Utilizing the Performing Arts to Enhance DEI Initiatives
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a $466,000 grant over a three-year period to the University of Kansas’s Lied Center to support the “Utilizing the Performing Arts to Enhance Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Initiatives” project.
The project will consist of the creation, implementation and assessment of a new curriculum at KU that will explore issues of diversity, equity and inclusion through the performing arts. The DEI curriculum will have an interdisciplinary approach and will feature Lied Center guest performing artists who represent and uplift marginalized identities and voices through their work. The curriculum framework will be developed through collaboration among the selected visiting artists and a DEI curriculum team which includes:
- Darren Canady, KU faculty member
- Betsy Esch, Center for Teaching Excellence and KU Faculty member
- Emily Gullickson, curriculum writer
- Anthea Scouffas, Lied Center Engagement/Education director
- Jancita Warrington, Indigenous consultant
This group also works with the Center for Undergraduate Research, University Honors Program, Academic Success and Center for Teaching Excellence. – Updated May 2023
Participating artists include:
- Amirah Sackett
- Amir El Saffar
- Mayhem Poets
- Red Sky Performance
- Rennie Harris Puremovement
- Paige Hernandez
- Dancing Wheels Company
- Martha Redbone
Additional planned artists:
- Kit Yan
- Hiplet Ballerinas
- Terence Blanchard: Film Scores Live!
- Others to be announced
