“Town and gown” describes the gulf between the interests of a university and of the community that hosts it, and hints at the potential for conflict and misunderstanding between the two. The well-worn term is nearly as old as the institution of universities themselves.
Any number of small and medium-sized college towns experience it. It usually figures less in big cities like Houston or Philadelphia because a university is so small a component of the broader civic and cultural life. But in cities like Auburn, Ala., and Athens, Ohio, a major university figures much larger in terms of economic activity, employment, and, crucially, the arts. Such is the case here in Waco as well. In short, it’s worth acknowledging what a tremendous asset Baylor University is to the cultural life of Waco.
If a city the size of Waco had all the cultural offerings on its own that Baylor University hosts, it would be known far and wide as an absolute mecca for the arts. There are constant art exhibits and numerous dramatic productions that are skillfully curated and performed.
The Baylor School of Music stages hundreds of concerts each year, with all but constant faculty and student recitals, guest performers and concerts by orchestras, choirs, and jazz combos. Most are free and open to the public. It’s an amazing resource for the community just as much as for the student body.
Waco is by no means alone, however, in it being difficult for the public to consider a university’s art scene as a vital part of a city’s.
Most of the disconnect I’ve witnessed in places like Columbia, Mo., or San Marcos, Texas, comes from the “town” side more so than from the “gown” side, and perhaps this is natural. Part of that is likely because in order to participate in the artistic offerings of the university the public must get up and come on to the campus, hunt for parking, find a particular building among many that look the same, and in general feel like an outsider. It comes down to the whole reason we have the “town and gown” dichotomy to begin with.
It takes focused effort to get around this inertia. In Ames, Iowa — a typical college town with a population of 60,000 and the Iowa State University — there’s a creative organization called “The Town and Gown Chamber Music Association” that for 60 years has worked to bridge the gap between that city and its university through music. It stages chamber music concerts in both a recital hall belonging to the university and in a civic auditorium.
True, the Waco Symphony Orchestra plays its concerts in an auditorium on the Baylor campus, but that fact alone seems to contribute very little to connect the two scenes.
It’s true that universities and the cities in which they exist can have substantive differences in what constitutes good policy and what counts as vital interests. But for people to discount the artistic activities of a college as not being part of the broader community, especially if that community is something other than a big city, is pure folly.
Any analysis of the Waco art scene, whether laudatory or condemnatory, is fundamentally incomplete if it excludes Baylor. Those interested in one should purposefully cultivate an interest in the other.
Universities, too, especially those in smaller towns, should be keenly aware that their art performances can enrich the broader community of which they are a part, and work hard to publicize them away from the usual campus channels of news.
David A. Smith, a Baylor University senior lecturer in history and a Cultural Arts of Waco board member, can be reached at davidasmith.net.
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