Dr. Brian Bauer and Team Awarded One of 14 “Presidential Initiative to Celebrate the Impact of the Arts and the Humanities” Grants
Our very own Brian Bauer and his award winning team of humanities scholars at the Krannert Museum are one of winning teams of UIC's inaugural Presidential Initiative to Celebrate the Impact of the Arts and Humanities Grant. Fourteen projects were selected from more than 50 proposals launched last summer by President Tim Killeen to enhance and celebrate the arts and humanities at the system’s universities in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield.
“The arts and the humanities are essential to providing a well-rounded education, crucial to fostering conscientious citizenship in communities, and foundational for the creative contributions that are needed within every economic sector,” Killeen said. “This initiative sends a message around the state and the country that the arts and humanities are a priority here.”
Dr. Bauer and teammates Allyson Purpura, Jon Seydl, and Kasia Szremski from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, were awarded $145,000 for their project, "Collaborative Reinstallation of the Ancient Andean collections at Krannert Art Museum." This project spearheaded by a system-wide team of scholars will update how the approximately 600-piece collection of ancient and colonial Andean art is presented at the Krannert Art Museum in Champaign. The internationally acclaimed collection, acquired by the museum in 1967, includes some exceedingly rare objects such as a fully intact khipu, a device made of knotted cords used by the Inka for record-keeping and sending messages. Informed by the latest interdisciplinary research, the project will develop new interpretative frameworks for the exhibition, including storylines that will explore notions of identity and power, labor, agricultural practices and the politics of indigeneity. The project also will foster community outreach, and an interactive, digital platform that will connect local and global users to the collection and to each other.
Congratulations, Dr. Bauer and team!!