CONNECTING KNOWLEDGE

EMPOWERING LEADERSHIP

WHAT DOES ARTS INTEGRATION LOOK LIKE?

HOW WILL RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES SOLVE THE WORLD’S TOUGHEST CHALLENGES?

It starts with a connection.

The best thinking is connected. Integrated. Interdisciplinary. When faculty and students approach tough questions with different kinds of knowledge, it amplifies research, learning, and teaching.

But at a big research university, it can be hard to encourage this kind of thinking. Faculty may feel siloed. Students may feel locked into their major, without much room to explore. Deans and directors may feel

strongly about wanting to change the culture at their respective institutions, but don’t know how.

The Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru) can help, with the tools and resources to assist institutions at any stage of arts integration. a2ru is the vanguard of interdisciplinary work, helping remove

boundaries and barriers to fuel collaboration, connect knowledge, inspire leaders, and spark action.

Scale matters.

a2ru helps colleges and universities integrate the arts at scale. It goes beyond one or two projects and provides tools, resources, and support that transform the culture of learning and teaching. a2ru’s unparalleled alliance of more than 40 colleges and universities fuels innovation and helps institutions

become more flexible and adaptable at solving real-world problems.

Now is the time. a2ru is the network you need.

a2ru.org

Arts Integration Is the Way Forward Research substantiates the deep benefits of interdisciplinary learning:

• Emerging evidence suggests that integration positively affects the recruitment, learning, and retention of women and underrepresented minorities in science and engineering.

• There is a growing interest and demand: Faculty members teaching integrative courses and programs expressed great conviction that the integrative model has benefited their students.

• Educational experiences that integrate the arts and humanities with STEM at the undergraduate level are associated with increased critical thinking abilities, higher order thinking and deeper learning, content mastery, creative problem solving, teamwork and communication skills.

• Surveys show that employers value graduates who have both technical depth in a given discipline and cross-cutting “twenty-first century” skills and knowledge, such as critical thinking, communications skills, the ability to work well in teams, ethical reasoning, and creativity.

Findings from The Integration of the Humanities and Arts with Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Higher Education: Branches from the Same Tree, a consensus study from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine 2018

Removing Barriers a2ru is an active network helping each other overcome stated challenges to arts integration including:

• Making the case for more interdisciplinary criteria for promotion and reappointment.

• Facilitating activities that break down the cultural and administrative barriers to integration

• Supplying original, qualitative data that shows impact and helps justify budgetary allocations

• Providing essential tools to give faculty the preparation and expertise they need to offer integrative courses.

THE FUTURE IS CONNECTED

a2ru strategic plan | 5

The University of Iowa

a2ru supports colleges and universities working to identify and share best practices in integrating the arts into research and curricula in higher education. This fosters intellectual curiosity, empathetic reasoning, cross-cultural competency, efficacy in ambiguity, risk-taking, resilience, and critical thinking.

“The arts make real what defines us as humans. They are essential to research, helping us to question our assumptions, to take risks, and to experiment in our search for answers.”

Dr. Martin Philbert Provost, University of Michigan

JOIN THE VANGUARDOF INTERDISCIPLINARY WORK

a2ru empowers its partners to:• Build a network on campus to lead arts-

integration efforts

• Define and express what arts integration means

• Train students and faculty to collaborate

• Develop creativity and other transferable skills

• Support an engaged citizenry

Who can join?Universities that join the a2ru network are those

that:

• Are committed to arts research and creative

practice

• Seek better-aligned incentive programs around

tenure and promotion

• Want to meaningfully engage centers and

institutes with colleges and schools

• Have a desire to improve and increase arts

integration

Become a PartnerAn a2ru partnership gives institutions the tools to

diagnose, plan, message, and execute the value of

arts integration. The cost is $30,000, with $10,000

billed annually for three years.

Unite faculty and students across campus, across the country, across the world.

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS More than 40 research universities are already part of a2ru, connecting knowledge and empowering leadership to foster interdisciplinary collaboration.

JOIN THE VANGUARDOF INTERDISCIPLINARY WORK

A2RU HELPS ARTS INTEGRATION HAPPEN.HERE’S HOW.

Partnership gives institutions access to the a2ru network in four ways:

CONVENINGNetwork and collaborate with other members

a2ru annual conference

Student travel grants funding

a2ru scholars funding

Emerging Creatives Student Summits

Executive/ad hoc committees

Monthly conversations

INSIGHTSConnect knowledge and inspire leaders to spark action

Research briefs

White papers

Workshops

CASEMAKING AND STORYTELLINGContribute to a knowledge base with your innovative practice and programs

Partner profiles

Website

Keynotes and plenaries

Circuits Series, a2ru webinars

Town Halls

TOOLS AND PLATFORMSConnect knowledge and empower leadership with tools and know-how

Ground Works

Campus Amplification

The Hub for Creative Placemaking in Higher Education

ArtsRX

SPARC (Supporting Practice in Arts, Research, and Curricula) Repository

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POW

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TEvery year, the a2ru national conference brings together a wealth of ideas, inspiration, and innovation around arts integration. Our annual meeting features a rich series of perspectives on interdisciplinary research, teaching, and practice. Attendees from the a2ru network and beyond present discussions, white papers, posters, exhibits, performances, and workshops. It provides leaders at every level with a way to pool resources and share ideas, preserving the rigorous disciplinary and technical skills and training that research universities are known for while finding ways to deepen and amplify interdisciplinary research, practice, and teaching.

a2ru’s summits, workshops, and webinars support

a change in the culture of higher education.

They provide avenues to define practical ways

to integrate the arts, sciences, engineering,

medicine, and the humanities to get to the heart

of faculty incentives, attitudes, and what’s needed

to promote skills for collaboration and creativity.

Our partners focus on the capacities needed to

empower leaders to accomplish this sea change in

the culture of higher education.

The series of town hall gatherings across the

country sustains a national dialogue about arts

integration calibrated for each campus and

its community. These discussions serve as an

opportunity to convene leaders and practitioners

in a variety of fields and across sectors to explore

the research on best practices for truly integrative

work, and as a way to deploy these best practices

into initiatives unique to each region and

institution.

a2ru partners are at the vanguard of ‘inventing and implementing new patterns of administrative practice, pedagogy, collaboration, and knowledge production.’ It is hard and rewarding work, transcending the deep channels of single discipline structures and finding new allies. The alliance acknowledges, supports, chronicles, studies, and amplifies this work.

ARTS INTERGRATIONIN ACTION

Welcome to BLOOM Studio

BLOOM is a student-run, illustration and design studio at the University

of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), envisioned by faculty members Doug

Barrett and Douglas Baulos to integrate art, graphic design, and creative

placemaking.

BLOOM focuses on “design for good” projects for local non-profits, and

under-served communities. BLOOM students work directly with clients

and community members on projects ranging from ecology, economic

development, and social services.

BLOOM projects are long-term, research-driven projects that connect to a

meaningful solution. BLOOM is an immersive experience, which includes

on-the-ground research, client and community meetings, proposals and

grant-writing opportunities. It also creates an opportunity for an academic

writing platform and research trajectory for tenure-seeking faculty.

BLOOM Studio is a 400-level course taught in the Department of Art and

Art History. It’s based on the UAB’s Service Learning Initiative, through the

UAB Faculty Fellows in Service Learning Program.

Experience The Ripple Effect

In 2017, students convened for an Emerging Creatives Student

Summit, hosted by a2ru partner University of Florida. The students

tackled issues themed around water. “Ripple Effect” was a project

born of an interdisciplinary team including students pursuing degrees

in composition, science, graphic design, software engineering,

and sculpture. After a workshop in interdisciplinary collaboration,

the team decided on a project that could communicate what was

happening in the river in real time—in a way that transcended

language.

They brainstormed possible data sets to track in real time from the

Colorado River basin, such as acidification, chemical levels, species

in the water, polarity, and rate of displacement. They created a

prototype of an exhibit that would sonify and illustrate the data sets

in ripples, drips and spills.

Today, the exhibition has been presented at the University of Arizona

with plans for other installations at partner institutions at partner

campuses across the country. Viewers experience each data element

represented by its own speaker playing a distinct instrument or sound

determined by the data. They listen to the data soundtracks played

together and witness the patterns of the water become in-sync or

divergent – and get a sense of how one dataset relates to the other

in time. The installation allows people to experience, realize, and

discuss the effect of the over-allocation of water. The raw water data

is transformed from stagnant graphs to a living, moving, and musical

entity that engages the viewer’s senses and intellect. The team

envisions this work contributing to the global paradigm shift of how

humans perceive and treat our water resources.

You can learn more about the project at rippleeffect.arizona.edu

“It has been a privilege to use my skills in web development to bring visibility to such an artistic, impactful, and positive project as Ripple Effect. The a2ru 2017 conference was a uniquely valuable experience for me, as someone not necessarily part of the arts community. Participating has contributed greatly to my interest in the intersection of arts, science, and the public sphere.”

Addison Kaufmann Student, Computer Science, Math and Graphic Design, University of Arizona

“In the case of both student and academic careers, what’s most needed to make arts integration or interdisciplinary collaboration successful is motivation—those powerful reasons for people to want to come together, work together, and to put an idea up on its feet together. Once the incentives of reason, resource, people, and idea come together, experiential learning and applied research can provide the ways for both students and scholars to engage their integrated efforts with the world. From ideation to creation to evaluation and re-ideation—the value of learning with each other, by doing together cannot be underestimated.”

Sherry Wagner-Henry MBA Director, Bolz Center for Arts Administration, Wisconsin School of Business Director, Campus Arts Business Initiatives, University of Wisconsin-Madison

“a2ru is an emerging network whose benefits are a product of the collaborations among the members. It provides the ability for partners to serve a leading role in developing opportunities for dissemination, publication, and peer review of boundary-crossing creative work.”

William H. Sherman Founding Director, OpenGrounds, and professor of Architecture, University of Virginia

“a2ru’s network of leaders in higher education is a vital resource for the arts on partner campuses.” Dr. Joseph Glover, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, University of Florida

“Benefits of our partnership with [with the a2ru network] include engagement with like-minded colleagues and programs to share best practices and opportunities for co-curricular and curricular programs. The association has allowed us to address current opportunities and challenges to the role of the arts on our campus.”

Dr. Robert Palazzo Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, the University of Alabama at Birmingham

“a2ru is unique in its commitment to catalyze national efforts to realize the arts are crucial to developing new fields of research, play an essential role in our nation’s cultural and economic development, and foster competencies in creativity, innovation and communication.”

Dr. Barbara O. Korner Dean of the College of Arts and Architecture, Penn State

JOIN THE ALLIANCE

Become a leader in arts integration today.

Join. Engage. Amplify.

The future of education depends on leaders who are willing to invest in the value of connecting knowledge and empowering leadership to

foster interdisciplinary collaboration.

Partnership in our unique and powerful network begins with a call.Connect with us today.

a2ru.org

Maryrose Flanigan, Associate Directorflanigam@umich.edu

(734) 763-1619

University of Michigan

Duderstadt Center, Suite 3360

2281 Bonisteel Boulevard

Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2094

a2ru.org

Cover: Dave Green, Boston University; Page 2: Allison Hodsdon, Carnegie Mellon University; Page 3: University of Florida; Page 4: School of Architecture, Princeton University; Page 6: Tim Kaulen, Carnegie Mellon University; Page 8: Kit Castagne; Page 9: Edgar Cardenas; Page 10: University of Alabama at Birmingham; Page 11: University of Arizona; Page 12 and 13: Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts (AEIVA), The University of Alabama at Birmingham; Page 15: University of Kansas