a2ru Awarded Support by the University of Michigan Arts Initiative

Aug 2, 2021

The Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities recently received funding from the University of Michigan’s Arts Initiative to work on “a project to map the considerable arts assets of the university. It seeks to gather the data necessary to understand and demonstrate the depth and breadth of the arts at the university.” Associate Director Shannon Fitzsimons Moen says “We’re grateful to the Arts Initiative for their support of this exciting project. We look forward to capturing the rich arts landscape at Michigan, in order to create a model that can be used by our other partner universities around the country seeking to do similar mapping work.”

The project sets out to clarify the value of the arts and the unique skillset students engaging with the arts acquire, and how these skills benefit their lives, careers, and communities. Along the way, a2ru hopes that their work will help determine how the University of Michigan can best involve students in the arts opportunities on campus, a need identified by a recent a2ru survey. a2ru Executive Director Maryrose Flanigan explains: “In the first phase of this project we are looking for the data points to help us address the gap and strategize how to achieve the president’s goal for every student to have arts and creativity as part of their Michigan experience.”

Read more about the project and the other demonstration projects funded by the U-M Arts Initiative in “Arts Initiative announces demonstration projects launching this fall” by Jennifer Quartararo in The University Record.