Redfern Builds a Creative Campus Initiative Team
KEENE, NH, 1/27/10 - Keene State College’s Redfern Arts Center announces that an advisory committee made up of campus and community constituents have joined the Redfern staff to work on the final Creative Campus Innovations Grant application administered by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters with funding from the Doris Duke Foundation. The Redfern’s first-round grant application designed to explore the question, “What Sustains Us?” was one of 31 selected from nearly 150 college and university arts centers throughout the United States and Canada to apply for the final round of the grant. Eight to 10 arts centers will be selected to receive grants of $100,000 or $200,000.
The theme of sustainability was chosen, not only for its usual notions of the conservation of natural resources, reducing energy consumption, or recycling but also as an opportunity to explore the question of what sustains us as human beings, both in good times and challenging times. There is no single answer to this question; however, it is essential that we consider it if we are to make life-sustaining personal choices, and choices that create healthy, thriving communities - however those communities might be defined (e.g., college campuses, towns, workplaces, etc.).
A team of nearly 20 partners have been working with the Redfern staff in a participatory process in shaping the grant before it is submitted by March 1, 2010. Among the community partners are the Cheshire Medical Center’s Vision 2020, New Hampshire’s Southwestern Community Services Head Start program, New Hampshire Dance Institute, and MOCO.
Our partners at Keene State include participants from Health Sciences, Environmental Education, Early Sprouts, Women’s Studies, the Theatre and Dance and Music Departments, the Keene State Sustainability Office, the Thorne Sagendorph Art Gallery, and the Cohen Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies. The grant initiative has also received considerable support from the offices of the Provost, the Dean of Sciences and Social Sciences, and the Dean of Arts and Humanities. Artists selected to participate in the grant will be engaging with community and campus constituencies in cross-disciplinary projects and working in an immersive creative process.
The Redfern and the advisory committee are encouraging interested parties to think about how they might contribute to the topic and then communicate to the committee on how the concept resonates with them, their organization, or their curriculum. Interested parties are encouraged to post comments on the Creative Campus blog at http://keeneweb.org/ccig. You can leave a comment on the blog, or you can email the team at ccig@keene.edu. Your input is important toward helping us complete a successful application. The team looks forward to your engagement in the dialogue.
