The Hopkins Center for the Arts and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research have awarded $100,000 in grants to nine interdisciplinary projects for the 2025-26 Arts Integration Initiative, according to a recent announcement.
The grants, funded by the Office of the Provost, support arts-centered research, interdisciplinary collaboration, and faculty-student mentorship across Dartmouth’s campus. Selected from a competitive application pool, the funded projects span music, studio art, art history, film, architecture, digital art, theater, and craft studies while intersecting with fields including Asian studies, engineering, psychology, anthropology, astronomy, computer science, environmental studies, and geology.
“These projects reveal a remarkable breadth of themes, bringing the arts into dialogue with disciplines across campus and beyond,” says Mary Lou Aleskie, Howard Gilman ‘44 Executive Director of the Hop. “The diversity of topics highlights how deeply the arts are embedded in the ways we explore, understand, and respond to the world.”
Vice Provost for Research Dean Madden emphasized the initiative’s impact since its 2021 launch. “In the five years since the initiative was launched, the creativity and interdisciplinary sweep of these projects have underscored the strength of Dartmouth’s model of scholarship, which fully embraces the liberal arts,” Madden said.
The funded projects address subjects ranging from campus-based research to global studies. One project aims to create a virtual bridge between the Arts District and the Class of 1982 Engineering and Computer Science Center on the West End of campus, while others explore local Upper Valley singing community groups and Indigenous culture in China.
Among the notable projects is “The Dartmouth Rose Window,” led by Nicola Camerlenghi, associate professor of art history, and Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art at the Hood Museum. The project combines geological, engineering, and art historical analyses with digital modeling to revitalize a fragmented late-medieval Italian rose window that Dartmouth has owned since 1977.
The window, disassembled into 65 stone blocks and housed in the Hood Museum’s collection, represents what Camerlenghi calls “a hidden treasure.” The professor expressed enthusiasm about the grant’s potential: “We are excited to share this hidden treasure with Dartmouth and the world, and the Arts Integration grant really is the perfect support to do so in an expansive and creative manner.”
Student researchers also received funding, including Simon Thomas ‘27, whose project “The Sacred Harp” combines music, neuroscience, and anthropology to examine community reclamation through this New England tradition. Thomas highlighted his excitement about the interdisciplinary approach: “The combination of science and music is something that I am very excited to see play out, and I am grateful that my project on this New England tradition connects with the core values of the Arts Integration Initiative.”
Beyond grant funding, the Arts Integration Initiative has expanded its efforts to strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration across campus. The program organizes networking events and information sessions to connect faculty, students, and researchers interested in incorporating arts into their work, according to the announcement.
The Hop positions these networking opportunities as platforms for creative partnerships that challenge traditional academic boundaries. This approach aligns with the center’s broader commitment to serve as a driver of interdisciplinary connections across campus, enriching various fields of study through arts integration.
The initiative supports what administrators describe as an arts-infused network of students, faculty, and artists, fostering collaboration that extends beyond conventional departmental divisions. The 2025-26 grant recipients represent this vision, with projects that demonstrate how artistic inquiry can enhance understanding across diverse academic disciplines.
