2026 Emerging Creatives Student Summit: “Rewilding: New Stories of Collective Wellbeing”
March 5-8
Michigan State University
https://a2ru.org/event/2026-emerging-creatives-student-summit-rewilding/

As a member institution of the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru), UGA may nominate up to four student representatives. Please contact mark.callahan@uga.edu by October 24 for more information about how to participate.

Emerging Creatives is a three-day collaborative experience in which students form small cross-disciplinary teams to explore a specific area of the Summit’s theme. Over the course of the event, teams make something that represents their exploration: a syllabus, cookbook, podcast, app, opera, pair of shoes, urban blueprint, pop-up store, musical score, website… the list of possible outcomes is endless.

Call for Participation: Spotlight on the Arts LIVE Research Competition 4’33”
Deadline: October 30 at 9 AM
https://arts.uga.edu/4minutes33seconds/

This competition highlights UGA student research in the arts and provides an opportunity to win prizes and to share creative inquiry with peers, faculty, administrators, and alumni throughout the university community. The competition is open to any graduate student, or undergraduate student working on an advanced project, who is conducting research related to the literary, visual, or performing arts or artists.

4’33” Research Presentation: oral presentation no longer than four minutes and thirty-three seconds in length. All contestants must be available to present their research in person on Monday, November 17, from 4-6 PM at the Athenaeum. Awards include $433 for the grand prize winner and $150 for three runners-up.

Quantifying the Arts in this Moment: A Community Conversation
Tuesday, September 16 at 4 PM
https://a2ru.org/event/quantifying-the-arts-in-this-moment-a-community-conversation/

This event is free and open to the public

Please join a2ru for the second in a series of community conversations, following up on June 30’s Mapping Creative Futures: A Community Conversation. From that discussion, we pulled out several topics that participants marked for further exploration. September 16th’s discussion will explore the productive tension between the need for “return on investment” or quantifying the value of the arts (in economic terms, audience numbers, etc.) versus the pitfalls of minimizing the influence of the arts through reliance on these reductive measures alone.

Creating Knowledge in Common, Together: A Round Table
Friday, September 26 from 1 to 3:30 PM
https://a2ru.org/event/creating-knowledge-in-common-together-a-round-table/

The editors of “Creating Knowledge in Common”, the 2024 special edition of Ground Works focussed on university/community partnered arts integrative research, invite all those engaged in such work to an online session that seeks to turn A2RU’s network towards action in this area. Among the themes that emerged in the special edition and subsequent public programming were the many (and growing) unmet needs associated with realizing these projects; these needs have only increased since the edition’s launch because of the shift in federal priorities and structures.