Visual and Performing Arts Department
The urge to create and to express is universal. The opportunity to develop and refine this urge and to put it to real use is chosen by people in the arts.
"The arts can heal, uplift, make people more sensitive and aware, even transform their lives. Artists carry with them an obligation to use their talents to make the world a better place."
Professor William Blizard, Professor and Department Chair Emeritus
In 1962, Professor Emeritus William Blizard, an arts educator and professional artist, established the art department at Springfield College. In 1990, arts education was furthered at SC by combining and strengthening the existing art, dance, music, and theatre programs into the Department of Visual and Performing Arts. Today, the VAPA Department continues to grow, with well over 100 majors, spacious and attractive facilities, professional faculty, and high quality arts programming. In addition to preparing students for a career in the arts, the department offers coursework for the entire SC student population and serves the greater Springfield Community through outreach, exhibitions and performances.
The mission of the Visual and Performing Arts Department is to educate students as artists who serve humanity by communicating effectively within their disciplines, lending creativity to their professions and communities, and thereby making a positive impact upon society. The VAPA department strives to be an inclusive community by respecting those of differing backgrounds and beliefs, initiating creative collaboration, and fostering links to other communities. Through its curriculum, campus life, and programming, the department encourages imagination and creative ability, develops artistic sensibility and discrimination, teaches the skills essential for professional competence, and sensitizes students to world cultures and the aesthetic needs of people.
As an integral part of the college, the department affords all students the opportunity to develop a broad and balanced educational experience in which the arts are valued as an essential part of living and learning.
