In an effort to expand undergraduate arts research opportunities and establish a set of grant awards especially for creative subjects, officials recently created the University Undergraduate Award for Arts Projects. The awards will range from $1,000 to $5,000 each.
“[The program] is intended to expand students’ opportunities for creative expression and showcase significant accomplishments in the arts,” said Lucy Russell, director of the University’s Center for Undergraduate Excellence.
Russell, Vice Provost for Academic Programs Milton Adams, Vice Provost for the Arts Beth Turner and other University faculty members helped create the program.
“The University’s students are very creative and accomplished, and this is a terrific way to recognize that and provide students with new opportunities to take on significant projects in the arts,” Russell said.
In addition to developing student interest in the arts, the grants will better qualify students interested in pursuing creative arts at the graduate school level, Turner said.
Even though there currently are other similar undergraduate grant programs — like the Harrison Undergraduate Research Awards program — that could be used for the study of creative arts, very few students put forward proposals to produce art, Adams said, noting that students generally focus on the critique and research of existing art instead.
The program will be based on the existing Harrison program, Adams said. According to the Center for Undergraduate Excellence’s Web site, students interested in receiving a grant are encouraged to meet with a faculty adviser to discuss a potential proposal, much like the system for Harrison awards. The adviser will then write a letter affirming his or her support of the project and will write an assessment of the project once completed.
Students interested in the grants are expected to produce a final project, like a short film or music composition, according to the Web site. The projects will be carried out during the summer and upcoming academic year. Grants are available to first-, second- and third-year undergraduate students in any major either individually or in collaborative groups, and the program’s first year of applications are due April 15.
Adams said the program currently has $20,000 to give to undergraduate research, but noted that he hopes this amount will grow in the future through gifts and donations.
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