It is an incredible honor to serve as interim chair of the Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy (AAEP), leading the department through its transition to new leadership and continuing to mentor a new generation of faculty, staff and students. This department shaped my own educational, professional and research journey, and I am committed to its positive trajectory.
AAEP boasts internationally recognized faculty thought leaders who continue to shape the direction of the fields we serve. As we embark on a frontier of critical social change requiring agility and responsiveness from arts policymakers, educators and administrators, our faculty, staff, students and alumni critically engage cultural meaning through excellence in research, policy, teaching and leadership, fostering social change and advancing the public interest through the arts and visual culture. The stories shared here demonstrate this critical mission.
This issue highlights the interdisciplinarity and variety of accomplishments of our students, alumni and faculty, including the practice of collaborative inquiry and research through artmaking that we see in the graduate cohort of trace, layer, play; the novel interdisciplinary research of Noor Murteza (see cover) as she explores fractals in design and nature in collaboration with the Dublin Arts Council; the entrepreneurship of Francesca Miller as she continues to build Black joy through community-based projects; the critical social research of Rachel Skaggs’ SNAAP project which captures the challenges and resilience of artists and artmakers during the pandemic; an amazing visual essay by working artist/teacher/mother/researcher Molly Burke as she captures the complex ways in which these roles intersect; the critical work of Dana Kletchka, Joni Acuff and museum collaborators such as the Wexner Center’s Dionne Custer Edwards to impart structural changes to museums that increase access; as well as numerous other updates which present a snapshot of the exciting work happening within our department and beyond, despite the continued impact by COVID-19.
Our department has continued to flourish, which speaks volumes of the commitment and resilience of the individual contributors to our collective community. We look forward to returning to full capacity, being together again in our beautiful, collaborative spaces, resonating once again with the energy of our students, and embracing the normal buzz of activity we cherish in AAEP. Thank you for being a part of our community.
With warm regards,
Shari Savage, PhD
Associate Professor and Interim Department Chair
