HARTS mission and vision
Mission
The Portland Community College Humanities and Arts (HARTS) Initiative fosters, creates, and enhances opportunities for students to engage deeply with the humanities and arts both inside and outside the classroom, on campus and beyond. The Initiative is founded on the beliefs that the humanities and arts are an essential component of a liberal arts education; that participation in the humanities and arts helps develop effective communicators and critical thinkers, and provides excellent preparation for a civically engaged life and a broad variety of careers; and that the humanities and arts lie at the heart of every human culture and, as such, are essential for understanding cultures and navigating differences.
The Initiative is guided by the Humanities and Arts Council, a District-wide committee of faculty and staff members serving two-year, renewable terms, who will:
- raise the profile of the humanities and arts throughout the PCC District;
- serve as a voice for the humanities and arts in the context of critical College-wide academic, curricular, and financial decisions;
- work to strengthen and broaden our students’ academic experience within the humanities and the arts;
- support the efforts of individual departments and campuses of both new and already up-and-running campus humanities and arts events;
- work to nurture a broad diversity of humanities and arts courses offered at PCC;
- work to secure humanities and arts funding through the PCC budgeting process, the PCC Foundation, and external grant opportunities;
- work to develop community partnerships with arts and humanities organizations to increase student access and range of opportunities in the arts and humanities.
In doing so, the Initiative seeks to help create a more literate, connected, and inclusive culture.
Vision
Portland Community College will be a model for community colleges across the nation in offering all students robust, transformative experiences in the humanities and arts, through dynamic curriculum and classroom experiences, inter-disciplinary collaboration (including disciplines beyond the humanities and arts), performances, exhibitions and symposia, as well as community partnerships that underscore the vital role that the humanities and arts play in education and the wider world.