Each year, Duke University awards Benenson Awards in the Arts, which provide funding for arts-centered projects proposed by undergraduates, including graduating seniors. This year, the Benenson selection committee awarded prizes to twenty-four students for creative projects spanning music, dance, film, theater, visual arts, design, and writing.
“We had a fantastic group of applicants this year from graduating seniors to rising sophomores. We returned to our previous process of supporting projects at variable levels of funding especially those with travel needs as the ongoing pandemic makes more space for arts to offer more workshops, intensives, and artistic internships.
Students continue the tradition of using Benenson funds to build upon thesis/capstone work or start the process of creating thesis/capstone work. Students who took time off during the pandemic seized the opportunity to pursue supplemental training and students this year will pursue training in fields (e.g., fashion, architectural and sustainable design) that have a smaller footprint at Duke.
We continue to see students engage the different but related mentorships provided by StudioDuke and the Benenson to take their work through multiple development dimensions, leaving Duke with impressive portfolios to carry out into the broader world of arts making.
Duke is incredibly lucky and thankful for this resource to support student artists. Current (and incoming) students, mark December 2022 on your calendar as the time to start thinking about a proposal for next summer’s application cycle.”
Jules Odendahl-James, Ph.D
Chair, Benenson Selection Committee
Director of Academic Engagement, Arts & Humanities
Lecturer, Theater Studies
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Minor: Visual Arts
Project Area: Design
Major: Neuroscience
Minors: Chemistry; Musical Theater
Project Area: Theater
Majors: Psychology; Dance
Project Area: Dance
Major: Biology (Concentration in Cell & Molecular Biology)
Minor: Music
Project Area: Music
Major: International Comparative Studies (Concentration in the Middle East)
Project Area: Writing
Majors: Computer Science; Visual Art
Certificate: Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Project Area: Visual Arts
Major: Evolutionary Anthropology
Minor: Linguistics
Certificate: Documentary Studies
Project Area: Writing
Major: Computational Media (Interdepartmental)
Project Area: Design
Major: Visual & Media Studies (Concentration in Cinematic Arts)
Minors: Neuroscience; Theater Studies
Project Area: Film
Major: Computer Science
Minor: Theater Studies
Project Area: Theater
Project Area: Dance
Major: Neuroscience
Minors: Dance; Linguistics
Project Area: Dance
Major: Political Science
Minors: History; Visual & Media Studies
Project Area: Visual Arts
Major: Visual & Media Studies (Concentration in Cinematic Arts)
Minor: Economics
Certificate: Markets & Management
Project Area: Dance
Major: English
Certificate: Documentary Studies
Project Area: Writing
Majors: English; Theater Studies
Project Area: Writing
Major: Fashioning Society: A Reassessment (Program II)
Project Area: Design
Major: Biology
Minors: Dance; Chemistry
Project Area: Dance
Major: Visual & Media Studies
Project Area: Film
Majors: Theater Studies; Global Cultural Studies
Minor: History
Project Area: Writing
Major: Evolutionary Anthropology
Minors: Art History; Chemistry
Project Area: Visual Arts
Majors: Theater Studies; African & African American Studies
Project Area: Writing
Major: Psychology
Minors: English; Global Health
Project Area: Writing
Majors: Economics; Computer Science
Minor: Cinematic Arts
Project Area: Theater
