Spurred by IUPUI split, music programs join Herron School (2024)

Max Arney was around 10 years old when he started listening to artists such as deadmau5 and Skrillex, who produce and perform electronic music.

Though he’d played piano and drums for years, this type of sound was something new altogether.

“It was unlike anything I’d ever seen before,” Arney, now 24, said. “I was like, they’re not playing instruments. How are they making sounds? That really blew my mind.”

That love for electronic music production eventually led Arney, who performs as Urban Essence, to pursue his bachelor’s degree in music technology in IUPUI’s Department of Music and Arts Technology. Music technology is the study of how machines and computers can be used to create, edit, perform and distribute music. The department also includes IUPUI’s music therapy program.

As IUPUI prepares to split into IU Indianapolis and Purdue in Indianapolis on July 1, the Department of Music and Arts Technology is a guinea pig of sorts for the “great divorce.” For over a decade, the music program existed in a limbo that was unique to IUPUI — students have always received IU degrees, but the music department was part of Purdue’s engineering school.

That’s now changed. As of January, music technology and therapy — and its associated students, staff and faculty — are now part of IU’s Herron School of Art & Design. Students and professors say that the change opens up a host of opportunities for the school to embrace creativity and become more involved with Indianapolis’ artistic community.

The program’s unique status also serves as a reminder of the types of collaborations that, after 50 years, soon will no longer be possible between the schools.

“I do miss the IUPUI identity, but I’m so excited to be part of this school now,” Jordan Munson, a music technology professor and advisor. “I feel like this is the home that I’ve been looking to have.”

‘A natural fit’

Since it was founded, IUPUI’s music program has fought to establish its own identity.

Music education at IUPUI started in 1984, when the Jacobs School of Music opened a school in Indianapolis, according to university archives. But as the program grew, IUPUI developed a particular focus on music technology and the university’s administration decided Indianapolis’ department should sever ties with Bloomington in the mid-2000s.

The music department’s focus on audio engineering and technology made it a fit to join the Purdue engineering department, even if the classes were very different. From 2008 to 2023, students earned IU degrees while taking classes in a Purdue school — all because of the partnership that was IUPUI.

“On campus, most people that I remember talking to would think about ourselves as IUPUI,” Munson said. “We wouldn’t think of IU or Purdue.”

But in August 2022, when Purdue and IU announced their plans to split IUPUI into two schools, music faculty were once again forced to evaluate their place. As an IU program, they couldn’t stay with Purdue.

More than a decade ago, in fact, before the decision was made that music should join the engineering department, some faculty suggested joining Herron at IU.

“A lot of us were already collaborating with the Herron visual arts faculty,” Munson said. “It just seemed like a natural fit to explore joining that school.”

[Learn about the Herron art student that received a degree 43 years in the making.]

Becoming ‘besties’ at Herron

When junior Regan Wakeman found out about IUPUI’s music technology program, she had a gut feeling it was the right choice for her. She loved getting to learn about all aspects of the music industry, from performance to production.

But because Wakeman and her classmates were the only music students in the Purdue engineering school, she often felt isolated both from other engineers and from the arts students.

“It just wasn’t our atmosphere,” she said. “It wasn’t a place for artists.”

Since music technology became Herron students this past semester, she’s felt embraced by fellow artists in a way she never had at school before. She got more involved, even managing the audiovisual effects for Herron’s 20th annual Wearable Art show, an annual event that spotlights the work of IUPUI art students through fashion.

“We’ve always had a respectful relationship with Purdue,” Wakeman said. “But are you just acquaintances, or are you besties? I feel like we were acquaintances at Purdue, but we’re building a strong relationship with Herron.”

Most of the changes from the music program’s move to Herron have been administrative rather than physical. Though the Department of Music and Arts Technology was administratively housed within the engineering school, its equipment and classrooms are mainly located in the informatics and communications building.

Only a few classes have already relocated to Herron across campus, and the goal is to move the remainder of the music facilities within the next few years, said Shannon McCullough, Herron’s assistant dean of admissions and student affairs.

What has changed, though, are the opportunities available to music technology and therapy students.

This summer, both Wakeman and Arney are interning at Hendricks Live!, a new concert venue in Plainfield. Students also submitted proposals to have work featured in the LUME, the audiovisual exhibit at Newfields. Those were both opportunities made possible by the resources at Herron.

“This is an environment that inspires collaboration now, which is super cool,” Arney said.

Claire Rafford covers higher education for Mirror Indy in partnership with Open Campus. Get in touch with higher ed reporter Claire Rafford at claire.rafford@mirrorindy.org or on social media @clairerafford.

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