TCVPA-Engaged College Program

How the College of Visual & Performing Arts Is Advancing Engagement Through the Engaged College Program

Under the leadership of Dean Martin Camacho, D.M.A., M.B.A., the J.T. & Margaret Talkington College of Visual & Performing Arts launched a strategic planning process in 2024 centered on deep listening and community alignment—making Outreach & Engagement one of its three priority pillars. That same year, TCVPA joined the TTU Engaged College Program (ECP), creating strong momentum for defining, strengthening, and elevating engagement across the College.

Year 1: Building Foundations, Common Language, and Shared Value

Led by Associate Dean Ivy Walz, D.M.A., along with faculty leaders Carol Flueckiger, M.F.A., Mallory Prucha, M.F.A., M.A., Leobardo Guerrero, Ph.D., and Alan Zabriskie, Ph.D., TCVPA formed a nucleus team of engaged faculty across art, music, theatre, and dance during its first year in the program. Early assessment revealed two primary needs:

1. Common terminology for outreach and engagement across disciplines.
2. Improved data collection and clear value structures to support consistent impact reporting.

Using the ECP framework, the team developed college-specific “working exemplars” that demonstrate how arts-based work fits within the university’s engagement definitions. These exemplars now represent a wide range of faculty and serve as transparent models for others.

Key Year 1 Accomplishments

• Engaged options added to the College’s Research & Creative Activity Awards.
  New guidance helped faculty identify and document engaged creative activity; four of the ten awards granted were engagement-focused.
• Engaged scholarship incorporated into revised tenure & promotion policies.
  Phase 1 of T&P revisions—completed by a faculty committee chaired by Associate Dean Walz—introduced language supporting engaged scholarship and established a foundation for more extensive changes in Phase 2.
• Expanded visibility and shared learning.
  The 2025 TCVPA Research & Awards Colloquium featured engaged-scholarship pioneer Chuck O’Connor, drawing more than 40 faculty and guests from the Office of Outreach & Engagement.
• Strengthened collaborative culture.
  School Directors received regular updates and provided key leadership. Faculty, staff, and students across the College contributed to developing exemplars, definitions, and supporting processes.

Year One Outcomes: Establishing Definitions and Showcasing Working Exemplars

Outreach

• Workshops and Consultancy at Local Theatres, Dance Clinics, Schools, Lubbock Arts Venues
• Masterclasses, performances, and exhibits in the schools and other community organizations
• WildWind open readings for (and involving) the community (ex., The Nerve of Minerva)
• IGNITE! – School of Music annual event – students are bused in from around the region to hear the concert.
• TTU & LISD Portfolio reviews, musical competitions 
• International Outreach – CENART, Mexico City 

Engagement

• Disaster Day, Mallory Prucha, M.F.A. 
• Lubbock Chorale, Alan Zabriskie, Ph.D. 
• Guadalupe Parkway Project; piano for children, Leobardo Guerrero, Ph.D.
• BurkTech Players, School of Theater & Dance, and The Burkhart Center students
• Saturday Morning Art Project (SMAP), Professor Rob Glover, M.F.A., and art faculty professors  
• The Strings Project, Elizabeth Chappell, Ph.D.  

Engaged Scholarship

• Disaster Day Cycle: Enhancing First Response Training through Theatre, Life-Like
  Simulation, Interdisciplinary Partnership and Community Engagement, Mallory Prucha, M.F.A.
• Popular Music Project: School Partnership, Shauna Pickens, Ph.D., is building a popular music program in collaboration with area music teachers and conducting a study on the impact of music study as part of engaged scholarship. 
• The String Project and Project Hope – Elizabeth Chappell, Ph.D., is pursuing an engaged scholarship project showing how the study of music brings hope to underserved communities. 
• Arts Funding & LHUCA FFAT – Divya Janardhan, Ph.D., is part of an interdisciplinary, cross-campus research team studying the impact of First Friday Art Trail (FFAT) on the community of Lubbock and the surrounding region. 
• Art & Sustainability – Carol Flueckiger, M.F.A., teaches engaged learning in her course, which includes internships for students at Ogallala Commons, resulting in engaged creative activity that is being studied for its impact on environmental awareness.

Year 2: Expanding Infrastructure, Participation, and Measurable Progress

In Year 2, TCVPA expanded from a single core team to a full leadership structure supported by four working groups—Strategic Planning & Best Practices, Tenure & Promotion Policy Revisions, Engaged Arts Scholarship, and Community Engaged Learning. Each group is aligned with ECP goals and the College’s strategic priorities.

More than 35 faculty, staff, and students now participate in this work, creating a strong, replicable model for broad-based, shared governance that other colleges can follow.

“I serve as team leader for the J.T. & Margaret Talkington College of Visual & Performing Arts (TCVPA) within the Engaged College Program (ECP), a role I have held during its first two years. My motivation is to collaborate with our college and the Office of Outreach & Engagement to learn, understand, and integrate the principles of outreach and engagement in the arts. This work is deeply significant to me because, while our college has long embodied these practices, aligning them with formal terminology and structured frameworks creates measurable opportunities to demonstrate the societal impact of the arts.

Through ECP involvement, our college has adopted a shared language and developed a suite of exemplars across all TCVPA disciplines. We have also established entities that showcase the value of this work, such as faculty Research & Creative Activity Awards and Annual Faculty Reporting. These initiatives continue to evolve and expand. Arts-based engaged scholarship offers a distinctive pathway for the visual and performing arts to lead within the research metrics of an R1 institution. Personally, I find the greatest meaning in connecting these efforts to the articulated needs of our community.”

Ivy Walz, D.M.A.

Associate Dean for Faculty, Research, Creativity & Outreach

J.T. & Margaret Talkington College of Visual and Performing Arts 

Associate Professor, Voice, Texas Tech School of Music

TCVPA Engaged College Program (ECP) Structure:

ECP TCVPA Team Leader: Associate Dean Ivy Walz

Duties:

• Reports on actions, updates to Office of O&E (Engaged Assoc. Deans, etc.), Dean, and TCVPA community regularly 
• Establishes structure, assesses team strategies regularly, provides feedback, collaboration, tools, and input to move forward. 
• Attends meetings scheduled by the Engaged College Program; presents as needed
• Meets monthly as the Core ECP Team to report on actions, refine goals, share across work, and assess next steps.

ECP Chairs: Mallory Prucha, Carol Flueckiger, Alan Zabriskie, Andrea Bilkey, Leobardo Guerrero

Duties:

• Attend all meetings scheduled by the Engaged College Program; present as needed
• Hold monthly team meetings to facilitate progress on goals.
• Meet monthly as the Core ECP Team to report on actions, refine goals, share across work, and assess next steps.
• Meet with Dean once each semester.

ECP Team Members:

Responsibilities: 

• Encouraged to attend meetings scheduled by the Engaged College Program
• Share working documents and information to avoid operating in silos – there will be crossover, and collaboration across teams is strongly encouraged.
• Complete assigned tasks in the team
• Serve as ambassadors in O&E – help to socialize aspects of this work
• Members can be pulled in ad hoc as needed for further input. 

Four TCVPA Teams:

Strategic Planning & Best Practices:Chair, Mallory Prucha – 8 members 

• Ambassadors of outreach & engagement in alignment with the strategic plan
• Study, promote, and develop resources on best-practice guidance.

Tenure & Promotion Policy Revisions and Recommendations:Chair, Ivy Walz – 11 members 

• Incorporate options in policy for Outreach, Engagement, and Engaged Scholarship
• Develop Intentional Touch Points for dialogue on valuing engagement 

Engaged Arts Scholarship:Co-Chairs Carol Flueckiger & Alan Zabriskie – 21 members 

• Move the needle on practices of measuring impact in scholarship 
• Collate and promote resources for grants, publications, and collaboration 

Community Engaged Learning: Co-Chairs Associate Dean Andrea Bilkey & Leobardo Guerrero – 6 members 

• Weekly office hours with Associate Dean Bilkey on curricular development
• Stay abreast of developing initiatives to inform stakeholders