The Arts of Citizenship Program fosters the community role of the arts, the humanities, and design through collaborative cultural projects. Our goals are twofold: to enrich public life and to enlarge the university's educational mission.

How do we do this?

• We form project partnerships in which University of Michigan faculty and students work with schools, museums, libraries, arts organizations, theatre companies, dance troupes, public agencies, radio stations, and grassroots groups.
• We develop courses that combine learning and research with practical community work.
• We provide grants for innovative, publicly engaged teaching and creative projects, supporting partnerships that include as many as ten UM faculty members and dozens of UM students each academic year.

What do our partnerships create?

• History and art exhibits, such as Midnight Journey, a youth-oriented exhibit on the history of the Underground Railroad in southeast Michigan.
• Educational websites-for example, our local history teaching website about Ann Arbor at www.artsofcitizenship.umich.edu/sos.
• Performance pieces in theatre and dance, including Mosaic Youth Theatre's history-based 2001 Hastings Street musical and Matrix Theatre's Homelands drama.
• Resources for K-12 students in art, literacy, poetry, and history-for example, afterschool art-across-the-curriculum workshops in Detroit elementary schools.
• Community design initiatives, such as our proposals for Ann Arbor's historic riverfront Broadway Park area, at www.artsofcitizenship.umich.edu/broadway.
• Public radio documentaries; information about one documentary, on Arab American teens in the year after 9-11, is at www.artsofcitizenship.umich.edu/listen.

Since 1998, core funding has come from the UM Office of the Vice President for Research. Specific projects have been funded by Ford Motor Company, Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan, Michigan Humanities Council, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, McKinley Foundation, and Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation.

Recognition for Arts of Citizenship projects has included an Award of Merit in Education from the Historical Society of Michigan (2001) and awards from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters (2002) and the Michigan Associated Press (2003).