Application Deadlines

Interdisciplinary Arts Programming Grants: Deadline for Fall ’23 Programs – March 24, 2023

Criteria

These are matching grants are available to faculty, staff and students, and are intended to fund programming that is open to any BU student and 1) engages BU students in the arts and 2) explores the intersection of arts and other academic disciplines. Priority will be given to programs developed and sponsored by more than one of BU’s 17 different colleges/schools. We also expect that projects embrace the university priorities of diversity & inclusion, a vibrant academic experience, and community big, yet small. Please feel free to contact us if you have questions about any of the grant information or procedures. Incomplete applications will not be accepted. We recommend printing these criteria and reviewing them carefully before submitting your proposal. Please note: at this time, we can only provide grant support to programs/offices/departments that have a university 909 account.

• Projects must be focused on engaging BU students in arts activity or an academic exploration of the arts
• $2,000 maximum
• The BU Arts Initiative will match existing funds and will not fund more than 50% of a project (i.e. you must have 50% of the funds from elsewhere – in kind [time, supplies, etc.] does not apply)
• Cross-School projects must be funded by both schools (this may be waved for student initiated projects)
• The program should be open and free to all BU students and the location and marketing plan should support that
• The project coordinator is responsible for arranging and managing the event and securing appropriate permissions
• The sponsoring office must have a 909 account to which grant funds can be transferred
• Statements and contact information from proposed partners must be included
• The project must be sponsored by a university office or program willing to financially manage the project. The BU Arts Initiative only transfers funds to the sponsoring office. We will not financially manage a grant project
• A detailed budget of both income and specific expenditures for the entire project must be submitted with your application or separately to artsinbu@bu.edu – proposals without budget submissions will not be considered.
• Funds must be used for honoraria or other program elements including facilities, equipment, marketing
• BU Arts Initiative Funds cannot be used for food (receptions, dinners, etc.) or to cover event organizer costs (travel, etc.)
• Proposals by students for projects required for coursework cannot be considered
• A post-project report will be required within 30 days of the completion of the project
• Grantees are expected to track student participation (specific names and BU ID) for reporting

application form

Application Deadline

We accept applications on a rolling basis, but funds are limited.

Criteria

Arts integration grants support the use of the arts as a tool for teaching non-arts disciplines. Faculty may apply for up to $500 to support arts-related expenses for undergraduate and graduate courses. Possible initiatives might include a visiting artist, a class visit to a performance or exhibition, or arts material for the classroom. (Funds may not be used for refreshments.)

Priority will be given to new initiatives in integrating the arts into a course.

application form

NOTE: The Graduate Arts Research Grants are on hiatus for FY23. We will not distribute any grants this year.

Funding of up to $3000 available for graduate arts research projects. Funds are limited and proposals will be competitive.

The research may be traditional research of the arts (e.g., musicology, art history, study of performance or literature of any kind), practice based research, or research from any discipline on the impact of the arts.

Full-time students in good academic standing in either a master’s or doctoral program are eligible. BS/MS or BA/MA students who clearly will be in the graduate portion of their degree program during the period of proposed support are eligible. The project should be directly related to the applicant’s completion of degree requirements (e.g., thesis or dissertation work, independent study or directed research, a capstone requirement in the program, etc). A student may receive this form of support only once.

More information and application

The UROP Arts Research Awards are offered to support a student pursuing the arts as a primary area of inquiry. This would include traditional methods of inquiry in an arts field, as well as practice-based  and practice-led research. Here is what 2020 Award winners had to say.

“I had an absolutely incredible summer bringing this piece to life. Over the past 10 weeks, I was able to devote all of my time to a project that had been sitting in the back of my head for months, and I’m so proud of the results!” Nadia Frye Leinhos, whose project –When the Catalyst “Can Take It”: The Performance of Violence in the Black Female Body – interrogates the notion of “race blind” casting in theatre through the lens of three plays from the London West End 2019-2020 season. Looking specifically at black female actors, and examining their characters’ positions in each story’s violent climax.

“The experience of working on this project was an incredible one. As my first venture into serious art-historical scholarship, this project only served to affirm my passion for modern culture, history, and art production.” Claire Rich, whose project – Women Artists 1918 – 1939: “Feminine Painting” in the Parisian Interwar Period explored exclusively female artist societies, where prominent painters such as Tamara de Lempicka and Marie Laurencin, among others, constructed their own female oriented art-historical narrative as a means of challenging popular discourse about the role of women in the arts.

 “I am so grateful to this program for giving me the resources to conduct research that has given me valuable experience in my field of study. Being able to work on this project, even remotely at home, has given me extra confidence in my abilities and inspiration to work on more projects like this in the future.” Anna Schoff, whose project – Computational Analysis of Ancient Greek Poetic Meterdeveloped a Python program that could analyze the meter of Ancient Greek hexameter poetry.