The landscape of higher education has transformed. So too have the opportunities open to artists and designers, as new technologies and economic developments reshape the world in which we live and create. What horizons — and headwinds — will our graduates face? How do we anticipate and best invest in a future where artists lead, creatively and economically shaping our communities?
Montserrat 2035 looks ahead to that future.
Montserrat 2035 is an aspirational vision created to inform our broader community of the future direction of the college – a creative place for students, faculty, staff and friends to study, live, work and thrive safely. It is not a strategic plan, but a way to think about what Montserrat will become in the next 10 years, as we consider the needs of the art college of the future, our students and graduates and those who support them.
Montserrat currently offers several pathways to fulfilling careers in publishing, teaching, animating and illustrating books, movies, television shows and more, photography, video, the fine arts, advertising, and fabrication. But in today’s competitive environment the existing curriculum isn’t enough. Montserrat will not only provide the academic training but will also build an infrastructure to give students significant work experience in the creative economy before they graduate!
The college’s values guide its work. They are:
- ׁThe practice of art, design, research, and creative enterprise has intrinsic value.
- Teaching, learning, and service are central to who we are.
- Individuality, creativity, expression, and experimentation are respected and encouraged.
- Accountability and integrity are essential to sustain creativity and shared community.
- Montserrat thrives on the diversity of people, ideas, and approaches.
Here is our direction:
Student Life
Montserrat will offer more opportunities for students to work in campus jobs and help create Montserrat College-adjacent businesses such as: an external-facing design and printing business, a comic book imprint, a small animation studio, and a service to help artists and families in the community document and deal with large personal collections they own.
Montserrat will continue to improve its apartment-style housing by concentrating on ”better rather than more” and by expanding RA training so the Resident Assistants can help all students understand how to get, maintain, and manage an apartment, and prepare and acquire nutritional meals.
Curriculum
We will continue to adopt the curriculum – placing more focus on career preparation, skills, readiness and success. We will offer more “coaching” versus advising to our students and offer them an intentional balance of self-direction and “essential skills.”
We will offer more diversity of voices in our faculty and guest artists to offer students more options to discover a wider breadth of ideas, peoples and approaches to art-making and understanding the world around them.
As the curriculum shifts to prepare students for newer careers, we will recruit more students who value the smaller-sized institution while, simultaneously, offering a global education by making study abroad and internships beyond the campus an expectation. As opportunities arise, we will recruit more art and design faculty with skills aligning with the transition of the workforce to be more entrepreneurial and technologically prepared.
We will continue to increase the valuable internships and mentorships for which Montserrat has become known and which increases student success and satisfaction. We will continue to offer a robust selection of on-campus employment opportunities, which studies show increase student persistence to graduation and are positivity associated with better career outcomes.
We will place more focus on student and alumni success through their careers, awards, graduate school and life fulfillment self-evaluations, and the faculty will focus on increased assessment and contact with alumni after graduation as a means of continuing evaluation of the curriculum.
Campus Footprint
The college will concentrate its campus buildings on a more condensed and focused footprint, creating more opportunities for community interactions, increasing a sense of excitement on campus, and more responsible/sustainable energy efficiency. Our academic and residential spaces will be clustered from the Hardie Building at 23 Essex to the 301 Cabot Studio Building and along Winter, Cabot, and Knowlton streets.
We will add more interdisciplinary spaces, which will create a higher concentration of students and classes closer together to give the campus more energy.
Along with this, we will update our infrastructure to increase comfort, accessibility, and security. We will employ alternative energy for electricity where possible, such as the solar arrays we have on several buildings. We will become a greener campus, using heat pumps where possible, and improve recycling, composting, etc. While doing this, as buildings need refreshing, we will add more color to the campus.
Schedule/Calendar
We will increase the usage of our buildings and plan courses and programs to enliven Montserrat throughout the calendar year; we will become a 12-month campus. To do this, we will expand summer programs to include low-residency programs and lifelong learning opportunities.
We may employ alternative schedules such as four-day work weeks, online days, studio days and other ways to increase the quality and flexibility of our offerings to allow artists to participate in our programs at varying levels.
We will commit to programs and partnerships that allow students to participate in other venues, campuses, locations for 15-20% of their academic year, including – travel programs, expanded internships, classes at other schools, etc.
A Louder Voice for Art and Design
Montserrat will intentionally put its leaders in the public eye to educate the world about the importance of the arts to our culture, democracy and future as careers shift toward more creative endeavors.
We will use social media and produce podcasts, videos and shows to record more artist and faculty talks and demonstrations, and find ways to share the writings of our leaders with the public through publishing channels. We will seek opportunities for the public to join the college at events such as gallery openings, lectures and public-facing student-led events.
We will seek opportunities to place more Montserrat art in gathering spaces in and around the City of Beverly.
We will find volunteer opportunities for our faculty, staff and students to become more engaged in our external community.
Giving
Montserrat will adapt to the changes in philanthropy which are more geared to specific asks for things and people rather than the annual fund.
We will hold events that encourage people to come and learn about our community to increase the number of friends and “ambassadors” on whom the college can depend to tell its story.
We will value the role that alumni and parents have in the college when they remain connected and enthusiastic about Montserrat.
We will seek donors and architects who are interested in helping the college to construct future new buildings that are more efficient and symbols of our direction.