Arts of Citizenship Awards 2002 Faculty and Graduate Student Grants for Community-Based Scholarly Activities in the Arts, the Humanities, and Design

The Arts of Citizenship Program at the University of Michigan (U-M) has announced the recipients of its fourth annual round of faculty grants for public and community-based scholarly work in the arts, the humanities, and design. Arts of Citizenship is also awarding grants to graduate students involved in community projects.

David Scobey, associate professor of architecture and director of Arts of Citizenship, commented, "The proposals submitted were diverse and exciting. Applications came from Music, Social Work, Education, Architecture and Urban Planning, Natural Resources and Environment, Information, and several departments of LSA, plus from U-M Flint and U-M Dearborn. Faculty submitted projects for theater pieces, websites, video documentaries, writing initiatives, exhibits, mentoring, and much more."

The goal of the Arts of Citizenship grants program is to foster research, teaching, and creative projects that explore culture in publicly accessible ways or that encourage innovative teaching and research in collaboration with community partners. Funds for this year's faculty grants have been provided by the Office of the Vice President for Research. Awards for graduate students were funded by the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies.

For the 2002-2003 academic year, an interdisciplinary faculty Selection Committee awarded Arts of Citizenship grants to five faculty projects:

• C. Olivia Frost, associate dean and professor of information, and Maurita Peterson Holland, associate professor of information, will help middle school girls in Detroit and Ann Arbor learn their family history in the context of community history, creating a website called "CHIME" (Cultural Heritage Initiative for Me).
• Claude F. Jacobs, associate professor of behavior sciences, and Timothy F. Richards, Director of the Mardigian Library, both at U-M-Dearborn, will continue work on The Pluralism Project, which documents the religious diversity of the metropolitan Detroit area. In this phase, they will supplement their photographic record of religions with field recordings of music performed at religious services.
• Laura P. Kohn, assistant professor psychology, Carol Mowbray, professor of social work, and Deborah Keller-Cohen, professor of linguistics, are partnering with Mentality, Inc., a multi-media performance group that educates college audiences on mental illness, to evaluate the effectiveness of the group and to expand performances.
• Barbra Morris, David Sheridan, and George Cooper, all lecturers in English, will work with teachers, librarians, and journalism students at Mackenzie High School in Detroit to produce and publish oral histories revolving around city landmarks of community significance.
• Stella Raudenbush, instructor in education, will join with CAMP Detroit (an after-school and summer program for cultural arts and media production), Detroit's University Preparatory Academy, and the U-M Lives of Urban Children and Youth (LUCY) program for a ten-week video exploration of neighborhood Detroit resources that support the well-being of children. U-M undergraduates will interview both children and elders in this project.

Arts of Citizenship's graduate student awards have criteria parallel to those for faculty. The Selection Committee chose four winning projects:

• Political science student Ruth Nicole Brown is heading a video project called "It's Great to be a Girl," in conjunction with the Raising Strong and Confident Daughters mentoring program in Ypsilanti's West Middle School.
• History student Michelle Craig is working with Cliveden, a museum in Philadelphia, to analyze and edit educational programs for underserved youth in grades 4 through 8. Topics covered include the American Revolution, slavery and emancipation, and historic architecture.
• Anthropology and history student Zareena Grewal will complete production for a documentary film entitled "By the Dawn's Early Light," exploring constructions of nationalism and religion as they relate to culturally and racially diverse Muslim American communities.
• American culture student Nhi Lieu will be collecting oral histories of Vietnamese immigrants and refugees in Chicago, seeking to understand how these Vietnamese Americans preserve, invent, and make meaning of cultural forms. The histories will become part of the Global Communities project of the Chicago Historical Society.

The mission of the Arts of Citizenship Program is to build bridges between the university and the community in the arts, the humanities, and design. Arts of Citizenship coordinates:

• Community partnerships in which U-M faculty and students work with schools, cultural institutions, public agencies, and citizen groups.
• Experimental teaching that mixes rigorous study with practical projects.
• Support of innovative research and creative work for both academic and public audiences.
• Forums and visits by distinguished artists, intellectuals, and cultural advocates.

For further information about any of the projects of the Arts of Citizenship Program, call 734-615-0609; email the director, David Scobey (scobey@umich.edu); or see the website (www.artsofcitizenship.umich.edu).