Scholarships are available to any student with music or theatre experience who wants to continue playing and performing at Northwestern. No matter what your major is, if you want to make music at Northwestern, music scholarships are available to vocalists and instrumentalists as well as students who play strings or keyboard instruments. Award decisions are based on an application, recommendations and an audition. Theatre scholarships are also available to all Northwestern students with an interest in one or more areas of theatre (acting, scenery, lighting, costuming, properties, directing, stage or house management). Award decisions are based on an application, recommendations, and an audition or interview. You don’t have to major in music to audition for Northwestern’s music ensembles. And whether you like the spotlight or a role behind the scenes, you’re encouraged to play a part in the college’s theatre productions.
Major interest If you’re hoping to turn your creativity into a successful career, choose from among our variety of arts-oriented academic programs: § Art § Arts administration § Art/graphic design § Art therapy § Art professional studio § Christian theatre ministries § Music § Music and worship leadership § Music education § Music performance § Music therapy § Theatre § Theatre and speech § Worship arts Northwestern art, music and theatre majors stay creative throughout their lives. Our graduates include a Des Moines art therapist, U.S. Army Soldiers’ Chorus vocalist, and independent film festival director and actor standouts.
Northwestern’s crowd-pleasing artists practice their craft in award-winning architecture. Christ Chapel and DeWitt Music Hall
Our 900-seat concert hall stage accommodates a 100-piece orchestra. Performers and accompanists play our New York Steinway concert grand piano and 45-stop, 56-rank tracker action pipe organ. DeWitt Music Hall includes choral and instrumental rehearsal rooms, practice rooms, classrooms, teaching studios, and an electronic keyboard and computer lab.
DeWitt Theatre Arts Center
It’s been called “the best theatre of any college in Iowa” and includes state-of-the-art proscenium and black box theatres, as well as scenic, lighting, costume and computer-assisted design studios.
Korver Visual Arts Center
The Korver Center has studios and artistic tools for exploring ceramics, drawing, graphic design, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture. The center’s Te Paske Gallery hosts 9 to 12 exhibitions by professional and student artists each year.
We also take our shows on the road. The A cappella Choir, Symphonic Band and Drama Ministries Ensemble each tour in the U.S. regularly. Northwestern performance groups have also toured in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Central and South America.
ART. MUSIC. THEATRE.
We believe creating excellent art is a way to honor God. That philosophy is behind everything we do at Northwestern College, including expressing ourselves musically, theatrically and through the visual arts. Whether onstage or backstage, rehearsing or performing, students who participate in the arts at Northwestern are vital contributors to our vibrant campus culture and the learning and preparation for life that happens here.
Northwestern’s “theatre with a difference” isn’t competitive. It’s collaborative.
You’re talented. You’re creative. Northwestern will give you plenty of opportunities to grow artistically, whether you’re majoring in the arts or not.
Here you’ll be part of a true ensemble where every role—from actor to sound designer to stage manager—is necessary and valued. Our thespians delight audiences with the kind of excellence that regularly earns them critical acclaim as actors, designers and playwrights.
Northwestern theatre is not a cutthroat environment. But we do have a reputation as one of the best Christian college theatre programs in the country.
CREATE. PERFORM. TAKE A BOW. nwciowa.edu/fine-arts
Music enriches your life—as well as whole communities and cultures. The music community at Northwestern is talented, prolific, supportive and dedicated to enjoyment and excellence in both practice and performance. As a musician in our nationally recognized program, you’ll develop further and have the chance to continue sharing your musical talent with appreciative audiences.
Membership in any of the music ensembles listed below is open to all Northwestern students, regardless of major.
A cappella Choir Symphonic Band Heritage Singers (mixed chamber choir)
Women’s Choir Chamber Orchestra Jazz Band Percussion Ensemble Instrumental chamber ensembles (brass, strings, woodwinds)
The play’s the thing Four faculty-directed productions and a World Premiere Festival each year (as well as student-initiated projects) will give you opportunities to act, direct and stage manage. Or design lighting and sound. Craft scenery and costumes. You’ll experience dramas from Sophocles and Shakespeare to contemporary scripts and premieres of original works. Northwestern’s focus on playwriting is one-of-a-kind for a college our size. Because changing the culture starts with scripts.