Point Park University is elevating the departments within its Conservatory of Performing Arts into two schools as the university aims to grow the enrollment and reach of its nationally known conservatory.
Effective Monday, the conservatory now houses a School of Dance and School of Theatre, Film and Animation. Previously, the conservatory had three departments — dance, theatre and cinema arts — with programs and majors housed in each department.
University leaders hope the change will boost enrollment and bring further national and international visibility to the conservatory.
“With the challenges and the state of where we’re at right now in both the arts and higher education, I love that we are taking a leap of faith and understanding that the arts and entertainment are so important in the basic enrichment of humanity,” said Kiesha Lalama, interim dean of the School of Theatre, Film and Animation and executive producer of the Pittsburgh Playhouse, Point Park’s performing arts center.
The highly competitive conservatory has an acceptance rate of just 10%, compared to Point Park’s overall acceptance rate of 80%. Offering majors in acting, cinema production, screenwriting and more, the conservatory draws performing arts students from states like Texas, California and Florida.
School officials believe that changing the conservatory’s structure will give students more opportunities to pursue their areas of interest.
And with the addition of the new schools will come a new concentration. The Downtown university is introducing a hip hop concentration within the School of Dance.
Garfield Lemonius, dean of the School of Dance, predicts Point Park is ahead of the curve on the new discipline. Degrees focused on hip hop are currently rare, but he believes they will become a mainstay at performing arts schools.
Elevation from department to school also means the School of Dance will hire new faculty and construct four new dance studios, Mr. Lemonius said.
“Point Park’s dance program constantly seeks opportunities to grow, to innovate, to be on the cutting edge of of dance training, [and] to prepare our students for an ever-changing and diverse dance industry,” Mr. Lemonius said. “With the elevation to a School of Dance, it gives us an opportunity to also imagine possibilities and develop and implement these possibilities.”
Ms. Lalama added that creating the new schools will heighten the visibility of Point Park’s academic offerings.
For example, animation was previously housed within the “cinema arts” department, and prospective students might not have realized Point Park offered an animation degree, Ms. Lalama said. Now, one of the new schools includes “animation” in its title.
The ultimate goal of the new schools, she said, will be to develop Point Park students into top competitors and future leaders of the entertainment industry.
“We want to create opportunities for our students that allow them to not [just] be successful in the industry, but to be dynamic leaders of tomorrow’s industry,” Ms. Lalama said. “That’s what I think is our end game here.”
First Published: January 7, 2025, 10:30 a.m.
Updated: January 8, 2025, 3:53 p.m.
