Missouri State University’s College of Arts and Letters will resume hosting the Missouri Fine Arts Academy next summer.

The Missouri Fine Arts Academy is a residential program for highly motivated student artists in visual arts, theatre, dance, creative writing and music.

The academy will take place June 2-15, 2019. The application process will begin in November.

This session will follow a year of reorganization and planning.

In hosting the academy, Missouri State continues its commitment to high-impact arts experiences and its dedication to affordability and inclusion.

“The Missouri Fine Arts Academy has been part of our campus since its inception in 1996,” said Dr. Shawn Wahl, interim dean of the College of Arts and Letters.

“The academy brings students from across the region to Missouri State, where they work with our faculty artists. This experience is vital to our community outreach and part of the reason we are a destination campus for the arts.”

How to apply

The application process will open Nov. 5.

The academy is open to current high school sophomores and juniors.

Interested students will complete the online application and submit portfolios and recommendations.

New academy director takes the lead

Dr. Christopher C. Collins, assistant professor in the department of communication, is the new director of the academy.

“It is an honor to serve as the director of the Missouri Fine Arts Academy,” said Collins. “High school teachers, alumni and Missouri State faculty have all expressed the profound and transformative nature of the academy. I look forward to continuing this legacy of excellence by offering an interdisciplinary arts experience that provides an opportunity to explore and ignite the future of the arts in Missouri.”

Collins earned a doctorate in performance studies from Southern Illinois University. He recently served as the keynote speaker and coordinator of Louisiana State University’s Patti Pace Performance Festival.

Collins served as the plenary performer for the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry at the University of Illinois and the keynote speaker for the Conférence Universitaire De Suisse Occidentale at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. He has played leading roles at the Shaw Theater in London, the Tabernacle Theater in London and the Muson Center in Lagos, Nigeria.

About the Missouri Fine Arts Academy

The Missouri Fine Arts Academy is a residential program for highly motivated student artists in visual arts, theatre, dance, creative writing and music. The Academy offers an intensive schedule of classes in interdisciplinary and discipline specific arts and a wide range of co-curricular activities. It is conducted with the support and cooperation of Missouri State University.