Director's Letter
October 2024
Dear CU Boulder 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, Joseph Fasano, and it was a clear articulation of the power of arts and humanities to make our lives richer and more valuable. Here is the link.
The poem was developed out of the prompts from Fasano’s book The Magic Words: Simple Poetry Prompts that Unlock the Creativity in Everyone (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 her duet with Luke Combs at the 2024 Grammys or walking among the steel beams of a Richard Serra sculpture or reading historian Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters from an American.” 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 Women Talking (and her latest short essay collection, Run Towards the Danger is brilliant), Nina Simone’s “Sinnerman,” and the amazing works that our CU Boulder 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 "How To Interfaith Your Calendar," 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: https://liberalarts.du.edu/center-for-judaic-studies/research-initiatives/du-interfaith-challenge