Arts Presenters Announces 2010 Creative Campus Innovations Grants to Colleges and Universities

Arts Presenters will award up to 10 one- to two-year project grants, ranging from $100,000 to $200,000 each, in 2010 to college and university presenters for projects that go beyond conventional practice and perspectives on collaboration and learning, connect arts and non-arts constituencies through the creation of new interdisciplinary work, and stimulate discussion and debate on such issues as creativity, knowledge transfer, and community interaction.

"This program has allowed presenters on campuses to position themselves as change agents, revolutionizing teaching and altering relationships between stakeholders in the arts and academics," said Sandra Gibson, president and CEO of Arts Presenters. "College campuses are a microcosm of what goes on in the rest of the world, and we absolutely believe that the lessons being learned through this program can be applied to community-based presenters as well. We're hoping to create a positive disruption on the campuses, and signs so far indicate we're having great success."

To apply, campus arts presenters should go to http://www.apapconference.org/creative-campus-guidelines-and-application.html for further information. Applications will be reviewed and judged on a number of criteria, including campus and community engagement, organizational capacity, the artistic merit and quality of the project idea, and the potential for the idea to be successfully integrated across a variety of disciplines and into the institution's priorities in education, research and community service. The deadline for grant applications is June 30.

The recipients of the 2010 Creative Campus Grants will be announced on August 15.

Last year's Creative Campus Grants assisted and encouraged creative collaborations and initiatives at these colleges and universities:

• At the University of Iowa's Hancher Auditorium, plans to use the grant funds were interrupted by last summer's floods, which swamped the campus. The auditorium directors are now using the grant to move ahead with The Eye Piece, a multidisciplinary project involving staff at UI's Center for Macular Degeneration, the Writing Program of the College of Medicine, the Theatre Arts Department, and faculty from the English, psychology and physics departments. Playwright Rinde Eckert collaborated with physician Ed Stone on the story of a fictional painter grappling with losing his vision.
• At Wesleyan University, the issue of global warming sparked Feet to the Fire, a two-year investigation of climate change issues as seen through the lens of the arts. Assisted by Creative Campus funds, Wesleyan offered its students a multi-faceted exploration of the theme that combined such disparate disciplines as dance and biology, resulting in a commissioned dance piece and a trip to the Guyana rain forest this spring. Wesleyan made Feet to the Fire its program theme for all first-year students this year.
• At the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, the campus converged around the theme of Criminal/Justice: The Death Penalty Examined. Projects included a performance of Tim Robbins' adaptation of Sister Helen Prejean's bestseller Dead Man Walking; a staged reading of another Prejean book, The Death of Innocents; the premiere of a commissioned play; and numerous other performances, workshops, lectures and exhibits on the topic of the death penalty.
• At Dartmouth College, a project called Class Divide examined the issues of class, especially as it applies to audiences attending arts events. Solo and group performances, works-in-progress readings, lectures, a new play created and acted by Anne Galjour, and screenings of 20 films on issues of class were part of the project. The Dean of Faculty committed funding to encourage faculty across the campus to create new curricula about class and culture.
• At Stanford University, located in one of the world's technology hubs, Stanford Lively Arts is using its grant to look creatively at the history of gadgets and technology. The project got underway last fall with trumpeter Dave Douglas and filmmaker Bill Morrison developing a commissioned piece, drawing on resources from Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics as well as on students and faculty across the campus.
• Hostos Community College, located in the Bronx, has a long tradition of sending students to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic for cultural immersion programs and field research. It also hosts BomPlenazo, a popular biennial festival of Afro-Puerto Rican culture. The college used its grant to link its fieldwork-abroad programs with its cultural festival, and to launch a new festival of Afro-Dominican culture serving the Bronx's growing Dominican community.
• At the University of Kansas, the fine arts faculty is working with composer David Balakrishnan of the Turtle Island String Quartet to develop an original music-and-dance piece inspired by the topic of evolution, with related campus-wide workshops, colloquia and other cross-disciplinary activities.
• At the University of Nebraska, Artistic Rehabilitation Therapy (A.R.T.) features a motion-tracking software tool that uses art to help rehabilitate victims of catastrophic injuries. The tool gives patients a sense of creativity and connection, taking their minds off their pain and the repetitive nature of rehab. The grant brought the respected dance troupe Troika Ranch to the campus to develop and premiere a multimedia piece as a result of interviews and workshops with the rehab patients at A.R.T.

Arts Presenters
The Association of Performing Arts Presenters, based in Washington DC, is the national service organization for the field of arts presenting. Nearly 2,000 members represent the nation's leading performing arts centers; civic and university performance facilities; the full spectrum of artist agencies and managers; a growing roster of self-representing artists; and national consulting practices and vendors that service the field. A non-profit 501(c)3 organization governed by a volunteer board of directors, Arts Presenters is led by its CEO Sandra Gibson, now in her eighth year. In addition to presenting the annual APAP Conference NYC - the world's leading forum and marketplace for the performing arts (January 9-13, 2009), with more than 4,000 performing arts professional attending - Arts Presenters continues to be the industry's leading resource, knowledge and networking destination for the advancement of performing arts presenting.

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is to improve the quality of people's lives through grants supporting the performing arts, wildlife conservation, medical research and the prevention of child maltreatment, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke's properties. The foundation's assets currently total approximately $1.8 billion. Of its grants totaling close to $473 million to date, the foundation has approved approximately $156 million to support nonprofit performing arts organizations throughout the United States. www.ddcf.org

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