InterArts

Are you more than one kind of artist, or not sure what kind of artist you are yet? Find your true calling with the InterArts major at Idyllwild Arts. Explore and develop your skills across arts disciplines, create new and blended art forms and techniques, carve your own artistic pathway across any and all arts departments, and gain access to all arts faculty and facilities.

Sound board.
InterArts puppetworks performance.

Philosophy

We believe that when students are given the freedom to explore various art forms, the possibilities are endless. Our supportive community of artists and scholars will inspire and guide you to reach new heights of creative excellence, push the limits, and navigate different mediums and disciplines. InterArts students collaborate to produce an array of interdisciplinary events, shows, installations, experiences, exhibitions, and more.

Our program empowers curious students to build their own pathway by choosing one of two tracks – Exploratory or Advanced – based on their individual interests and passions. Let us help you discover your creative purpose and artistic voice.

Curriculum

Creativity knows no bounds as we bring together the extraordinary talents of artists from diverse fields to lead the nontraditional, interdisciplinary curriculum of the InterArts major. Supported by lauded faculty with exceptional accomplishments, InterArtists explore out-of-the-box, interdisciplinary creativity.

For some young creatives, identifying a single arts focus can be challenging. On this track, students build skills through exploratory work in arts classes across departments before deciding on a major, receiving unparalleled resources and mentorship every step of the way. After a minimum of one semester and a maximum of one year, Exploratory Track students will either enter the InterArts Advanced Track or select a different arts major.

Required Courses:

  • Interdisciplinary Explorations

For some multi-talented artists, creativity cannot be confined to a single discipline. This track allows students to experiment, stretch boundaries, and move fluidly between different arts disciplines, working both collaboratively and independently. To build their curriculum, they will choose a concentration: Design, Creative Writing, Storytelling, Digital Communication, or Performance.

Required Courses:

  • Interdisciplinary Explorations (all years)
  • Interdisciplinary Mind (one year)
  • Independent Study (Juniors and Seniors)

Students declare an area of concentration in Design, Storytelling, Digital Communication, or Performance. Their chosen concentration shapes the curriculum they receive from our distinguished faculty. Concentration programming includes:

  • Design
    With productions, performances, and exhibitions constantly taking place around campus, there is no shortage of Design opportunities at Idyllwild Arts! Students choose from Design classes in InterArts, Dramatic Arts, Fashion, Film, and Visual Arts.
  • Creative Writing
    Publishing, Poetry and Fiction, Playwriting and Writing for Media are examples of workshops tailored to students who wish to concentrate on Creative Writing.
  • Storytelling
    Myth, memoir, documentary, drama, webseries, graphic novel: one of the strongest human impulses is to create narrative, and in the InterArts department we examine the possibilities for storytelling from many angles. Students work closely with Film, Visual Arts, and Dramatic Arts to provide an interdisciplinary focus to storytelling.
  • Performance Practice
    Students build traditional skills in Dramatic Arts, Film, Music, Dance, Visual Art, and Creative Writing while introducing an interdisciplinary element, making any form of performance possible. Students produce an original year-end performance with a central theme that highlights their personal passions.
  • Digital Communication
    Go full S.T.E.A.M. through Digital Photography, Computer Graphics, Creative Technologies, Documentary Filmmaking, and other digital media. With your culminating show, put your imagination and innovation on display using cutting-edge technologies.

Opportunities

Nimble artistic responses to current events may take any form, happen anywhere and any time. Audience engagement guaranteed.

Immersive installations can be site-specific, three dimensional, use technology, and employ performance techniques to involve the viewer.

Practicing interdisciplinary professionals work with InterArts students to inspire professional pathways or develop performances and shows.

Each semester students use class, studio and rehearsal time to collaboratively devise, write, build, and produce original interdisciplinary performances. These can take numerous forms usually including some elements of performance and installation.

InterArts students have the opportunity to mount their own Junior and Senior shows in Parks Gallery. In a professional gallery setting students learn to install their own interdisciplinary creations and happenings.

Published by students and produced by the InterArts department, Parallax is a national award-winning literary journal with both print and online iterations. Parallax was ranked “Superior” in the 2022 NCTE Recognizing Excellence in Art and Literary Magazines (REALM).

Audition/Portfolio Requirements

Frequently Asked Questions

Students are required to take a minimum of 12 hours of arts classes which is the equivalent of about 4 different classes. Students may take more than this with permission from the Chair of InterArts.

You can look at the classes that are available in the IAA Curriculum Guide and the Chair of InterArts will help you build a schedule that is right for you.

After completing at least one semester in the InterArts Department you may transfer to another department. If you are thinking of transferring to another department, make sure to have a conversation with the Chair of InterArts as soon as you can.

You do not have to perform. InterArts shows take many forms and the beauty of these events is that InterArts students bring many different skills to the table. You will be asked to contribute to the InterArts shows in the art form with which you feel most comfortable, in addition to collaborating in a general way to ensure the success of each event.

Yes, our InterArts shows invite you to perform. You may also have the chance to perform in other departments depending on the audition requirements set by the relevant Arts Chairs.

We are looking for enthusiasm and a desire to learn. Show us what you are most proud of in any art form, and let us know in writing or in a video essay why you want to be an InterArtist.

Featured InterArts Alumni

Quoi Alexander headshot.

Quoi Alexander, 2009

Fashion Designer

Johanna Elisabeth Gjersvik headshot.

Johanna Elisabeth Gjersvik, 2001

Writer

Elora Hardy headshot.

Elora Hardy, 1999

Fashion Designer

Tara Kintz headshot.

Tara Kintz, 1994

Education and Activist

A dancer.

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