Why do human beings create art? What means do we have to understand their economic, cultural and legal universe? What rights do artists possess? In what way does the actual manner in which art is made, shown and sold transform our understanding of art history?
The arts have a complex social existence in India. They range from traditional painting and sculpture, theatre and dance, to modern practices like the cinema and multimedia. Arts practice – alongside opportunities for formal and technological innovation, curation and publishing, for arts and media production, or simply for further research into its complex social locations – has seen major growth in the twenty-first century. The global value of the Creative Economy is $985 billion in 2023 and will become 10% of world GDP by 2030.
The Performing and Visual Arts Division takes an Integrated Arts approach. The Integrated Arts is an innovative and multidisciplinary approach to artistic and creative practice in contemporary times. As imagined at Ahmedabad University, technical expertise or formal training in specific art forms (such as dance, music, theatre, painting, photography, etc.) is complemented by skills and sensibilities that are relevant across various performance and visual arts disciplines. Integrated Arts is about understanding a range of foundational principles that will enable the practitioner to develop competencies that they can apply in creative projects and/or arts disciplines of their choice in the future.
The idea is for a student of arts to be influenced by a wide range of creative art forms within a liberal arts educational environment. Drawing from the globally expanding Creative Industries sector, such an approach explores ways by which art can enable exciting and significant conversations between, for instance, music, painting, theatre and dance, with photography, filmmaking and design. Art today works in growing partnership with science, legal studies, engineering, and management. It discovers in new media and new materials an aesthetic dimension to new frontiers of knowledge. In the Integrated Arts programme, the student will be exposed to all these many aspects of contemporary art practice. Even while obtaining this multi-faceted exposure, the student will have the flexibility of specialising in a particular art practice and learn that form in the context of related practices.
This division of the School of Arts and Sciences offers both practice and theory-based interdisciplinary courses, by not only blending the Visual Arts and the Performing Arts but also by collaborating seamlessly with other Divisions and Schools at Ahmedabad University. Courses currently on offer include Painting, Drawing, Music, Photography, Storytelling, Dance and Theatre, as well as courses in art history, cultural heritage and cultural theory. In the near future, the teaching and research base will extend to Sculpture, Design, Graphics, Illustration, Printmaking, Ceramics, Textiles, Sound Art, Digital Art and New Media. The programme will introduce students to the diversity of indigenous art forms (including India’s powerful folk, tribal and classical traditions) as well as historic and present-day practices of art in the Global South alongside the North.
Our aim is to produce highly skilled graduates who can be powerful actors in the world through the medium of art. They can also simultaneously use their technical expertise and conceptual strengths, drawn from the University’s broad-based liberal arts curriculum, to work in industries such as media, fashion, design, advertising, journalism and digital arts, among many others.
Over time, the Performing and Visual Arts Division, with a unique Black Box performance space in the School of Arts and Sciences building, and other performance and exhibition venues, aims to become a hub for interactive creative collaboration across Ahmedabad, bringing theorists and practitioners to the city from around the world.
Academics
Programmes
The Dual Degree Programme in Integrated Arts is a multidisciplinary arts degree dedicated to producing a new generation of artists, policymakers, art curators, managers, and academicians in the ever-expanding field of the Performing and Visual Arts, from the traditional crafts to New Media Art, and in the Creative Industries.
The five-year programme, offered to those seeking rigorous and holistic education in Performing and Visual Arts, provides intellectual preparation within the liberal arts tradition while building skills and capabilities within specific art forms. Students will acquire in-depth technical and creative skills in their chosen field of practice while being exposed to an integrative knowledge of various art forms.
The student can choose to specialise in a particular art practice such as music, theatre, dance, photography, or painting or build their entire educational programme through the integrated arts framework.
Admissions
Students with a demonstrated interest and aptitude in Performing and Visual Arts (in practice as well as in history and theory) are encouraged to apply to the dual degree programme. Applicants must submit a sample of their existing work/practice, for example, a portfolio or a performance video, along with their University application. After an initial screening by faculty and experts in the specified fields, shortlisted applicants will be invited to participate in a day-long workshop on the University campus where their performance in a variety of Performance and Visual Arts modules will be assessed to determine their eligibility for admission.
Special Consideration
- Students who can display their excellence through the portfolio or performance videos of work they have produced but do not fit other eligibility criteria for University admission may be given an opportunity to be assessed during the workshop. All students are expected to maintain satisfactory academic grades at the University.
- Students will become part of an art community of rigorous, thoughtful, and creative students and faculty. They must be able to add to the intellectual and creative environment of this community of scholars. These scholars will play a role in identifying students who will enrich the community.
