{"id":71299,"date":"2025-01-28T12:40:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T17:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/?p=71299"},"modified":"2025-02-03T10:10:08","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T15:10:08","slug":"interdisciplinary-insights-from-the-arts-collaborative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/interdisciplinary-insights-from-the-arts-collaborative\/","title":{"rendered":"Interdisciplinary insights from the Arts Collaborative"},"content":{"rendered":"

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What is the role of the arts in a research university? How can we sustain a culture of creativity and critical thinking?<\/p>\n

These are questions that animate the University of Georgia Arts Collaborative<\/a>, a network of faculty, students, and community members working together to advance interdisciplinary projects through engagement with the arts. Recently, to expand its role as a catalyst for creative research, the program launched a new, multi-year partnership with the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Three UGA projects, all supported by funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), spotlight distinct strategies to integrate the arts into team research, and also explore the Arts Collaborative\u2019s role in growing new collaborations.<\/p>\n

Each project tells a story\u2014not only about its own topic, but about the importance of responding at a university to emerging research interests, offering accessible grants to arts-involved researchers that pair funding with practical support and mentorship, and providing space for creative teams to try their ideas.<\/p>\n

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Creativity and collaboration<\/h2>\n

\u201cEnhancing Imaginative and Collaborative STEM Capacity through Creative Inquiry<\/a>\u201d is an arts-integrative training program supported by an NSF Innovations in Graduate Education grant. The project was developed by a team of UGA faculty from the sciences, arts, and humanities.<\/p>\n

Mark Callahan, senior academic professional in the Lamar Dodd School of Art<\/a>, is artistic director of the Arts Collaborative and a co-principal investigator on the project. He said the research emerged from broad interest about complex environmental challenges. The Arts Collaborative hosted public conversations and invited guests who could inspire and connect people around creative approaches to framing the problem.<\/p>\n

\"Elizabeth
Elizabeth King and Mark Callahan. (Photo by David Mitchell)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For scientists on the project, like Associate Professor Elizabeth King of the Odum School of Ecology<\/a> and Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources<\/a>, its interdisciplinary nature will be critical to its success.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone has ideas and perspectives that can contribute to environmental problem solving, [but] often we don\u2019t really understand how to put them together, how to learn from one another across differences,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n

The team worked together to develop engaging activities, such as a workshop series to present creativity and collaboration as practicable skills accessible to anyone.<\/p>\n

The resulting \u201cCreativity and Collaboration\u201d workshops engage cohorts of students in STEM and the arts who might otherwise be isolated in their home disciplines. Workshop curriculum has been facilitated as a series of GradFIRST<\/a> seminars at UGA, during which first-year graduate students practice research and creative skills alongside one another with the opportunity for peer feedback.<\/p>\n

This feedback is critical to the students, as well as to the project team. Through ethnographic observations and student experience surveys, the team is better able to assess the impact of their designed activities and their scalability to other institutional settings.<\/p>\n

King said the student participants indicated a greater appreciation for incorporating diverse perspectives into their own research. Additionally, they report a deeper understanding of community-building processes and increased openness to trying new things.<\/p>\n

Although the project is currently focused on early graduate studies, the training could be useful at all stages of a researcher\u2019s career. It creates a structure in which feedback is understood as a process of discovery and fun, rather than fear. King finds that framing feedback in such a way builds resiliency among researchers, which aids communication in interdisciplinary group work.<\/p>\n

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Organoids<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Associate Professor Nadja Zeltner of the Center for Molecular Medicine<\/a> and a team of artists and scientists are testing cross-disciplinary strategies in \u201cOrganoids,\u201d a project that benefited from early engagement with the Arts Collaborative.<\/p>\n

Organoids was supported by an Arts Collaborative Mini Grant<\/a>, a student-driven program that invites and reviews proposals from interdisciplinary creative teams. Selected mini grant projects receive funding and mentorship from a cohort of Arts Collaborative graduate assistants, who help with organizing timelines, budgets, and public events to share research.<\/p>\n

The Organoids group is composed of a growing cohort of researchers studying and engineering organoids\u2014three-dimensional miniature versions of human organs (adrenal glands, in this case). Organoids facilitate understanding of human biology, cellular communication, and how our bodies fix themselves. The project\u2019s mission is to make new discoveries: new organoids, as well as novel materials for scientific outreach.<\/p>\n

Zeltner was awarded an NSF CAREER grant for \u201cEngineering Next-Generation Adrenal Gland Organoids<\/a>,\u201d a multi-pronged effort to create adrenal gland organoids and explore scientific communication through sculpture, ceramics, and performing arts. With a team of project partners that spans molecular medicine, animal science, engineering, cellular biology, art, and dance, the Organoids research roster grew out of a mutual fascination for artists\u2019 and scientists\u2019 processes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_section css=”.vc_custom_1567710408463{background-color: #e4ddc7 !important;}” el_class=”fw-polygon”][vc_row equal_height=”yes” bg_type=”bg_color”][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1567710326062{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}” el_class=”polygon-wrapper”][vc_raw_html css=”.vc_custom_1738001702710{background-image: url(https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2023\/02\/nadja_zeltner-e1698940514272.jpg?id=45681) !important;}” el_class=”polygon”]JTNDJTIxLS1sZWF2ZSUyMHRoaXMlMjBlbXB0eS0tJTNF[\/vc_raw_html][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″ el_class=”polygon-content”][vc_column_text css=”” el_class=”testimonial”]\u201cOften, scientists and artists do not work in close proximity, which prevents natural convergence. There is also a misconception that art and science have nothing in common, when in reality they have many intersections. For example, creativity is needed to solve complex problems, and analytic thinking can enhance the artistic process.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”” el_class=”credit”]<\/p>\n

\u2013 Nadja Zeltner, Associate Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Cellular Biology in the Center for Molecular Medicine<\/p>\n

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Founding members Zeltner and Martijn van Wagtendonk (Lamar Dodd School of Art) see the project as a way for STEM and arts practitioners to experience each other\u2019s spaces. From the outset, project partners toured studios and labs to witness different disciplinary environments, all while fostering curiosity about research methods and brainstorming possibilities for working together.<\/p>\n

\"Martijn
Martijn van Wagtendonk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Zeltner noted the difficulty of such exchange at academic institutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften, scientists and artists do not work in close proximity, which prevents natural convergence,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is also a misconception that art and science have nothing in common, when in reality they have many intersections. For example, creativity is needed to solve complex problems, and analytic thinking can enhance the artistic process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zeltner also pointed out the values and challenges of interdisciplinary research.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn interdisciplinary work, many creative solutions to problems are brought up at the same time, and one has to find a way to channel those ideas into a productive flow of work. It requires social organizing, wherein people must agree on and carefully define their roles,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

To keep these wide-ranging research initiatives rolling, teams need to identify leaders who can consistently connect the group while identifying achievable goals. Ultimately, part of the motivation that carries a project across grant applications and expanding objectives is maintaining excitement toward the project vision. For Organoids, the curiosity and creative energy of the artists and scientists on board has delivered that enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

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Math and design<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Interdisciplinary communication is a key component for recent NSF grantees working between mathematics and art at UGA.<\/p>\n

Assistant Professor H\u00fclya Arg\u00fcz and Professor David Gay (Department of Mathematics) partnered with Associate Professor Moon Jang of the Lamar Dodd School of Art to explore ways to demonstrate concepts from the mathematical field of topology. The beginnings of this collaboration were formed during Gay\u2019s tenure as a mathematician-in-residence with the Arts Collaborative.<\/p>\n

\"Moon
Moon Jang<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Building on serendipitous encounters where Gay and Jang were able to share research, the Arts Collaborative helped them develop a workshop prototype for students. What they learned from that workshop evolved into a semester-long Math+Design class, recognized by a Creative Teaching Award from the UGA Office of Instruction.<\/p>\n

The Geometry Research, Outreach and Visualization Initiative<\/a> (GROVI, pronounced \u201cgroovy\u201d) project is an outreach component of a recent NSF award to Gay, Arg\u00fcz, and three other co-PIs. The GROVI team is working with students and faculty to produce collaborative seminars, exhibitions, curriculum, and working groups that help practitioners create innovative, effective ways to communicate ideas at the heart of mathematics.<\/p>\n

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For Arg\u00fcz and Gay, the project\u2019s arts component has been instrumental in linking thinking to seeing. Data visualizations created with Jang and the students open mathematical complexities to the public while creating useful tools for communication between mathematicians.<\/p>\n

\"H\u00fclya
H\u00fclya Arg\u00fcz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWorking with an artist, I actually learn a lot about the mathematics of what I was trying to do,\u201d Gay said. \u201cThings that I tricked myself into thinking I understood well and then realize I don\u2019t when working in the practice of it. It really feels like that process of actually drawing a picture, making a model or 3D visualization\u2014being forced to confront the details\u2014ends up being illuminating to the whole process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis collaboration made me realize that sometimes it helps mathematicians to see different perspectives which are not necessarily mathematically constrained\u2013they are more flexible. It\u2019s also a matter of enjoying things, and making a broader audience enjoy it,\u201d Arg\u00fcz added.<\/p>\n

[READ MORE: Feeling GROVI: Research at the intersection of design, art, and mathematics]<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][vc_images_carousel images=”71309,71310,71311″ img_size=”full” slides_per_view=”2″ hide_pagination_control=”yes” partial_view=”yes” wrap=”yes” css=”” el_class=”container”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”” el_class=”text-container”]<\/p>\n

Next Steps<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Recognition and support from the NSF are signs that the Arts Collaborative has a positive impact on the culture of research at UGA, and that the arts play a role in giving a competitive edge to projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a story about how to help people find one another, and how to provide support for them to try out their collaborative ideas,\u201d Callahan said.<\/p>\n

\"David
David Saltz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Building on existing partnerships with the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, individual arts units, and the Graduate School, the Arts Collaborative will work with the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts to share models of success with the broader research community.<\/p>\n

David Saltz, executive director of the Arts Collaborative, described the significance of a new affiliation with the Willson Center during a public launch event last fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UGA Arts Collaborative marks a new era of institutional recognition and support for interdisciplinary arts research,\u201d Saltz said. \u201cThe Arts Collaborative is now a central hub for research in the arts at UGA\u2014the place where people can begin their arts research journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”” el_class=”text-container first-paragraph”] What is the role of the arts in a research university? How can we sustain a culture of creativity and critical thinking? These are questions that animate the University of Georgia Arts Collaborative, a network of faculty, students, and community members working together to advance interdisciplinary projects through engagement with the … <\/p>\n

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