Mission

The School of Arts and Communication (SOAC) at PLU is dedicated to building and enhancing our community through the study, practice, and understanding of artistic expression. Our goals are to:

1. Prepare our majors for careers and community participation in the visual, communication, and performing arts in an increasingly diverse and technologically complex world.
2. Help build our community by providing a "hot shop" of arts in process that provides a forum for the exchange of ideas, values, common concerns, and aesthetic achievement that enrich our region and our world.
3. Help non-majors and community members develop an understanding and appreciation of the vital role of the arts in our society and culture.
   

The School of Arts and Communication is committed to improving the quality of life for our community. The School is committed to improving the quality of life for the people of Tacoma and to providing non-majors with an understanding of the vital role the arts play in our society and culture.The School of Arts and Communication seeks to meet this mission through:

1. The development of an intentional curriculum that includes:
   
   a. Programs to build professionals and professional understanding. By grounding a professional curriculum with the study of the liberal arts and sciences, we hope to balance tradition and innovation and value diverse approaches to making, performing, researching, and understanding the arts.
   
   b. Courses, programming, and experiences designed to support the university and to provide our community with the skills and knowledge necessary to understand and appreciate the arts and their role.
   
   c. Fostering arts education practices and research across the boundaries of the arts, schools, and divisions.
   
   
2. Designing programs that connect the School with its global environment that includes:
   
   a. Embracing diversity through the encouragement of the study of the arts in a variety of cultures, contexts, and values.
   
   b. Providing a forum for multi-cultural artistic expression.
   
   c. Offering a "gateway" for international study that connects our community arts with those of other cultures.
3. The development of a learning based collaboration that involves faculty, staff, students, and the broader community. We hope to achieve this through:
   

a. Providing members of the community with opportunities to advance knowledge and creative research in the arts through encouraging excellence in art-making, performance, researching and writing by students and faculty in local, regional, national, and international venues.


b. Enhancing the collaboration among the arts to provide a learning environment that encourages a diverse student population to develop meaningful interactions across the arts disciplines.


c. Working with university and community populations to develop the cultural life of our community through exhibitions, public performances, and educational programs designed to promote engagement with the arts.

d. Developing partnerships with other university programs and departments with similar goals and objectives.

e. Promoting partnerships between the School of Arts and Communication and the community.

f. Recognizing the significant contributions and commitment to the arts by members of our community.