LANCASTER LAUNCHES INSTITUTE FOR THE CONTEMPORARY ARTS

Lancaster University is investing in the departments of Art, Music, and Theatre Studies and is bringing them together for the first time to form a new Institute for the Contemporary Arts.

The University has chosen to strengthen the arts and build upon the excellent research and teaching record of the departments and combine them with the public arts provision at Lancaster - the Peter Scott Gallery, Nuffield Theatre and Lancaster International Concerts. Alumni include Ralph Ineson - (Theatre Studies, 1991) Actor in the film First Knight and The Office (Finchy).

This exciting new Institute is currently recruiting six new posts, one at Professorial level who is expected to become Director of the Institute and a second Chair, together with four posts at Lecturer A/B level, one of which may be at Senior Lecturer level.

Professor Eric Evans, Dean of Arts and Humanities said: " By investing in and combining the strengths of the arts at Lancaster we are creating a proper home for interdisciplinary research and teaching excellence in this area.

"We already have close links with the creative industries and these inform both our research and our teaching. Students are equipped for careers in the creative and cultural industries, which frequently require a combination of creative and academic skills, together with entrepreneurship."

The Institute will host two research centres, CASCPP (Centre for the Advanced Study of Contemporary Performance Practice) and PATRIC (Centre for Practice and Theory: Research in Composition). Music and Theatre Studies are also co-hosts of PALATINE (The Performing Arts Learning and Teaching Innovation Network), a Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy.

Students in the arts have access to the University's Centre for Media and Performance which has up-to-date digital, Internet, and video studio facilities, with support from professional television producers and technicians.