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Taking Center Stage?
The role of the performing arts in Emory's intellectual life

"What I think has been missing is the critical discussion of these works of art and their performance in our midst."
--Don Saliers, Parker Professor of Theology and Worship

"Before you can have critical discourse, you need to have a widespread direct experience."
--Sally Radell, Associate Professor of Dance

Making art and making tenure

Academic Exchange April/May 2000 Contents Page

While the well-publicized funding cuts at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) have not caused a clear reduction in arts awards at Emory, it does seem to have dampened faculty enthusiasm for applying for national grants in the arts. Francine Massey, senior research administrator for the Office of Sponsored Programs, notes that the relatively small number of yearly applications for NEA grants made by Emory faculty declined by half after the massive cuts of the NEA's budget in 1996. In 1998, the database for the Office of Sponsored Programs shows only one application; last year, none at all.

Times are lean for the arts at state and local levels, as well. "When I came up for tenure, I had received grants for my choreographic work from the state, county, city, and from Emory, but there's a lot less out there now," observes Associate Professor of Dance Sally Radell.

To learn more about external funding opportunities, contact the Office of Sponsored Programs. In addition to offering classes on the grants process and publishing a newsletter on grant opportunities, this office provides tailored funding searches of federal and non-federal funding agencies. For all grants that will flow through the university to faculty, the office also provides the necessary sponsored programs approval form. A.B.B.