Applications are now open for Arts+, a summer experiential learning initiative offered by Duke Arts. This multifaceted program offers opportunities for Duke undergraduate students to gain practical experience in the professional arts world. This summer, we’re offering four project-based teams, each led by a local artist, Duke Faculty, or Duke Arts staff member. We checked in with each team lead to learn more about each project. Read about each team below.
For six weeks at the beginning of the summer, Arts+ students work full-time in small groups with arts professionals to gain hands-on skills. This year, Arts+ students will recreate a community stained glass window, develop video game storylines for Duke Game Studios, create prints of climate action in partnership with the Museum of Life and Science, and integrate into the Duke Arts administrative team to run a summer concert series while supporting key aspects of the upcoming Duke Arts Presents season.
Bringing together students from diverse fields of study with a shared passion for art, Arts+ provides a unique interdisciplinary summer experience for Duke students. The program weaves together direct job training in fields of arts and arts administration with craft-based skills building.
anna wallace, Student Engagement Manager
In addition to working with their individual teams, Arts+ students participate in breakaway learning activities with the Center for Documentary Studies Doc+ 2026 cohort. Activities include arts workshops and a weekly lunch-and-learn series with industry speakers.
Arts+ joins a series of co-curricular summer learning opportunities at Duke University known as the +Programs, including Data+, Climate+, CS+, and more.
Combining traditional craftsmanship with modern digital design and documentation tools, this project offers students an interdisciplinary experience spanning art, architecture, technology, and community engagement. Participants will gain skills in digital scanning and design, architectural documentation, lead safety, client collaboration, and public communication, culminating in the recreation of a heritage window at Deliverance Temple Holy Church, historically Black-owned Church in Durham, NC.
Team Lead: Lauren Puckett
“As an artist and craftsperson working primarily in glass and metal, it is my goal to resuscitate and preserve the practice of stained glass, ensuring its legacy through new generations of artists. As we move into a world of mechanical reproduction, the handmade is vital to capturing both our individuality as artists and the beauty of the handmade mark.”
Skills Developed in this Team:
• Digital Scanning and Design
• Architectural Documentation
• Client Communication
This project seeks to connect Game Design, Development and Innovation master’s students to undergraduate student artists to advance games’ narrative and cinematics. With the goal to elevate the narrative of game projects by writing dialogue and producing clips for cut scenes and other cinematics inside the game, students with creative writing and theater backgrounds will work with one to three Game Studios over the six weeks and will be credited in the published games.
Team Lead: Ernesto Escobar
“I am excited about the opportunity our engineering students will have to collaborate with and direct art students’ work to bring their games to the next level. Games are interdisciplinary artifacts, and this type of collaboration brings great games to life.”
Skills Developed in this Team:
• Storyboarding and narrative planning
• Writing dialogue for interactive media
• Creating and editing in-game cinematics
Despite overwhelming evidence for the growing impacts of climate change, quantitative data has failed to galvanize climate action. Scientists and frontline communities are beginning to re-discover the power of storytelling and narrative for imagining possible futures. This project creates an opportunity for students studying environmental science, earth science, and the arts, to explore imagined climate futures and process their own responses and attitudes about climate change through printmaking. Work will be created in partnership with the Museum of Life & Science’s new climate exhibit, Imagine Durham 2100, opening in 2026.
Team Lead: Ashton Merck
“I’m looking forward to connecting the work we do as science communicators and educators at the Museum of Life and Science to the arts and humanities. I’m excited for an opportunity to think creatively and imagine a better future together.”
Skills Developed in this Team:
• Data Visualization through Narrative
• Printmaking techniques
• Visual composition and design
The Arts Administration team will gain hands-on experience running an outdoor concert series while supporting key aspects of the 2026-27 Duke Arts Presents season, and city/campus social impact strategies around key thematic priorities, including art that explores national identity and art that explores climate and sustainability.
On outdoor concert dates (Wednesday afternoons), this team will work closely with marketing and production to support the needs of artists and audiences.
Team Lead: Frances Howorth & Jules Odendahl-James
“Duke Arts has a lot of exciting, large-scale projects in the works for this summer. I am excited to bring dynamic student perspectives into this period, where we can spend our days planning ahead and Wednesday evenings with live music!” —Frances Howorth
Skills Developed in this Team:
• Copywriting
• Website Development
• Event Marketing and Outreach Planning
• Data Collection and Analysis
Arts + takes place during Summer Session 1 (May 18–June 26). Students will receive a stipend of $3,500 for their participation OR room and board in on-campus housing.
Applications are now open through February 27.
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