By transcending conventional boundaries — between art forms and across disciplines — Notre Dame’s Arts Initiative is mobilizing the transformative power of the arts to advance knowledge, invigorate learning, and foster human solidarity.
"In our first year, the Arts Initiative has energized a renewed focus on the role of the arts in a liberal arts education," said Michael Schreffler, director of the Notre Dame Arts Initiative. "By supporting innovative faculty research, hosting visiting artists, launching student programming, and deepening collaborations across and beyond campus, we’re making great progress toward a thriving creative ecosystem rooted in Notre Dame’s longstanding commitment to the arts."
This fall, the Arts Initiative advanced its efforts to strengthen interdisciplinary arts research and creative practice, enhanced opportunities for students to engage with the arts on and beyond campus, and deepened artistic collaboration at Notre Dame, in the region, and with new national partners. Notre Dame joined the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru) and continues to expand funding opportunities for critical inquiry in the arts. In addition to welcoming its first postdoctoral fellow, the Arts Initiative awarded grants for arts-based projects to four collaborative faculty teams and established a new partnership with the Franco Institute to co-fund practice-based arts research projects led by faculty in the College of Arts and Letters.
With the launch of a new Student Arts Fellowship, the initiative formed an inaugural cohort of 16 undergraduate and graduate students who represent 12 different programs of study within the College of Arts and Letters, the College of Science, and the Mendoza College of Business. The initiative also collaborated with units across campus to create meaningful opportunities for students to learn directly from artists. A new course taught by Initiative on Race and Resilience artist-in-residence Brendan Fernandes brought students to Chicago in September 2025 for a behind-the-scenes experience at the Joffrey Ballet and a curator-led tour of City in a Garden at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA Chicago). In October, Student Arts Fellows helped host a student artmaking workshop with internationally renowned performance artist and activist Tania Bruguera.
Finally, the initiative announced calls for participation in the inaugural Notre Dame Arts Biennial, an international arts festival rooted in the creative spirit, intellectual energy, and iconic traditions of Notre Dame and the region. Planning for the 2027 festival has begun, and venues, organizations, artists, and other individuals within and beyond Notre Dame's campus are encouraged to get involved. Funding applications and other opportunities to collaborate open January 5, 2026.