The Johns Hopkins University has awarded five grants
to students and faculty to stimulate new
courses in the arts and other arts-related efforts on the
Homewood campus, said Winston Tabb, vice
provost for the arts.
Initiated in 2006, the Arts Innovation Program offers
funding to faculty to create new courses
in the arts for undergraduates, with an emphasis on
interdisciplinary and cross-divisional courses. The
program also supports the artistic efforts of students,
both those currently engaged in arts activities
and those wishing to create a new venture, with an emphasis
on making connections between Johns
Hopkins students and the Baltimore community.
Four student-proposed arts initiatives will receive
support.
Johns Hopkins Breakdancing, led by juniors David
Harris and Benjamin Frison, will receive
funding to support a dance competition intended to enhance
communication not only among the
university's various dance groups but also with area dance
professionals. The "Break-Off"
breakdancing jam will be held on April 25, 2009, during
Family Weekend.
Hopkins
Kranti, the university's coed Hindi a cappella group
led by seniors Sneha Ramesh and
Priya Kamath, will produce a showcase of East Coast South
Asian a cappella groups on April 11, 2009.
Organized in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Chapter
of the Association for India's
Development, or AID, and involving the Maryland South Asian
community, the event will raise money
for AID's Maternal Mobile Health Clinic in West Bengal.
The Johns
Hopkins Octopodes, led by senior Alexandra Bourlas,
will receive funding to host the
Southern Regional Quarterfinal of the International
Competition of Collegiate A Cappella. The annual
event — in which two of the university's eight a
cappella groups, the All-Nighters and the Vocal Chords,
are competing — will enable both students and area
residents to hear performances by some of the
most well-known and respected a cappella groups in the
southern United States.
The Johns Hopkins University Kinetic Sculpture
Project, coordinated by senior Nora Krinitsky
and supported by the Program in
Museums and Society and the Digital Media
Center, will receive
funding to design, create and race a kinetic sculpture in
the American Visionary Art Museum's annual
Kinetic Sculpture Race, to be held on May 2, 2009. Among
the project's goals are fostering a sense of
community among students from a range of disciplines and
integrating Johns Hopkins students into a
popular Baltimore tradition.
Additionally, one spring course — Museum
Matters, one of three new core courses in the Program
in Museums and Society — will benefit from the
funding. The class, to be taught by Catherine Rogers
Arthur, director and curator of Homewood
Museum and an instructor in the Department of
History, will introduce students to museums through
exposure to a wide variety of Baltimore institutions.
Museum visits, behind-the-scenes meetings with museum
professionals, and intensive reading and
writing course work will engage students with complex
issues in the world of art and culture.
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