At Wake Forest University, the Arts belong to everyone. The Arts are infused into aspects of campus life from the studios and stages of Scales Fine Arts Center to performances on the quad, our museum-quality art collection with pieces hanging in every administrative and academic building, and our students combining creative ingenuity with scientific rigor and business acumen. With exhibition spaces on campus, at Reynolda Village, and at Wake Downtown, the Arts are firmly embedded in our community.

We train top-notch artists who go on to perform on Broadway, deal art around the world, and conduct symphony orchestras. And we craft the business executive who is also an abstract painter, the surgeon who is also a cellist, and the attorney who is also a poet. The most successful people have a hearty creative streak, and at Wake Forest we nurture that.

Wake the Arts is dedicated to spreading awareness of the transformative impact the arts have throughout all aspects of life, and we are committed to supporting, respecting, and valuing diversity and inclusion.

The Arts can be the “secret sauce” to supercharge a career in any field. Nobel Prize winners in the sciences are 10 times more likely to be involved in the Arts than their non-Nobel-winning peers. Hiring managers today are thirsty to find creatives of every stripe. Training in the Arts gives candidates a leading edge over their peers because in today’s quickly-changing professional world, employers need problem-solvers able to see the overlooked and adapt to the unexpected. 

The Arts develop us as complete human beings. Whether you are a chemist or a choreographer, you are welcomed with open arms as we continue to expand the reach of Wake the Arts. Join us!

Diversity and Inclusion

Wake the Arts believes the arts belong to all of us. In order for that to be true, the visual and performing arts community at Wake Forest is committed to developing policies, programs, performances, events, and communication strategies that are inclusive and welcoming to all students, faculty, staff, and our greater community. We are dedicated to transforming lives through the powerful impact of the Arts and we affirm the representation of diverse voices and perspectives in our work. We stand with the Black Lives Matter movement and acknowledge that equity across race, gender identity, and sexual orientation is critical for all of us to thrive. We commit to elevating this diversity in our coursework, in our exhibition spaces, in the performances we create in our theatres and concert halls, and throughout our creative research and scholarship.

Land Acknowledgement Statement

This statement honors the land on which Wake Forest University now resides and the land on which the original campus resided. This land served for centuries as a place for exchange and interaction for Indigenous peoples, specifically Saura (saw-ra), Catawba (ka-tah-buh), Cherokee (chair-o-kee), and Lumbee (lum-bee) in this location and Shakori (shu-kor-ee), Eno (ee-no), Sissipahaw (sis-suh-pa-hah), and Occaneechi (oak-a-nee-chee) in the original campus location. Today Wake Forest continues to be a place of learning and engagement for Indigenous students, faculty, and staff regionally, nationally, and globally.

Interdisciplinary Arts Center

When you imagine life on a college campus, you probably think of a place filled with smart, inventive people having inspiring conversations about every subject imaginable. The Interdisciplinary Arts Center exists to foster just that.

Drawing together artists, scholars, students, faculty, and staff from every corner of our campus, the Interdisciplinary Arts Center uses performance collaborations—with Chemistry, Religion, History, Politics, Math, Romance Languages, Neuroscience, Documentary Film, and really anything else you can think of—to give us all a place, a time, and a reason to talk to each other about the things we care about.

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