Academic Programming
Resources & Support for Faculty and Academic Programs
The BU Arts Initiative supports faculty art programs and research in a variety of ways including grants, program collaboration, and marketing and promotion.
Artist Residencies & Interdisciplinary Opportunities
The BU Arts Initiative regularly produces significant, multi-day, faculty-driven programs, often some type of residency, designed to have maximum impact by presenting high-quality national or international artists or scholars. These programs are always designed in partnership with at least one faculty member and academic unit and programming is intentionally inclusive and interdisciplinary, directly engaging other academic units. They are expected to bring visibility to the arts at BU and provide multiple opportunities for student contact with artists.
Select outstanding programming may lead to the faculty partner being acknowledged as a Provost Faculty Arts Fellow. Here are some examples of previous residencies and visiting artists sponsored by BU Arts Initiative. If you have an idea for a program/residency, please fill out the inquiry form below and we will connect with you for a meeting.
Academic Program/Artist Residency Inquiry Form
Program & Research Grants
The BU Arts Initiative offers grants to students, faculty, and staff, for projects that directly engage students in the arts. Grants and awards, faculty course support, interdisciplinary arts programming and summer research grants.
Research, Conferences, and Publication
Boston University is a partner institution of the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru), which fosters and champions the role of the arts and design in research universities. Underpinned by research and synthesis, the mission of a2ru is connected to knowledge and empowered leadership to uphold and advance the arts and design in research, teaching, scholarship, and creative practice. We encourage faculty to sign up for the a2ru newsletter (scroll to the bottom of the homepage), propose sessions for the annual conferences, and submit for publication in Groundworks, a peer-reviewed platform for arts-inclusive research projects and reflection on the processes that drive interdisciplinary collaboration. As a partner institution, BU students can also attend the annual Emerging Creative Students Summit.
Event Promotion
Have an event that needs visibility? BU Arts Initiative offers a wide range of resources to build audience and awareness for student, faculty, and unit events at Boston University.