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October 2024

Dear ��ƷSM����ӰƬ Community & Supporters of the CHA,

October is National Arts and Humanities Month, a time to reflect on the profound impact that arts and humanities have on our lives.

Recently, I came across a tweet (and yes, I say “tweet” and “Twitter”) from poet, , and it was a clear articulation of the power of arts and humanities to make our lives richer and more valuable. Here is .

The poem was developed out of the prompts from Fasano’s book  (Random House 2024). This is among the many reasons I am a true believer when it comes to the value of arts and humanities. Humanities and arts are not ancillary disciplines—they are necessary and vital and exist beyond the works we produce or the lessons in our classes. The scholarship and art we produce impact people’s lives.

I know I don’t need to make an argument for arts and humanities to those of you reading this newsletter—but I fear that this is a question that continually comes up and that we can’t seem to put to rest: what is the value of humanities and arts?

For me, the value is captured in that screenshot. It’s the same kind of value I place on listening to Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” especially  or walking among the steel beams of a  or reading historian Heather Cox Richardson’s  I wish we had the kind of external funding and federal grants that our colleagues in STEM did. What the CHA does have to offer is Small Grant funds—seed money for faculty to do their essential research for their arts and humanities projects – the single Fall deadline is on October 15 this year. We also have the Graduate Research Award Demonstrating Excellence (GRADE) deadline on November 3 and the  MFA/MM Excellence in Creative Research Microgrant, with applications also due November 3. You can see the various funding opportunities on the CHA website.

So if anyone asks you, “What’s the value of arts and humanities” I hope you’ll point them to Sarah Polley’s film  (and her latest short essay collection,  is brilliant), Nina Simone’s “,” and the amazing works that our ��ƷSM����ӰƬ faculty produce every year—which we feature in our annual Faculty Celebration of Major Works magazine—all archived on our website.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Ho

Director, Center for Humanities & the Arts

PS: Dr. Elias Sacks in Religious Studies recently shared with me "," which provides guidelines and best practices for incorporating holidays from a wide range of traditions into calendars. The CHA will be using this resource, which you can find here: