History of FCCS
Background
The Okanagan Campus at UBC presents myriad opportunities for educational and economic development throughout the region and well beyond. While it is clear that the university will be a flagship for the economic benefits of technology transfer, it will be no less of a leader in “knowledge transfer” — also known as “knowledge mobilization.” By analogy, the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies (FCCS) plays a central role in the “cultural mobilization” of both creative expertise and cultural knowledge specifically in the context of the cultural aspirations expressed in the UBC Okanagan Academic Plan.
For example, “The Okanagan Campus at UBC seeks:
- [to balance] the natural and social sciences, the professions and the humanities and creative and performing arts (p. 4)
- [to monitor its] ecological, cultural, social and economic footprint . . . both to assure our own sustainability and to act as a model for the community and the world (p. 4)
- [and to champion] cultural sustainability — coordinating with the Campus Life Council to provide appropriate programming and attention to the human dimension . . . (p. 12)”
To achieve these objectives, FCCS will:
- encourage both creativity and criticality in a community of excellence
- reach out to and associate with other faculties, programs, and disciplines
- seek new ways and means to learn about and exemplify global cultures
The Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies (FCCS) is not merely a trainer of technically proficient performers and artists. It sets as one of its goals the full engagement of its students, programs and faculty with the vision, mission and imperatives of the Okanagan Campus of UBC as a whole, yet it does so within the parameters of interwoven cultural production and reception of the highest caliber.
In FCCS, creative production and reception are interdependent and mutually supportive, with neither being subordinate to the other. If the faculty were simply to have provided an opportunity for creative production, it would have fallen short of the overarching goals of the Okanagan Campus of UBC as expressed above. In contrast, FCCS develops production (research through doing/making) and reception (research through critique/analysis) as parallel objectives with innumerable opportunities for meaningful cross talk. In so doing, it makes a wider contribution to the success of UBC as a whole.
There are two departments arranged along pedagogical and infrastructural requirements, Creative Studies (studio) and Critical Studies (academic).
Last reviewed 
7/14/2011 9:35:07 AM
