ANN ARBOR—
The University of Michigan’s Arts of Citizenship Program has announced the recipients of its first faculty grants for public and community-based scholarly work in the arts and humanities.
“We were very pleased to receive 35 applications. The proposals underscored the commitment of U-M faculty to publicly-engaged work in the arts, humanities, and design,” says program director David Scobey.
The goal of the grants program is to foster research, teaching and creative projects that explore culture in publicly accessible ways or that encourage innovative teaching and research in collaboration with community partners. Funds have been provided by the U-M’s Office of the Vice President for Research and College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, for three annual rounds of grants.
“The breadth of these projects is exciting,” Scobey adds. “There are proposals based in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Flint and elsewhere. They represent many different disciplines and community partners, and they will generate a wide range of new work, including innovative curricula, exhibits, Web sites, visual art, architectural designs and collaborative research.”
For 1999-2000, an interdisciplinary selection committee awarded grants to the following projects:
Marianetta Porter (associate professor, art and design) and Lisa Olson (adjunct assistant professor, art and design) will explore the connections between African American and Appalachian cultures. In partnership with several educational and community organizations, the two artists will exhibit visual works locally and nationally to increase understanding of the parallel and converging traditions of Southern Blacks and Appalachian whites.
Emily Spinelli (professor, Spanish, U-M-Dearborn), Margaret Flannery (senior counselor, U-M-Dearborn), and Stana Sukunda (lecturer, Spanish, U-M-Dearborn) will partner with the cultural organization Ra