Guest Blog Post: The Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities

In this week's guest blog post, Executive Director Maryrose Flanigan explores the mission and work of The Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru), a national coalition of nearly 50 universities dedicated to integrating the arts into research, teaching, and practice across disciplines.

The Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities: Integrating the Arts in Research, Teaching, and Practice

Neuroarts is a crossover field in more ways than one. It not only bridges several disciplines, but it also reaches across the borders of different audiences and addresses the full spectrum of human experience. Arts, health, technology, and science affect our daily lives in a fusion of multi-disciplinary inputs. It is this blending of approaches that helps us stay well, recover from illness, understand our thinking, and express our humanity; so interdisciplinary perspectives and approaches enable us to rise to challenges ranging from the personal to the societal.

The Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru) was founded to serve scholars, audiences, and educators as they are, situated in a transdisciplinary mix of experience. As a national coalition of nearly 50 universities actively working to integrate the arts on our campuses and support those who work at the intersection of disciplines, a2ru is a membership organization (with institutional and individual memberships) that primarily works as a convener, but also does research and advocacy. 

The mission of the organization attends to the integration of the arts with other disciplines, and how this happens on campuses: in research, curricula, and pedagogy. Our members are invested in culture change to empower faculty, students, and staff to work, research, teach, and think well beyond the borders of their chosen “home” discipline, because problems cannot be best solved from a single disciplinary standpoint. Integrating the arts is increasingly recognized as a powerful catalyst for innovation, inclusion, healing, and relevance.

The Arts in Health Landscape for a2ru

We have many programs and opportunities to serve those working at the nexus of arts in health. As with many of our areas of focus, this began with a deep exploration of the field of arts in health, the theme of a2ru’s 2016 annual conference, ArtsRx: Creative Venture, Wellbeing, and the New Humanities. The gathering looked at the way the arts intersect with four other domains of research and learning: entrepreneurship, health, the humanities, and S.E.A.D (Science, Engineering, Arts & Design). The gathering featured choreographer Liz Lerman, a pioneering artist working at the intersection of arts and science; research from University of Florida’s Center for Arts in Medicine’s Jill Sonke; and a feedback session with the National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH). 

In 2020, A2ru also organized an online symposium “Arts in Public Health: Pedagogy, Practice, Research and Policy,” hosted by Boston University’s Arts Initiative with a keynote from BU’s former Dean of the School of Public Health, Sandro Galea.  This event effectively launched two communities of practice that are still active today:

The groups periodically meet with one another to inspire a cross-sector pollination of ideas, exemplars, research questions, and opportunities. 

Opportunities and Resources: Research and Publications

A2ru’s research makes visible the landscape and trends in higher education concerning arts integration and interdisciplinarity. The research section of the website has resources in the areas of interdisciplinary collaboration, tenure and promotion, arts research, campus arts asset mapping, among other topics.

A2ru’s Ground Works is an award-winning journal that promotes research-based, interdisciplinary collaborations through the peer-reviewed presentation of arts-inclusive work and guided reflection on the processes that support it. 

The peer-reviewed journal Traditions Innovations in Arts, Design, and Media Higher Education is a collaborative effort between a2ru and the University of Nevada Las Vegas’ College of Fine Arts that explores how creative work, teaching/mentoring, and knowledge creation/research are linked and in conversation with one another.

Opportunities and Resources: Events & Convenings

The titles of a2ru’s webinar series demonstrate the breadth of topics that interest its membership—from public scholarship, to the latest developments at the intersection of the arts and artificial intelligence, to emerging trends in research entrepreneurship and intellectual property. The 2024-25 series (archived on the website) has a rich vein at the intersection of arts and health, with presentations such as “Defining the Landscape: The Case for Poetry in Public Health Research,” “Advancing Education in Arts in Health: Core Curriculum for Arts in Health Professionals,” and “Arts Prescriptions on Campus: Offering Art on Prescription to Students in Higher Education,” among others. 

A2ru’s next annual conference: Creative Futures: Driving Interdisciplinary Innovation Through the Arts, hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explores many aspects of a2ru’s mission, asking questions such as: How can future-thinking in the arts reimagine and redefine disciplines, collaboration, and the academy to better meet the demands of our rapidly shifting technological, ecological, and political landscape? How can we center creativity in the interdisciplinary problem solving needed to meet these current challenges? How can we use the arts to advance our goals of sustainability, social justice, and human flourishing?  In this moment, how can the arts illuminate what it means to be a human being? 

At that conference, there will be many sessions at the intersection of arts, sciences, technology, and health; and a2ru will present educators with the third annual Award for Excellence in Arts in Health Education, which recognizes arts in health educators in higher education for exceptional support and outstanding accomplishments towards the advancement of arts in health education.  [Nominations are open now, with a deadline of July 30, 2025.] 

A2ru is a network that serves all disciplines and a range of roles in higher education; we welcome your ideas for future events and new resources. Please visit us at the Neuroarts Resource Center or at a2ru.org.