Cinema Faculty Feature: Meet Andrew Swensen, Professional Arts Administrator and Producer
"I love working with artists at any level, and my experience at Point Park has been one of great reward, discovery and collaboration. One of the great joys in my life has been working with students beyond the classroom. Because I am also a professional arts administrator and producer, I am regularly looking for artists for works in development, and it is a pleasure to work with students as artist colleagues."
Tell us about your professional experience and what led you to teaching?
Initially, my professional journey began in the academic world, and I held full-time faculty positions in a number of universities — teaching in comparative study of the humanities. In 2003, I moved into the nonprofit sector, where I remained until 2010. In 2010, I restructured my professional life so that I could work in both the academic realm and the world of arts nonprofits.
Since then, I have done a variety of consulting contracts for arts and culture organizations, have taught at Point Park University and Carnegie Mellon University, and have been the producer, executive producer and co-writer on a documentary film (Journey to Normal: Women of War Come Home). I am also the executive director of the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh. Finally, I assign a portion of my professional life to writing, and I have written one musical and have drafts for two others.
My professional history organically translates to the classroom. I have been an arts administrator, as well as a producer for theatre, music and film. I have taught works in almost all the arts throughout my life, and I am a practicing artist myself. I honestly believe that art changes the world. It changes individuals and societies, and it is the place where we humans go to wrestle with our greatest problems.
How do you incorporate your professional experience into the classroom?
I find it astonishing that art is often regarded as something that is appended to life, when in fact it is life itself. It is the "real world," and the evidence for that lies in the simple fact that we use art to capture our most profound moments — and for good reason. We memorialize our national heroes in sculptures, paintings and Broadway musicals. We incorporate music and poetry into weddings and funerals, places where conventional words fall short of capturing the gravity of the moment. And we use art in order to capture our social ideals — in architecture, more sculpture, more poetry and more music. Art represents the means by which we grapple with our greatest mysteries, our most profound thoughts, our most difficult sorrows and our greatest aspirations. That awareness informs everything that I do, and it translates to a passion for exploring the magnificence of existing works, investigating the aesthetics — the theory — that guides the nature of the arts, and cultivating the artistic spirit within each of us.
I believe that we are all artists, and I approach my classes with that notion in mind. Yet many of my students are also seeking to become professional artists. I find that people often have an unclear picture of what it means to be a developing artist and a practicing artist, and so I spend a good bit of my teaching life in educating emerging artists on how to be an artist. It is a practice, a discipline, that can be trained. Moreover, if you want to be a professional artist, one needs to understand that working artists typically do not look like those that we first think about — either a starving artist in a garret or a famous film director walking the red carpet. Rather, they learn that being a working artist requires a certain level of entrepreneurship, and as an artist trains their creativity by definition, they only need to turn that same facility to their working side of life in order to find a path that is fulfilling and also pays the rent, so to speak.
What classes do you teach at Point Park University?
I teach Narrative Theory in the M.F.A. for writing for the screen and stage program. On the undergraduate level in the Department of Cinema Arts, I teach Film Theory, Literary Theory, Film Studies, Drama and Finding Your Vision, Finding Your Voice, an interdisciplinary course in the arts.
What can a student expect in your classes?
Film, literature, theatre, music, the visual arts, dance and every other art that we have practiced are complicated. They call for our close attention and deep thought, and I build my classes with the awareness of the complexity of the arts. The courses can be challenging because art is challenging, but the growth and discoveries make all the effort worthwhile.
What’s it like teaching the next generation of artists at Point Park?
I love working with artists at any level, and my experience at Point Park has been one of great reward, discovery and collaboration. One of the great joys in my life has been working with students beyond the classroom. Because I am also a professional arts administrator and producer, I am regularly looking for artists for works in development, and it is a pleasure to work with students as artist colleagues.
I recently worked on a theatrical performance where the director was a Point Park alum, the videographer documenting the work was an alum (whose contact I received from a cinema faculty member), and our lead dancer is a current dance (ballet) student at Point Park. It was great to see their respective disciplines come together in what turned out to be an exceptional performance.
What advice do you have for a prospective student?
You are an artist. Don't let the world or anyone in it tell you otherwise. If you want to become a professional artist, be clear that it will require work, humility and persistence. If you are willing to bring those things to your calling, it will provide lifelong possibilities for fulfillment.