Supporting scholars and creators driving discovery and positive change

Photos (iStock): nantonov, Nikolay Tsuguliev

Across campus, arts and humanities scholarship is thriving with a breadth of innovative work that’s bolstered by university grants, fellowships and proposal development support.

In 2026, the Research and Innovation Office (RIO) Arts and Humanities Grant Program awarded $107,000 in combined seed funding to 19 projects whose concepts expressed exceptional depth and impact across campus and in communities beyond. One 2025 grant recipient, Kevin Rich, professor of theatre and dance, reflects the vital role arts and humanities play in fostering connection and encouraging deep exploration of the human experience.

The grant allowed Rich and collaborators to reach students in three rural counties in southeast Colorado with their long running “Shakespeare and Violence Prevention” program. The effort pairs professional productions with “conversations about community, how we show up for others and the choices we make to help or harm,” said collaborator Amanda Giguere, director of outreach for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. 

This year, a trio of actors brought Hamlet to several thousand school kids, alongside violence prevention workshops. “Every play has an example of preventable mistreatment, ranging from gossip, bullying, to planned violence, and everything in between,” said Rich. “(Shakespeare is) remarkably fertile soil for these conversations, and it’s really helpful to have these stories to process these issues.” 

Another program making vital investments in arts, humanities and social science innovators is the Creative Futures Fellowship, launched this year by Venture Partners at CU Boulder, the university’s commercialization arm. Its cohort of a dozen scholars, chosen for how they propose to address challenges facing communities in Colorado and elsewhere, represents disciplines ranging from design, music and media studies to education, history and wellness research.

Among them is Hanna Rose Shell’s multi-faceted project, “Mining the Sun: An Arts and Humanities Public History Initiative for Civic Engagement and Community Development in Leadville.” Shell, professor of cinema studies and moving image arts and art and art history, is developing a documentary film and a series of public events in Boulder and Leadville centered on the history of the Climax High Altitude Observatory. Located atop the Climax molybdenum mine north of Leadville, the observatory’s groundbreaking solar observations helped lay the foundation for modern space-weather research and the creation of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Today, while mining, tourism and environmental interests may converge uneasily in the area, Shell is bringing together community members and “using this fascinating history to create a space for people with different priorities to communicate and share, and begin to address in new ways some of the conflicts that exist now,” she said. Shell’s work also will be exhibited at the Colorado State Capitol in 2027.

Behind many successful proposals in the arts, humanities and social sciences are RIO’s writing support programs, including workshops, one-on-one consultations and peer-editing sessions that help faculty develop proposals. Nathan Mertens, assistant professor of saxophone, recently received National Endowment for the Arts’ Grants for Arts Projects funding after working on his proposal with Donna Axel, RIO’s associate director of research development, through the biannual Fellowships Cycle Program. The program supports roughly 20 faculty members each round across multiple funding opportunities.

His initiative, “American Saxophone Concertos, New Voices and Visions,” commissions concertos by living American composers. The works will be commercially recorded with CU Boulder students, giving them opportunities to rehearse, perform and record alongside internationally recognized composers.

“I’ve never been at an institution that has invested so intentionally in supporting creative scholarship,” Mertens said about the university’s backing of arts and humanities. “(With that) willingness to support ambitious artistic projects, I’ve been able to pursue work at a level that simply wouldn’t have been possible elsewhere.”