The University of Kansas has announced a $3 million gift from Margaret H. Silva to endow Arts Research Integration (ARI) at the Spencer Museum of Art.

In addition, Silva has also offered to support a challenge grant led by the museum of up to $1 million in financial support for ARI.

In 2016, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation helped the Spencer establish ARI, which enables the museum to embed artists directly into the high-level research happening at KU, enhancing the university’s research ecology by positioning the creation of art as an essential research methodology in its own right.

ARI brings artists into a wide range of research processes through interdisciplinary collaborations. ARI is currently engaged in two ongoing projects with artists. One connects New York–based Bahamian artist Janine Antoni with researchers at the KU Field Station at the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research. The other involves Brooklyn-based artist Stephanie Dinkins, Berlin-based artist Simon Denny, and Perry Alexander, AT&T Foundation Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, in a collaboration with the Institute for Information Sciences, one of the largest research centers at KU, and the History of Black Writing, a research unit committed to recovery work in Black literary studies.

“ARI brings artists together with researchers, scholars, professors, and students to explore subjects deeply relevant to our lives and communities and, in doing so, makes creative practices central to the process of inquiry and innovation. It is very much about moving beyond conversations about the importance of art to making art part of the study and exploration of our world and integral to tackling pressing issues,” said Joey Orr, ARI’s Mellon Curator for Research. “We are deeply grateful to Margaret Silva for her ongoing support and for her impactful endowment gift, which will allow ARI to continue to grow and develop well into the future.” 

(Photo credit: Getty Images/kevin jeon00)