FUNDING | ARTS INITIATIVE + OVPR

Arts Research: Incubation & Acceleration (ARIA)

Grants up to $50,000

Applications will reopen in Fall 2026

The Arts Research: Incubation & Acceleration (ARIA) program, a joint effort conceived and funded through a collaboration between the University of Michigan Arts Initiative and the Office of the Vice President of Research, seeks to elevate and expand arts research and creative practice across the University of Michigan’s campuses and schools. The program will support projects centered in the arts that ask creative questions and move toward new ideas and knowledges; invite new forms of collaboration and interaction both within and beyond the arts; and that imagine new approaches to problems and ideas in the arts and society.

Applications are particularly encouraged from interdisciplinary research teams structured to provide mutual benefit to those in the arts and in other research sectors, and from individuals working in creative practice to imagine new horizons of artistic possibility.

Visit OVPR to learn more

  • Approximately 12–20 grants will be awarded in academic year 2025-2026.

    • Faculty applying for individual projects are eligible for up to $25,000, and research teams are eligible for up to $50,000.

    • Projects will be funded for periods of up to two years.

    • Funding can support projects in pilot/incubation stages or those entering new stages of development and dissemination.

  • Applications will be accepted in two cycles:

    Round One [closed]

    Round Two

    • Applications Open → December 2, 2025

    • Deadline → March 11, 2026

    • Award Notification → May 2026

    • Start date → June 1, 2026

    • Latest end date → May 30, 2028

  • The primary investigator (PI) and CoPI(s) for all projects must be PI-Eligible.
    Learn more about PI eligibility.

    • All PI-eligible faculty from the Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses are eligible to apply. Interdisciplinary research teams and creative practice projects are especially encouraged to apply.

    • The primary investigator (PI) and CoPI(s) for all projects must be U-M faculty with a research appointment (tenured, tenure track, research, or clinical professors), though research teams can include collaborators from across and beyond U-M.

    • All PI-eligible faculty from the Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses are eligible to apply. Interdisciplinary research teams are especially encouraged to apply.

  • Applicants must complete/upload information in four areas:

    • Statement of Plans and Related Questions (series of questions with word-limited text boxes for response)

    • List of Recent Work (NOT a cv, one-page limit)

    • Work Samples (two document uploads: one-page overview of submitted samples, one PDF file containing excerpts, images, and/or video links, as appropriate)
      NOTE: The review panel will not review work samples in excess of the stated guidelines for submission.

    • Feasibility Plan (three items: one-page budget, one-page budget justification/explanation, one-page timeline/schedule)

    There are an additional three items that applicants should complete as appropriate.

    • Acknowledgment of Application for Course Release Form

    • Contextualizing Collaborators

    • Letters of Commitment
      If the project has significant collaboration with any internal/external collaborators/partners, within or beyond U-M then applicants must submit letters of commitment (as of the 2025 2026 ARIA funding round, applicants are required to submit letters of commitment from organizations/institutions and/or individual collaborators who are essential to the project’s success)

  • Successful applications will:

    • Demonstrate the project’s significance to national and/or international developments and conversations in arts research, creative practice, and beyond;

    • Describe how findings (in artistic form and otherwise) will be brought to new and/or broad audiences; and

    • Demonstrate, in applications from research teams, how all collaborators will bring their expertise to the research agenda.

    All applications will be evaluated on:

    • Clarity, imagination, and artistic quality of the proposed project;

    • Potential outcomes and impact(s) in the arts and, where appropriate, to other fields of inquiry and/or communities;

    • Artistic quality and range of previous work samples; and

    • Feasibility of budget and timeline.

  • Funding Process

    Upon notification of successful application, PIs will be provided with detailed information about final reporting requirements for both Arts Initiative and OVPR.

    A program shortcode will be established in the recipient’s academic unit for a specified amount, duration, and purpose. The recipient and academic unit are responsible for ensuring good stewardship of funds. A mid-term report will be required, with a final report to follow at the closeout of the grant.

  • For questions related to this call for proposals please contact ARIA.grant@umich.edu.

    For troubleshooting questions related to the InfoReady Review submission portal, please contact triciamc@umich.edu.

Past Awardees

2025 / Cycle 4

  • Principal Investigator:

    Osman Khan
    Professor of Art and Design, Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design
    Professor of the Digital Studies Institute and Director Graduate Studies, Digital Studies Institute, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

  • Principal Investigator:

    Stephen Berrey
    Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Associate Professor of American Culture and Associate Professor of History, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

  • Principal Investigators:

    Tszyan Ng
    Associate Professor of Architecture, A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning

    Wes McGee
    Associate Professor of Architecture, A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning
    Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering

  • Principal Investigators:

    Emilia Yang
    Assistant Professor of Art and Design, Penny W Stamps School of Art and Design
    Assistant Professor of Digital Studies Institute, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

    Luciana Chamorro
    Assistant Professor of Anthropology, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

  • Principal Investigator:
    Hao-Wen Dong, Assistant Professor of Music, School of Music, Theatre & Dance

  • Principal Investigator:

    Bénédicte Boisseron
    Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and Chair, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

  • Principal Investigator:

    Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes
    Professor of American Culture, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

    afterlife plunder- a drag, dance, music and storytelling performance project

    Principal Investigator: Amy Chavasse, Arthur F Thurnau Professor and Professor of Dance, School of Music, Theatre & Dance

  • Principal Investigator:

    Amy Chavasse
    Arthur F Thurnau Professor and Professor of Dance, School of Music, Theatre & Dance

2024 / Cycle 3

  • Principal Investigator:

    Sophia Brueckner
    associate professor of art and design, Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design
    associate professor of information, School of Information
    associate professor in the Digital Studies Institute, LSA

    Goal:

    Using artificial intelligence trained on photographs of bowerbirds’ elaborate bowers — nestlike structures used for mating — a robotic arm known as Bowerbot will learn how male bowerbirds create “artworks” to attract a mate.

  • Principal investigator:

    Holly Hughes
    professor of art and design, Stamps School
    professor of theatre and drama, School of Music, Theatre & Dance
    professor of women’s studies, LSA

    Goal:

    This project will create a multimedia solo performance that imagines Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford have retained Hughes to take over an investigation into accusations brought against U.S. Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh.

  • Principal investigator:

    Cynthia Pachikara
    associate professor of art and design, Stamps School
    associate professor of architecture and urban planning, A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning

    Goal:

    This project will create an interactive video installation that uses the spectator’s shadow as a means of interaction. It will implement novel forms of image capture that present landscapes in the form of light phenomena.

  • Principal investigator:

    Bethany Hughes
    assistant professor of American culture, LSA

    Goal:

    This project brings together the history and development of Indigenous theatre in North America with the performance practices utilized by current playwrights and artists to understand the aesthetic techniques, unique voice and contextual content of theatre and performance.

  • Principal investigator:

    Charli Brissey
    associate professor of dance, SMTD

    Goal:

    Fawn is a multidisciplinary solo performance created through experiments in dance, writing, sculpture, video and sound installation, weaving deer mythology and folklore into queer narratives of survival and resilience.

  • Principal investigators:

    Jorge Gonzalez del Pozo
    professor of Spanish, UM-Dearborn

    Wessam M.H. Elmeligi
    associate professor of Arabic
    director of the Center for Arab American Studies, UM-Dearborn

    Goal: ​​

    The project presents the cross-cultural diversity of Arabic-Hispanic heritage through the creation of a co-authored graphic novel illustrating cultural encounters, as examples of coexistence.

  • Principal investigators:

    Robert Adams
    director of the U-M Initiative on Disability Studies
    associate professor of architecture, Taubman College
    associate professor of art and design, Stamps School
    associate professor in the Digital Studies Institute, LSA

    M. Remi Yergeau
    professor of communication and media studies, Carleton University

    Goal:

    This project will develop a collaborative podcast series on disability arts and technoculture featuring interviews with disabled artists, poets, designers and technologists.