Johns Hopkins has awarded approximately $25,000 in grants
to students and faculty to stimulate new courses in the
arts and other arts-related efforts on the Homewood campus,
said Winston Tabb, the university's vice provost for the
arts.
The Arts Innovation Program is a new initiative
offering funding to faculty and staff for courses in the
arts, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary and
cross-departmental 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. Grants will be awarded twice each academic year:
once for the fall semester, and once for the January
intersession and the spring semester.
Of the 10 proposals submitted for fall 2007, six
received funding.
"We had a strong field of contenders in this inaugural
semester, and it is gratifying to know that new
opportunities in the arts will be created for Homewood
undergraduates as a result of this program," Tabb said.
Benefiting from the funding will be three new fall
courses: The History and Science of Musical Instruments,
taught by Susan Forscher Weiss of the Peabody
Conservatory and James E. West, research professor at
the Whiting School
of Engineering; Competitive Advantage: Design +
Business, a collaboration between the departments of
Marketing and Management at the Carey Business School and
the departments of Environmental Design and Graphic Design
at the Maryland Institute College of Art; and Image and
Text, taught by Phyllis Berger of the Homewood Art Workshops
and Tristan Davies of the Writing
Seminars.
Additionally, three student-proposed arts initiatives
will receive support. The five-year-old Hopkins Lion Dance
Troupe, headed by rising senior Nicholas Hu, will receive
funding to perform in Baltimore City schools; a new dance
program proposed by Brittany Sterrett, a member of the
class of 2007, and rising sophomore Lauren McGrath will
begin this fall; and a new interdivisional and
interdisciplinary multimedia arts journal proposed by
rising juniors Derek Nnuro and Shawn Fu received support
for its first two issues, both due out this fall.
"All of these innovations represent just the sort of
creative thinking that's vital in a large institution like
Johns Hopkins," Tabb said. "That they emerged from
students, faculty and staff rather than being imposed from
without shows that they reflect the specific needs of the
undergraduate community."
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