Partnerships & Programs

We believe that the arts can foster conversations across lines of difference, create shared experiences that bring people to a place of mutual understanding, inspire empathy and compassion, and lead to innovative collaborations that benefit us all.

As an arts and design school that operates within a Research I university, we maintain a special commitment to collaboration, research, excellence and creating for the public good. We foster programs and discoveries that confront real-world challenges through interdisciplinary arts research, such as using dance to address systems of racial oppression, or building empathy in health practitioners towards ALS patients using VR.

We support our community of artists, designers, performers and scholars in their ability to catalyze transformational knowledge and to contribute new insights and understanding to the institution and the world. Some examples of partnerships and programs formed with the support of VCUarts Research include:

  • Arts and Athletics 
    • This initiative was launched as a collaborative course that encourages students to explore the relationship between creative expression, athletic performance, mindfulness and well-being. Students who also are athletes engage their latent creative skills, and understand the relationship between the rigorous practice regimen of a devoted athlete and that of an artist.
  • iCubed
    • VCU iCubed – The Racial Equity, Arts and Culture Transdisciplinary Core fosters critical dialogue about and develops mechanisms for advancing the fair treatment of people of all races in and through arts and culture.  The team’s work includes fairness in opportunities (e.g. educational, financial, professional, etc.) among artists and cultural producers and organizations, and fairness in opportunities for the public to engage in arts and cultural activities that they have reason to value and/or that have potential to create social change.
  • Center for the Creative Economy (CCE) 
    • CCE promotes the creative economy at VCUarts through The Entrepreneurship Program; Co-Lab, a post-disciplinary internship program; and The Advanced Media Production Technology (AMPT) certificate.
  • Middle of Broad (mOb)
    • mOb is an experimental design lab uniting the departments of Graphic Design, Fashion Design and Interior Design, and engaging the school’s up and coming designers.