a2ru – Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities

One of the major findings from a2ru’s March 2013 Research Symposium at Penn State was that we need to clarify the case for arts practice in research universities when it is neither “research” nor in service to other disciplines.  The U.K. has a good decade’s head start on this conversation, due to shifting governmental funding [...]

With the help of MSU Honors College student researchers, Robert S. Root-Berstein analyzes archival materials and personal accounts to test the hypothesis that “scientific geniuses” are polymaths.  In his article, “Arts Foster Scientific Success: Avocations of Nobel, National Academy, Royal Society, and Sigma Xi Members,” Root-Bernstein finds that eminent scientists are far more likely to have [...]

Scientific success is significantly correlated with visual modes of thinking, artistic and musical hobbies, and a range of other non-scientific life experiences and behavioral patterns, according to an analysis of data collected on top research scientists by MSU researchers Robert S. Root-Bernstein, Maurine Bernstein, and Helen Garnier.  In  “Correlations Between Avocations, Scientific Style, Work Habits, [...]

Communications Specialist hired.  I’m thrilled to tell you that, with the advice and consultation of the Strategic Communications committee, we have hired a communications specialist for a2ru.  Michelle Krell Kydd is a native New Yorker who has been working in sales and marketing since 1985 for companies including Microsoft, Clarins Fragrance Group, Ciao Bella Gelato, [...]

“Environmental Design” Ronn Daniel (Interior Design) and Dawn Hachenski (Graphic Design) In this course, students studied the process and execution of sustainable design practices within the built environment. Environmental Design is a relatively new, cross-disciplinary field that has gained recognition and importance over the past 30 years. It is a primary concentration where the graphic, [...]

Here is an example of a Stanford course that integrates science and the arts. It’s called “The Senior Reflection” and it is a capstone experience out of the Department of Biology.  It targets Biology and other science students who are interested in synthesizing their scientific work in a creative project during their senior year.  http://www.stanford.edu/~suemcc/TSR/Home.html. [...]

IMLS Joins Arts Education Partnership to Expand Body of Evidence on the Role of Arts Education Programs in America’s Museums and Libraries Washington, DC—Museums and libraries across the nation stand as community anchors and gateways to learning for millions of young people each day. If their walls could talk, what would they reveal about student [...]

Please welcome our new Research Associate, Anthony (Tony) Kolenic, PhD.  Tony is extremely bright, personable, and articulate; his background is entirely interdisciplinary, with a dissertation that draws on pop culture, performance, and cultural studies to examine school shootings in America from 1979 – 2009.  A graduate of Michigan State University, Tony has taught in MSU’s [...]

When it first began in Fall 2011, one of the questions the Research Task Force asked was this:  ”How do artists benefit research in other disciplines?”  The corollary — “How do artists benefit from working in a research university?” — is just as important –  for artists, for the university’s mission, and for American culture. This [...]

The impulse to claim creativity as the special province of the arts is rightly resisted by practitioners in other disciplines.  Creativity is clearly manifested across all domains of human endeavor.  Creative practice in the arts is, however, different in some critical and valuable ways, according to Keith Sawyer (Washington University in St. Louis) and Elizabeth Long Lingo [...]

What do we mean when we talk about “integrating” art-making and the arts?  What does “integration” actually look like?  The national strategic task force on Curricular integration is tackling these questions.  After its November meeting, John Marshall, faculty in U-M’s School of Art & Design, quickly synthesized visually some of the definitional groping that’s gone [...]

By Theresa Reid, Executive Director Bruce and I were in a meeting recently with a visiting colleague and friend, a distinguished psychological researcher who is enthusiastic about our work.  We were discussing desired learning outcomes from integrating arts practice in universities, and how to measure them, and the psychologist offered the observation that many great [...]

The Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (A2RU) is inviting founding members for Phase I of its work.  Commitments for membership are due December 14, 2012.  Find a complete proposal and a summary of benefits here. A2RU-PROPOSAL    A2RU-BENEFITS