IU gives arts grant to 34 professors

Students aren't the only ones that get money for college from IU. Because of the Arts and Humanities Initiative, teachers will be receiving IU money as well.\nIU selected 34 faculty members to receive over $1 million in research grants. The grant recipients were chosen from 77 proposals. The grants will help pay for the costs connected with the projects and provide time for faculty members to conduct their research.\nIn October 2000, former IU President Myles Brand endorsed a four-year, $4 million program that included four IU campuses: IU-Bloomington, IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, IU-South Bend and IU-Southeast. \nThe premise of this idea was to give any full time, tenure-track faculty member from the four participating campuses a chance to propose a research topic in the field of arts and humanities. If the proposal was then approved, the faculty member would receive a grant to the tune of no more than $50,000 or one-half of their yearly academic income.\nIn its third year of operation, the program approved 24 Bloomington faculty members, five IUPUI members, four Southeast members and one South Bend member. The approved 34 "reflect a wide range of disciplines and campuses, from Music and Fine Arts to Religious Studies and Spanish, from South Bend to Southeast," said Eugene Kintgen, proposal board member and Associate Dean of the University Graduate School. \n"I find it especially impressive that we were able to fund a number of creative projects, and that this year the awards are truly Arts and Humani-ties, not simply Humanities," Kintgen said.\nThe whole concept of this grant is to "help IU faculty inject more excitement and vitality into their academic disciplines, into society and into our classrooms," IU Associate Vice President for Research Jeffrey R. Alberts said. \nThis initiative gives approved teachers the opportunity to take a year off from teaching and focus on projects they would not have been able to pursue otherwise. \nOne recipient of the grant is IU music school professor Patricia Stiles. Stiles has labeled her project "Songs of Indiana University" and plans to sing and record a CD of compositions by past and present IU teachers. Such faculty members include David Baker, P.Q. Phan and previous grant winner Don Freund.\nStiles said her goal with this project is to "fuel creativity in my students by them listening to the songs and then talking to the composers." The recording started last week, and the whole process should take a year and a half to finish. \nFreund titled his project, "Musical Score for the IU Fall Ballet: Concerto for Piano and Wind Ensemble." He was part of the first group of approved teachers to receive the initiative grant in March of 2000. By the end of October of 2000, Freund had written and performed the entire project in the IU Musical Arts Center; he said his current plans are to release a DVD and CD of the performance in the near future. \nFreund said there is "no question, it fuels our creativity. Teachers are artists in their own rights. It's a very important program and would be wonderful to continue." \nHe said he thinks the program shows the appreciation of the school in recognizing that teachers are indeed artists and allowing them to showcase their talents. \nIn regards to the classroom, Freund said he feels that it's a great way to fuel creativity within the students because the teachers' projects serve as a "paradigm for them (students) to measure their own work"