CAE Criteria

The objectives of the Cultural Arts Experience Program are to:

1. Expose students to a wide variety of fine arts and cultural events on the Baylor campus and with Baylor-sponsored programs.

2. Allow for maturation and growth in a student’s reception, interpretation, and appreciation of the fine arts and cultural events over an extended period of time.

3. Foster cultural literacy, critical thinking, interpretive analysis, acceptable social interaction, human empathy, and patronage of the arts.

Examples of Baylor-sponsored CAE’s include:

• Fine Art produced at Baylor by Baylor faculty or guest artists:

  • Art exhibitions

  • Theatre performances
  • Concerts
  • Recitals
  • Operas
  • Musical reviews
  • Dance performances
  • Film screenings
  • Fiction and poetry readings
• Lectures about important literary/artistic works
• Lectures by or about important writers or artists
• Lectures about important world cultural events
• Events not produced by Baylor but accompanied by lectures and/or facilitated discussions by Baylor faculty. Though the primary focus of the CAE is fine arts experiences created at Baylor, exceptions could include off-campus events such as those in a Baylor Study Abroad program

While a single CAE may not fulfill all the listed objectives, faculty submitting a proposal for a Cultural Arts Experience (CAE) should consider the following criteria:

• Though the term “cultural” is often construed broadly to include many aspects of human civilization ranging from food to philosophy, the Cultural Arts Experience is intended for the fine arts, specifically art, music, theatre, film, and literature, with the additional focus of these arts as seen through the lens of world cultures. The Cultural Arts Experience requirement was originally created to replace other fine arts requirements; the term “cultural” was added to encompass related performance and exhibition arts which may or may not be referred to as “fine arts”, depending on context, such as dance, popular music or film, architectural art, etc. In every case, the fine arts expertise of faculty or guest artists should be integral to the event.

• CAE’s will be approved in the areas of Art, Music, Theatre, Film, and Literature/World Cultures. These areas are represented on the CAE Committee by faculty from the departments of Art and Art History, English, Film & Digital Media, Modern Languages and Cultures, Theatre Arts, and the School of Music. These departments and schools may facilitate an academically balanced offering of events in each area, but will also encourage proposals from faculty in other departments that sponsor artistic events.

• Each CAE must have a faculty sponsor, and the content of the CAE should have substantial involvement from one or more faculty members or sponsored guests with expertise in the given field. While a CAE may include the work of student artists or researchers (at the undergraduate or graduate level), this work must have meaningful oversight from faculty or sponsored experts, as mentors, directors, conductors, co-performers, co-researchers, etc.
• CAE sponsors are encouraged to provide opportunities for participant conversation and feedback through talk-backs, Q&A sessions, surveys, receptions, or other experiences.
• Although students are encouraged to attend cultural events away from the Baylor campus, CAE credit will not be given for those events (exceptions may include Baylor sponsored events at off-campus facilities such as the Waco Hippodrome or events attended as part of a Baylor Study Abroad program).  The intent of the CAE program is not only to inspire students and to foster arts/cultural patronage, but also to involve students in the varied cultural life of the university through communal experience and enriching conversation. It is possible that an event produced by an entity outside of Baylor could be required as a central part of a CAE, but only if this event involves a major contribution by a Baylor faculty member or is supplemented by a lecture or significant commentary by a faculty member.
• Some Baylor departments offer Cultural Arts on a seasonal basis or as an events series (for example, a season of plays or a concert series). In such cases, the sponsoring department may submit a single over-arching proposal for all of the events in a series, provided that each individual event in the series fulfills the criteria of a CAE, the title and scope of each event is provided in the proposal, and new proposals are submitted each academic year for the proposed series in the following academic year.
• The following events are not generally eligible for the CAE Program:
  • Non-Baylor events
  • Off-campus events not sponsored by the University
  • General release films with no accompanying faculty/guest artist instruction
  • Events whose purpose is primarily political
  • Church/Religious activities that are not accompanied by cultural/academic instruction
  • Presentations which are primarily STEM focused without substantive exploration of humanitarian, cultural and/or artistic perspectives
  • Events whose purpose is deemed by the CAE Committee as primarily social in nature and with little intentional academic, cultural or artistic content
  • Traditional student activities such as SING, Diadeloso, Steppin Out, Homecoming events, etc.