Each year, the VCUarts Dean’s Office provides research grant opportunities to support high quality faculty research and exploratory work. Grants provide funding to support all stages of research, from initial exploration to the creation and presentation of new work.
Congratulations to the following 10 faculty, five in each category, who have been awarded exploratory and research grants for the 2017-18 academic year.
Exploratory Grant Awardees
Blair Clemo, Assistant Professor, Craft/Material Studies
To construct a consumable test kiln for experimenting with ceramic firing processes that use vapor as a glaze.
Massa Lemu, Assistant Professor, Sculpture + Extended Media
To explore issues related to memory, culture, capitalism, and natural ecosystems in Malawi through rotting and repaired dugout canoes and their aesthetic transformation over time.
Wesley Taylor, Assistant Professor, Art Foundation
To capture, reimagine, and recreate Richmond’s Monument Avenue through a series of interactive, immersive experiences that depict the Confederacy in new ways.
Paul Thulin, Assistant Professor, Photography + Film
To produce experimental documentary photography on the untold histories of colonialism, capitalist exploitation, and indigenous culture in Puerto Rico.
Jill Ware and John Henry Blatter, Assistant Professors, The Depot
To produce research about kinesthetic empathy and movement, in partnership with BeAnotherLab and its virtual reality project, The Machine to be Another (demo photographed above).
Research Grant Awardees
Lily Cox-Richard, Assistant Professor, Art Foundation
To support a solo exhibition of sculpture at DiverseWorks in Houston, Texas, plus an accompanying symposium, walking tour, and publication investigating relationships between natural resources and stewardship.
Orla Mc Hardy, Assistant Professor, Kinetic Imaging
To produce NiteFeedz, an experimental animation / video exploring the time-based medium of animation in relation to motherhood, to be featured in a solo show at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin.
Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Assistant Professor, Graphic Design
To produce Reading Zimbabwe, the first dedicated virtual archive about Zimbabwe and its diasporas, which explores the power dynamics of knowledge production and resource distribution through diverse technologies and related cultural activities.
Rex Richardson, Professor, Music
To record James Stephenson’s “Rextreme” Concerto with Japan’s Tokyo Symphonic Winds, the final in a series of four large-scale works featuring solo trumpet, to be produced into a CD for international dissemination.
Semi Ryu, Associate Professor, Kinetic Imaging
To develop and test VoicingHan, an avatar life-review platform designed to support the creation of personalized narratives for individuals with trauma-related memories.