Did you know that Trinity and Pratt students can fund fall or spring semester projects with up to $500 from Duke Arts’ Creative Arts Grants? Through these Duke Arts-sponsored grants, students supplemented their projects in faculty-supervised Independent Study courses or full-credit private instruction in Art & Visual Studies, Dance, Literature, Music, and Theater Studies. To celebrate the opening of the 2024-2025 Creative Arts Grants, we spoke with Ruby Wang (T’ 24) and Cate Knothe (T’ 24) about their projects and experiences with funding received in the 23-24 academic year.
“I worked on a multimedia collage for my visual arts capstone. ‘live, act, dream, die’ utilizes materials from Asian American plays, archival images, and re-contextualizes them into text-as-images pieces. The project considers the historical context of acting as a performance to convey a political history, a personal sentiment. How does theater use acting and writing to translate the experiences of Asian Americans? What are limitations to experience? I use this project to evaluate our political age of labels and identities, and where these labels result in ‘cut outs”‘ to a person when they do not fit into the assumptions presented by these identities.”
“The advisor of my capstone, Shambhavi Kaul, split the class into two sections: one for visual artists and the other for film. We switched off presentation days, where each section completed twenty-minute presentations on their progress. Then, Professor Kaul and peers would offer feedback on our presentations. Professor Kaul offered me resources, advice for rethinking the structure of my project, and other artists to look for inspiration.”
“The grant helped me fine tune the little details of the project. Having a budget allows you greater ability to allocate resources to finalize your project from something ‘crafty’ into a substantial piece of work. There were small things I needed to purchase at the end such as fabric and tracing paper that I used the grant to purchase.”
“Creating work is a fluid, ever changing process. Your project will change, and so will the materials that you need. I suggest budgeting for additional materials you don’t anticipate needing. Sometimes an advisor will throw at you an amazing idea, but you may not have the extra $100 to change half of your project. Feel willing to change the way you use your resources and figure out creative ways to allocate new ones. Also turn to your mentors who know the particulars of printing and installation; they’ll help save a lot of headaches when you’re finishing up your projects.”
Multimedia Collage from Ruby Wang’s Capstone, ‘live, act, dream, die’
“Starting in Fall 2023, I conducted documentary fieldwork to learn more about the rural queer identity in North Carolina. Ultimately, I wanted to use real stories from queer farmers to serve as the basis for a short fiction film. In Spring 2024, with the help of a Creative Arts Grant, I wrote, shot, and edited a 20-minute short film. This short film tells the story of a non-binary individual returning home to their family farm and the ways in which they encounter tradition and expectation. The film was also shot on 16mm stock (analogue film) to further enhance motifs of mechanization and tradition.”
“Working with Shambhavi Kaul on this project and my other two committee members, Guo-Juin Hong and Dore Bowen, was one of the highlights of my career at Duke. It is truly special to have three such intelligent and creative minds dedicate themselves to helping me improve and grow as an artist and academic. I felt so lucky to have their guidance, encouragement, and support as I took creative risks.”
“The Creative Arts Grant was essential to ensuring the completion of my short film project. In developing the idea, it became clear that filming on 16mm stock was necessary for conceptual efficacy and aesthetics. However, 16mm is a very expensive medium due to purchasing the stock itself, renting a camera capable of shooting 16mm, and developing and processing the film once it’s been shot. The Creative Arts Grant was used toward the purchasing of the film stock, allowing me to achieve my artistic and conceptual goals.”
“The biggest piece of advice is to take advantage of working in such proximity with faculty advisors. Independent projects feel completely different from anything else I experienced at Duke, as the types of interaction were so much more personal. For me, I felt like the feedback wasn’t specific to just my project, but my practice as an artist as a whole and my future goals. So for anyone interested, I would encourage them to pursue a Creative Arts Grant and to really foster their faculty connections.”
Behind the scenes from Cate Knothe’s Documentary fieldwork.
Duke Arts Creative Arts Grants are provided to help defray fall or spring project expenses of up to $500 for Trinity and Pratt students enrolled in faculty-supervised Independent Study courses or full-credit private instruction in the creative arts (e.g., Art & Visual Studies, Dance, Literature, Music, Theater Studies).
Funds are available to purchase approved supplies and equipment for the arts project; equipment becomes the property of the University. When strongly recommended by a student’s faculty supervisor, it may be possible to use the grant to support a student’s travel to use a unique resource. Grants may not be used to buy personal books or personal items, or to pay salaries.
Applications for Creative Arts Grants are currently open and will be reviewed on a rolling basis.