arts.uchicago.edu

Arts|Science Initiative

• Graduate Collaboration Grants
• In the Crosscurrents
• Sight and Sounds of Science

“ Imaging the unseen: Much of the best art and science begins with fertile imagination and ends in abstract visualizations. ”

— Paul Sereno

Creating Distinctive Collaborations

The Arts|Science Initiative seeks to support, optimize, and sustain cross-disciplinary dialogue between artistic and scientific inquiry through collaborative exchange. Cross-fertilization of the arts and the sciences is emerging as one of the most exciting new intellectual enterprises. A university-wide effort, the Arts|Science Initiative was established in partnership with the Office of the Provost and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, and with the support of the Divisions of the Biological and Physical Sciences, Humanities, and the Office of the Vice President for Research and for National Laboratories. At the heart of this Arts|Science Initiative is the active pursuit of new connections in research and teaching at the nexus of art and science. It serves as a creative hub within our academic framework and reaches beyond, to the wider public.

Scholarship—Practice—Innovation

The Arts|Science Initiative recognizes that to break new ground and probe big questions requires traveling across disciplines and venturing into unfamiliar territories to see past boundaries and beyond conventions. This belief reflects the University’s pioneering spirit of promoting collaborative research and teaching environments that transcend disciplinary boundaries. The Arts|Science Initiative builds on this rich culture by connecting the arts with the scientific community’s practice and perspective. Its vision is to create a platform at the University for a diverse network of scholars, students, and practitioners in both domains to nurture crosscutting innovation while remaining committed to rigorous inquiry. Through this we can enhance each discipline’s respective questions, tools, working methodologies, and specific curiosities, contributing to the growing convergence of new paradigms of learning that are necessary in the 21st century.

Opportunities for Exploration & Research

To implement this vision, the Arts|Science Initiative is launching a series of focused programs through either direct support or co-sponsorship to spark among faculty and students conversations that critically engage science and the arts in a broad spectrum of areas including astronomy and astrophysics, biology, chemistry, computer and information science, creative writing, literature, mathematics, art history, media studies, medical imaging, music, physics, theater, as well as visual arts. These involve the University community at all levels and include the Arts|Science Graduate Student Collaborative Grants, visiting artists and scholars, exhibitions, seminars/workshops, student discussion groups, curricular development, and public programs.

To learn more, contact Julie Marie Lemon.