how we deliver our education to our students and give them unique experiences. As part of our arts curriculum, we are taking our students and their classes out into the community more and more. In the Theatre Department, this has been done for many years via our Blue Ladder Players. They are students in an acting course that tours local grade schools with their only prop, a blue ladder, performing short vignettes focused on children’s literature.

The Music Departments instrumental and vocal students have been heard regularly performing at a local Thai restaurant, The Emerald of Siam. These are students enrolled in a Jazz Theory and Improvisation course as well as the FreeFrom vocal jazz ensemble. And finally, our visual arts students are active with numerous projects throughout our community, assisting with small- and large-scale visual projects.

The CBC Arts Center also continues to bring to our campus gifted artists who work directly with our students. The Theatre Department recently was host to Janette Farr-Harkins, a Los Angeles playwright who came to us through an invitation from the Theatre Department. Ms. Farr-Harkins brought a recently written play, which was performed on our stage. This was also the first time the playwright had seen her play produced live and our students were honored to have her in the audience and at rehearsals.

Our Esvelt Gallery regularly brings the artists currently showing in the Gallery onto the campus to discuss with our students their techniques, talk about their artistic intent, and answer question from our students. Finally, the Department of Music brings in faculty from our baccalaureate partners to come to CBC and perform and work with our music majors. Dr. Gayla Blaisdell, a soprano from Central Washington Universuty and Dr. Jody Graves, a pianist from Eastern Washington University, to name two of many, have been very inspirational to our students.

The CBC Arts Center is grateful for the support and encouragement we receive from our new President, Dr. Rebekah Woods and our Vice President of Instruction, Dr. Michael Lee. Our relationship with our own ASCBC provides us with different types of funding which is so important for us to achieve our mission and quality. The Arts Center also extends thanks to our many community donors, both corporate and individual.

Our challenge is simple and complex at the same time: to continue to provide educational coursework and thought provoking experiences for our students, to remain flexible and creative and, finally, to ensure our students are well prepared for the professional world or to successfully transfer to a baccalaureate institution to continue their artistic path.

This story was originally published April 2, 2018 at 2:02 PM with the headline "Columbia Basin College Arts Center: Education, creativity take center stage at CBC."