March 28, 2011
Arts Innovation Grants fund new courses, other initiatives
The Johns Hopkins University has awarded approximately $20,000 in grants to students and faculty to stimulate new courses in the arts and other arts-related efforts on the Homewood campus, said Winston Tabb, Sheridan Dean of University Libraries and Museums.
The Arts Innovation Program, initiated in 2006, offers funding to faculty to create new courses in the arts for undergraduates, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary and cross-divisional courses. The program also supports the artistic efforts of students, both those currently engaged in arts activities and those wishing to create a new venture, with an emphasis on making connections between Johns Hopkins students and the Baltimore community.
Two student-proposed arts initiatives will benefit from the funding.
Senior Writing Seminars major Stephanie Delman and junior Daniel Litwin, an economics major, will receive a grant to publish an issue of The Bohemian Monthly Magazine, a bimonthly arts and culture print publication that documents and celebrates the arts both within the Johns Hopkins student community and throughout Baltimore City. (To learn more about The Bohemian, go to www
.bohemian-monthly.com.)
Junior Writing Seminars major Jonah Furman will use the funds to develop the Baltimore Curators Series of performances and artist lectures focused on Baltimore’s music scene. The curated musical exhibitions will be held on the Homewood campus, free of charge, with the aim of further integrating the Homewood and Baltimore arts communities. The funding will be used to organize the first two events, planned for spring and fall 2011.
Additionally, two new courses will receive support.
In Sound on Film, student filmmakers from the Krieger School’s Film and Media Studies Program will collaborate with Peabody Conservatory students in the Recording Arts and Sciences Program to design soundtracks for film, from composition and scoring to recording and sound syncing. The final soundtracks will be mastered for DVD and online formats. This lecture and lab course will be taught in fall 2011 by Scott Metcalfe, director of the Recording Arts and Sciences Program, with assistance from Krieger School and Peabody faculty and a range of industry professionals, including Johns Hopkins alumnus Walter Murch ’65, a three-time Academy Award winner for sound and film editing.
Also sponsored by the Film and Media Studies Program is Baltimore Live: The Cinematic Arts Through the Lens of Baltimore Filmmakers, to be taught in spring 2012 by film and video artist Jimmy Roche. The course will bring local practicing filmmakers into the classroom to share their experiences and teach students how to make films and videos that utilize the unique locations, stories and people of Baltimore. Baltimore Live will be open to any student who has completed a beginning-level film production course at either Johns Hopkins or the Maryland Institute College of Art.