Loyola University Chicago

Department of Fine and Performing Arts

About Us

DFPA MISSION

The Department of Fine and Performing Arts engages the transformative power of art to enrich the individual and connect communities. We provide students with theory and skill-based instruction within the context of a strong Jesuit liberal arts curriculum, and we engage audiences through extensive public programming in Dance, Fine Arts, Music, and Theatre.

Welcome from the Chair

Hello and welcome to the Department of Fine and Performing Arts on the beautiful lakeshore campus of Loyola University Chicago! 

As a combined department of Dance, Fine Arts, Music, and Theatre, we offer an array of opportunities to explore the arts in and out of the classroom through our holistic coursework and public programming; all of which are led by our faculty of professional artists. As a liberal-arts based department, we are interested both in the skills necessary to master the arts, as well as the role art plays in describing our culture.

As artists with respect for the principles of the Jesuit Mission, we understand that the world’s peoples are interrelated and interdependent, and we take the responsibility of that knowledge very seriously. We believe in the power of the arts to help create a more self-aware and just society, and are therefore committed to raising issues of social justice through the dances we compose, the artwork we create, the music we perform, and the plays that we produce.

We draw from and engage with Chicago’s rich professional community of artists and performers by bringing guests into our classrooms and by taking our students into the city to obvserve and work side by side with artists of all disciplines.  We engage with our local community by working together on important issues such as sustainability, marginalization, and oppression.

Together we reflect, create, and illuminate the ever-enduring human spirit.

Mark E. Lococo, PhD
Professor, Chair
Department of Fine and Performing Arts
Loyola University Chicago