New Spelman College president makes great addition to Atlanta’s arts community

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?When Mary Schmidt Campbell got a call from Celeste Watkins-Hayes, the chair of Spelman College’s presidential search committee, reentering academia was the furthest thing from her mind. She’d just retired last spring after serving 23 years as the dean of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and was ready to focus on completing her biography of Romare Bearden. 
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?But as the conversation with Watkins-Hayes continued, “I began to find myself really awakened to the idea that my background and my experience actually might be a perfect fit for Spelman at this particular time in its history,” Campbell tells Monica Pearson in a taped YouTube interview housed on the school’s website.
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?When Mary Schmidt Campbell, PhD, starts her new position on Aug. 1, she’ll become the college’s 10th president. In addition to her proven track record at institution building, her resumé is heady in the disciplines of fine art and the humanities. That background should make her an excellent fit within Atlanta’s extended arts community.
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?As a Syracuse University grad sudent, she co-founded what is now the Community Folk Art Center. Early in her career, she transformed the Studio Museum of Harlem into the country’s first accredited black fine arts museum with a permanent collection, publications, and artists-in-residence programs. (Atlanta-based artist Bethany Collins recently completed a 12-month residency there). After leaving the Studio in 1987, Campbell served as New York City’s cultural affairs commissioner under Mayor Ed Koch. And for more than two decades, she served as dean of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she expanded the new media and tech programs and elevated the school’s prestige. President Obama appointed her in 2009 as vice chair of the non-partisan President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. 
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?Her career aligns well with Spelman Museum of Art’s ambitious mission. Under director Andrea Barnwell Brownlee, the 18-year-old museum has become a premier destination for the works of black women artists. 
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?Campbell tells Pearson how she intends to blend the focus on STEM education with a strong appreciation for the creative arts and humanities to create STEAM. Her tenure is also beginning at a time when funding for historically black colleges and universities is trending toward a steep decline and the continued relevance of HBCUs and same-sex colleges is increasingly being challenged. Campbell addresses such questions head-on in the interview below:
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??? “Spelman produces more high-quality women who go on to get their PhDs in STEM subjects than any college in this country. That’s not an accident. Why? Because if you come here, a black woman is the heart and soul of this college. everyone on this campus is dedicated to her success. And everyone is going to make sure that she graduates with self-knowledge, prepared and ready to take her place in the world. And that’s a powerful statement at a time when everybody’s wringing their hands about how do we close the gap for underrepresented minorities. Look at the places that have succeeded, look at a place like Spelman, and you’ll see the argument for a single-sex college.” 
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