Creative Campus Innovations Grant

Hi everyone:

On Saturday, January 9th Bill, Susan and I had the chance to attend the APAP Professional Development session entitled, “The Arts and The Creative Campus: Making the Case” with Wolf Brown. Although the power point presentation will soon follow and will be included here for all to peruse, I thought I’d highlight a few points that I took away from this presentation.

Along with our personal efforts on campus to explore ways that the arts offer a unique advantage in the creation of a vital community, there is a larger drive to move policy towards an outcome of creating vital communities, a more democratic “expressive life” (a concept developed by Bill Ivey, author of “Arts, Inc.” and former chairman of the N.E.A.), and that arts centers as a whole need to redefine their roles and become a key player in the larger conversation.

A question put forth during the presentation and from seven of the previous  Round I grantees (who visited our tables during the “speed dating” part of the session to speak of their individual projects and to answer our questions) was this: What would or could we do if we were not funded? Would we continue along with some, if not all, of our plans?  The point being that while clearly the financial support is helpful, and is a push, it should not be the primary motivation, because it will never be enough.  Our project must be well alligned to our intitutional mission and goals, must have a good project management structure, strong key partnerships (that are based on a good match and an equality of balance) and must consider how the outcomes can be sustainable after the grant period is over.

It was suggested that the Arts Center clearly understands its role- regardless of what it is- as a curator or producer or facilitator. The entire spectrum is fine, just so long as we understand what role we are playing… and from this, develop that strong project management structure. Many of the previous grantees said that while they didn’t write it into their grants or identify what role they planned on playing, they discovered that this project is very consuming, that it was most effective to have a point person, someone outside of the Arts Center’s general operations, who could be “the creative campus person” that everyone knew and knew how to contact- a spokesperson- someone who is a definite multi-tasker. This may be the same person who is assigned responsibility for documentation (very critical) or not, but it was mentioned again and again- there needs to be good management structure. This should be kept in mind when we settle on those key partnerships.

For example, with the Stanford Art + Invention project, Stanford Lively Arts found a key partner in the Stanford Institute for Creativity in the Arts (a fledgling grassroots organization that emerged from Stanford’s committment to raise the Arts to a place of prominence on campus)- while Lively Arts has taken on the more programmatic role, SiCa has led more of the outreach efforts. Together with the Aurora Forum their Art + Invention Speaker Series is an interesting prgram that emerged from their partnership. Like our theme, Art + Invention takes inquiry as a central focus. 

Another suggestion was to be realistic about our organizational capacity and be explicit about our outcomes. Is the project intended to start a conversation, to catalyze an existing conversation or to solidify existing conversations? Any of these intentions is fine by the panel, so long as we use practical implications to define our goals and to spell them out in the grant. They asked us to be candid about our campus environment and our existing interdisciplinary exchange in the campus and community.

It’s been said before but it was echoed again that faculty- those that are willing- will be the biggest champions. A suggestion was to include faculty artists (one school primarily worked with faculty artists), and pairing artists with faculty. A consideration would be to  set aside grant money to use as smaller grant awards for faculty who submit RFPs to develop class sessions around our theme, or to invite artist involvement in their exploration of “what sustains us?” in their curricula. I think Wesleyan even used that grant money for student artists who submitted RFPs.

Wesleyan found that the stipend awards really helped in their solicitation of involvement, when they asked faculty to come up with modules of 2-4 class sessions around their theme, and in the integration of programmatic elements with campus-wide teaching. The question was asked to the faculty “who would you want to work with (on campus or off) if you could?” and ”what artist would you invite into your classroom to speak if the opprtunity were available?” This gave faculty a sense of ownership and value when trying for creative common experience programs.

For the most part, the professional development session, and the consulation period that followed, was a reiteration of topics that have been covered in the webinars. But it was helpful and inspiring to hear about the personal experiences of other grantees. I especially enjoyed hearing more about the University of Iowa’s Eye Piece- a collaboration between playwright Rinde Eckert, UI’s Center for Macular Degeneration, the Theatre and Music departments, Writing Center, etc., based on interviews that examined the issue of vision loss for patients, their families, and how doctors can better experience what a world of darkness is like when faced with giving a diagnosis. This school faced significant setbacks and challenges while in the middle of their project and yet they’ve said that they are all the stronger for it. This too was mentioned by other grantees who had to deal with major issues- loss of personnel or major changes in administration, floods, deaths, etc… reiterating that having a good strucure to the project will help when (inevitably) you hit some kind of wall.

So, I’ve now rambled long enough… this was just some food for thought while it was still fresh in my mind.

http://www.apapconference.org/ccwebinar/

For Immediate Release
Contact: Bill Menezes, 603-358-2171 and bmenezes@keene.edu

Arts Presenters Announces Keene State’s Redfern Arts Center as a Semifinalist in the 2010 Creative Campus Innovations Grants to Colleges and Universities

November 19, 2009; Washington, D.C. - The Association of Performing Arts Presenters (Arts Presenters) announces that Keene State College’s Redfern Arts Center is one of 31 semifinalists in the 2010 Creative Campus Innovations Grant Program.

The Creative Campus initiative began in March 2004, following the 104th American Assembly at Columbia University, where more than 60 arts and higher education leaders gathered to examine the factors that characterize effective partnerships in education and the arts - the projects, proposals, curricula, and creative forces that make such partnerships work.

In 2006, Arts Presenters initiated The Creative Campus Innovations Grant program with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. This program was designed to support a set of innovative performance-based projects on American campuses that exhibit the importance of the arts to the educational, service, and scholarly missions of the academy and that fully integrate the performing arts into the life of the academy and the community. In 2007, eight campus-based presenters were awarded one- or two-year grants to implement projects that had the potential to increase value and expand support for integrating the performing arts into the academy and the campus community.

In March 2009, Arts Presenters announced a new round of the Creative Campus Innovations Grant Program with the intent to identify, support, and document exemplary campus-based performing arts presenters who develop and implement programs and strategies that go beyond conventional practice and who integrate their work into the academy. In September 2009, 31 semifinalists were chosen from a pool of nearly 150 applicants, and each will be given $7,000 to help develop a project concept for full consideration as part of the final selection process of this grant program. Up to 10 one- to two-year project grants, ranging from $100,000 to $200,000 each, will be awarded in August 2010 to college- and university-based presenters from among these semifinalists.

The following semifinalists have been invited to submit full proposals: Arizona State University, ASU Public Events / Gammage; Bard College, Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts; Baruch College, Baruch Performing Arts Center; Berklee College of Music, Berklee Office of Special Programs; California State University-Long Beach, Carpenter Performing Arts Center; College of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s University, Fine Arts Programming; Colorado College, I.D.E.A. at Colorado College; Columbia College Chicago, The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago; Cuyahoga Community College, Division of Creative Arts; Hiram College, Center for Literature Medicine and Biomedical Humanities; Howard University, Cramton Auditorium; Keene State College, Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond; Lafayette College, Williams Center for the Arts; Lehigh University, Zoellner Arts Center; Montclair State University, Arts and Cultural Programming; Pennsylvania State University, Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center; Skidmore College, Office of the Dean of Special Programs; State University of New York-Oswego, ARTSwego; Syracuse University, University Arts Presenter; The Ohio State University, Wexner Center for the Arts; University of British Columbia, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts; University of California-Irvine, Irvine Barclay Theatre; University of California-Los Angeles, UCLA Live; University of Dayton, University of Dayton Arts Series; University of Florida, University of Florida Performing Arts; University of Kentucky, Singletary Center for the Arts; University of Michigan, University Musical Society; University of Minnesota, Northrop Concerts and Lectures; University of Washington, UW World Series; Western Michigan University, Miller Auditorium.

Arts Presenters

Founded in 1957, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (Arts Presenters or APAP) is the national service organization for the field of arts presenting. The organization is dedicated to developing and supporting a robust performing arts presenting field and the professionals who work in it. Arts Presenters has 2,000 organizational members worldwide and brings more than 3,800 performing arts professionals together from around the world at the annual APAP Conference NYC. Members range from the nation’s leading performing arts centers, to civic and university performance facilities and festivals, to the full spectrum of artist agencies, managers, national consulting practices and collaborators, and a growing roster of self-presenting artists who engage communities through live performances. Arts Presenters, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, based in Washington, D.C., is led by CEO and President Sandra L. Gibson.

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (www.ddcf.org) is to improve the quality of people’s lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research, and the prevention of child maltreatment, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke’s properties.

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