The Dean’s Exploratory Research Underwriting Program provides funding to support research explorations at the development stage where no definite outcomes may be predicted. Preference is given to faculty who have not received support from the School’s Research Reassignment or Research Grant programs. Grants are made by the Dean based on recommendations by a panel of the School’s Assistant and Associate Deans. Grant range is up to $5,000. Recipients may reapply for support each time a call for proposals is made, but the expectation is that Research Underwriting awards will lead to successful applications for support from the Research Grant and Research Reassignment programs or external funding.
2011-2012 Awards
Kristin Caskey- Personal Uniforms
A small collection of personal uniforms will be created for three individuals. Each uniform features printed fabric designs and ensembles for each ”personality” in the project. In tandem with the “clients” the project will develop what a personal uniform might mean to them, what pockets, interior monologue or ruffles might it bear.
Amy Hutton- Mobile Manager Software
A prototype mobile stage manager software will be developed to replace the analog notation used by stage managers to document rehearsals and performances. The software will run on tablet hardware and be developed with help from the Department of Computer Science. This software would be used on Broadway, in professional theaters and in high schools.
Sarah Mizer- Multi-Functional Hard and Soft Glass Studio
The exploratory grant will be used to develop a multi-functional hard and soft glass studio. Acquisition of a major burner and a kiln will increase options for flame intensity and thickness, creating improved conditions for experimentation with both soft and hard glass.
Daniel Myssyk- The Hayden Project
The Hayden Project consists of new programming for the chamber orchestra Appassionata and will add Haydn’s twelve “London” Symphonies to its repertoire over the next four years with recording being the likely outcome. The Hayden Project will initiate a collaboration with the Richmond Symphony and its Music Director Steven Smith to implement an early music series.
Robert Perry- The LED Laboratory Project
The LED Laboratory Project will develop a lighting laboratory where current and future initiatives in alternate lighting sources can be studied and further improved for applications in the theatrical and architectural lighting industries. The LED Laboratory Project will develop further alternative light sources to reduce the amount of energy that previous lighting sources have consumed as they relate to the industries of theatrical and architectural design.
Matt King & Scott Putman- Exploring the Perspective for the Viewer in Venues for Dance in Sculpture
This inquiry explores the perspective of the viewer in traditional venues for dance and sculpture and challenges the conventions of the performance stage and the art gallery. By asking how we might borrow from each otherʼs field of expertise, Dance and Sculpture, a number of questions emerge. From this query, an event with Richmondʼs CenterStage has begun, and the long-term goal is to develop a touring work for multiple audiences.
Rose Regni & Diedra Arrington- History and Importance of the Luxury Market
Luxury goods have proven to be relatively recession resistant. The focus of this research is to study the current state and future of the world luxury market. Research will include visits to key luxury markets internationally to shop stores, photograph and interview fashionistas on the streets.
Henry Swartz- Luxury Resurgence in the Fashion Industry in Difficult Economic Times
Through visits to factories that manufacture luxury brands, trends in fashion, and the skills employed, can be observed and documented for VCU students. Visiting these production facilities will permit firsthand evidence of how the production of luxury garments differs from ready to wear.
2010-2011 Awards
Hope Ginsburg, Art Foundation & Painting and Printmaking
Funding to support a solo exhibition at the CUE Foundation in Chelsea in March 2011. $2500
Sonali Gulati, Department of Photography and Film
Support for the distribution of, I Am, a feature-length documentary film completed after five years in the making. $5000
Margaret Lindauer, Department of Art History
Funding for research associated with a paper that will appear in a peer-reviewed book entitled Curatorial Dreams: Critics Imagine Exhibitions, edited by Shelley Ruth Butler and Erica Leherer. $2700
Matt King, Art Foundation & Sculpture and Extended Media
Funding to support the final stages of production of a solo exhibition, Generics, that opens in February 2011 at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design’s Brant Gallery. $4700
Peter Martin, Department of Music
Travel funding to perform a series of concerts with Third Coast Percussion in the ensemble’s 3rd annual Chicago Concert Series. $2600
Michael McKean, Department of Sculpture and Extended Media
Fabrication expenses and related support for two exhibitions, one in Tel Aviv, Israel at the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design and the other in Omaha, Nebraska titled Certain Principles of Light and Shapes Between Forms. $5900
Stephen Vitiello, Department of Kinetic Imaging
Installation support for a solo exhibition at the gallery, Museum 52, in New York, January 2011. $1200
Gregory Volk, Department of Sculpture and Extended Media & Painting and Printmaking
Travel to research a project about contemporary exhibitions in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia to be published in Art in America. $6000
Charles West, Department of Music
Travel to perform and lecture at the Melbourne International Festival of Single Reeds, July 2011 in Australia. $2600
Hilary Wilder, Department of Painting and Printmaking
Travel for two residencies in Iceland in 2010-11, and two upcoming exhibitions. $4300
NOT AVAILABLE IN 2009-10.
2008-2009 Awards
Min Cho, Department of Art Education
For costs associated with the first national survey providing demographic baseline data on elementary school art education with potential for national publication of findings. $2,500
David Greennagel, Department of Music
For travel to explore the use of drumming and drum circles as a means of musical cultural communication in West Africa. $2,900
Kristopher Keeton, Department of Music
For support for research in ragtime xylophone performance through study with the foremost practitioner in the field. $4,250
Rab McClure, Department of Interior Design
For support of research into a patterned surface that is interactive, transformative, and reflective of the nuances of changing weather. $3,350
Camden Whitehead, Department of Interior Design
For development of low cost and low technology prototypes utilizing waste products from the granite and marble working industry. $2,000
2007-2008 Awards
Elissa Armstrong, Art Foundation Program
For materials for explorations in non-traditional ceramics techniques. $2,000
Melanie Buffington, Department of Art Education
For research including surveys and interviews on preferred content and structure of K-12 professional teaching portfolios. $2,000
James Farmer, Department of Art History
For travel and related costs for an expedition to the summit of Yanantin mountain in Peru in search of Inca ruins that may be related to structures on Machu Picchu in 2008. $4,000
Hope Ginsburg, Art Foundation Program
For travel and Website development for the participatory site SPONGEspace.net which she initially developed at MIT. $2,773
David Greennagel, Department of Music
For a research survey assessing the impact of licensed music educators on the Virginia Standards of Learning benchmark scores at the elementary school level. $400
Susan Iverson, Department of Craft/Material Studies
For attendance at a specialized weaving workshop and production of work at the Jacquard Center in North Carolina. $2,000
Lea Marshall & Adam Chamberlin, Department of Dance & Choreography
For support of a study of dance and choreographic aesthetics and technical production at the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. $2,500
Rab McClure, Department of Interior Design
For support of research in the role of metaphor and analogy in the design of surface building materials. $3,000
2006-2007 Awards
Bob Paris, Kinetic Imaging
For The War Show – A Virtual Web-Based Exhibition: $4,896
“In my recent video exhibition, Disturbance, the ghostly remains of the 1992 Los Angeles riots were excavated to consider spectacle, social disaster and historical erasure. The War Show continues this technique of transforming concrete artifacts from popular media into a probing inquiry of American social history. Funding will support construction a virtual exhibition, one that would come to life on the internet and, perhaps later, be transformed for physically installation in a museum or gallery environment. A web designer will be hired to implement this vision. The aim is not merely to put assembled work online, but to shape the work uniquely to the medium.”
Nancy Lampert, Art Education
For Critical Thinking as an Outcome of Art Education: $5,000
“Funding will support an expanded research study on critical thinking as an outcome of art education to be implemented during 2007-08 in association with a community-based after-school arts program for children in the Carver neighborhood. The study will be conducted in collaboration with the Friends Association for Children in Richmond and findings will support applications for federal and foundational funding. The research builds upon a pilot study conducted in 2006-07 using an inquiry-based curriculum engaging children in open-ended creative problem solving and aesthetic discussions and critical analysis of various artworks, including their own. Findings demonstrating a statistically significant increase in the children’s average scores were presented in Paris in January, 2007, at the Pompidou Centre European and International Research Symposium, Evaluating the Impact of Arts and Cultural Education.”
Linda Lee, Fashion Design and Merchandising
For Establishment of a Design Workshop in Guatemala: $2,950
“The Department is developing an ongoing relationship with the Maya community including the establishment of a design workshop in Xela, Guatemala, that will provide benefits to the community, research opportunities for faculty, and support service learning for Fashion Design & Merchandising students. Funding is requested for equipment to support research and workshop development. Other sources of external funding will also be sought for related initiatives. As part of the ongoing relationship, Professor Linda Lee will conduct research on traditional Maya textiles at the Ixchel Textile Museum in Guatemala City leading to anticipated publication and curatorial activities related to an upcoming exhibition in the Anderson Gallery.”
