The Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts will enable more students to enroll in the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film and provide diverse career opportunities for them when they graduate. It will create a new field of study in virtual production and design; a new facility and expanded space for the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film; increased national visibility and reputation in film and emerging media; expanded partnerships with the film and media industries and other private sector entities; and increased potential for funded collaborative research and creative activity with other UNL programs.
Measurable Outcomes will be:
- Increased Student Enrollment: The expanded space and faculty made possible by the Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts will enable the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film to increase enrollment while maintaining high admission/retention standards and a low (13:1) student-to-faculty ratio. With a new, professional, national marketing program, UNL’s reasonable out of- state tuition and the opportunity for students to begin taking filmmaking and virtual production-related courses in their freshmen year, we anticipate enrollment in film and emerging media of 160 students within 10 years.
- Partnerships within UNL and with the Public and Private Sectors: The emphasis on project-based, interdisciplinary learning and research will enable partnerships with other UNL schools and departments and with the private and public sectors.
- Increased National Visibility: The Triennial (or Biennial) Carson Emerging Media Arts Conference will create national visibility for the Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film and UNL by creating a venue where leaders and practitioners in the field can exchange ideas, showcase new technologies and conduct workshops.
- Collaborative Research and Creative Projects: Faculty and student involvement with innovative, funded research and creative projects will increase, generating both income and increased visibility for the Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts. The Chancellor’s Challenge Grants will seed these kinds of projects.
- Student Learning: The Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts will contribute to developing students who can take initiative and risks, collaborate with others with diverse viewpoints and skills, be involved in meaningful work that can benefit others, think critically and communicate their ideas clearly with energy and passion and have a genuine voice and a compelling vision for storytelling through emerging media arts.
Carson School and Carson Center Working Mission Statements
The following serve as preliminary working mission statements for the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film and the Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts. The new director, once in place, will lead the faculty in a strategic planning process that uses this as a framework and starting point.
Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film
Storytelling is among the most powerful ways that people engage their imaginations, formulate values and communicate. The Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film educates students to become prospective practitioners of theatre, film and emerging media by confronting conformity and convention and extending the boundaries of storytelling across all forms of media including theatre, film and emerging media still being developed. It supports student and faculty discovery that fuses theatre, film and emerging media together; approaches creativity and knowledge entrepreneurially; is culturally and economically embedded in our community and region, and has significance and influence upon our peers nationally.
It achieves this though a comprehensive array of learning, creative and research experiences—such as play and film production and advanced emerging media projects—that are team-based and project-driven and exposes students to leaders in the field both inside and beyond the classroom. In all these ways, the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film fulfills the University of Nebraska’s land-grant mission to develop knowledge that is use-inspired, has impact on our region and world, and increases the working power of our graduates throughout the course of their careers.
Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts
The Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts is an interdisciplinary program and instructional facility for film and emerging media within the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film that explores the narrative storytelling capabilities of theatre, film and emerging media through the application of virtual production and other digital media technologies. Virtual production pervades all aspects of the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film from theatrical performance, design, technical production and film, to emerging media such as animation, interactive media and virtual and augmented reality. Applications include the fusion of live performance with projected, interactive and augmented reality media; film special effects and virtual set design; interactive media and game design; and the cinematic experience within the virtual environment.
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln will contribute to the Carson Center in the following ways:
- Will purchase former Nebraska Bookstore Building and dedicate approximately 32,000 GSF to Carson Center
- Seven (7) new faculty lines
- Three (3) staff lines, including an administrative assistant, manager and equipment coordinator
- Chancellor’s Challenge Grant to support the Faculty Fellows Program
- funding for startup equipment and computer purchases
- marketing campaign
- supplemental annual support for Guest Artists
- Ongoing operations and maintenance of facilities—janitorial, utilities, phones, etc.
- funding for Guest Artists
- startup equipment and computer purchases
- support of Triennial (or Biennial) Carson Emerging Media Arts Conferences
- support of internship program
- annual funding from the Carson Center Emerging Media Arts Endowment
- The Carson Center Renovation Fund which will redevelop the former Nebraska Bookstore building and Temple sound stage spaces to provide dedicated sound and performance capture stages, labs, studios, classrooms, editing rooms, computer labs, offices, a commons area and equipment.
- The Carson Center Strategic Opportunities Endowment will be established as the mechanism for bringing the best possible faculty to UNL
- The Carson Center Emerging Media Arts Endowment will support:
- Carson Professorships
- Internship Program
- Internship Coordinator
- Facilities Coordinator
- IT/Media Technologies Technician—half-time
- Fabrication Space Coordinator
- The Carson Capital Endowment Fund for repair and replacement of equipment