Arts for All Announces Spring 2026 ArtsAMP Grants

Learn more about the 17 arts-based, interdisciplinary projects developed by faculty, students and student organizations.

Arts for All is pleased to announce the newest recipients of ArtsAMP grants, which support arts-based projects developed by faculty members, graduate and undergraduate students, and student organizations at the University of Maryland. Combining entomology and visual art, music and digital archiving, history and performance studies and more, these 17 projects embody the interdisciplinarity of an arts-informed university. 

Learn more about the recipients and their projects:

ArtsAMP Collaborative Student MicroGrants

Brack Water, an emerging literary magazine created by MFA students in the creative writing program, will host a series of workshops and open mic nights focused on the intersections between creative writing and the sciences, technology and other disciplines. Their goal is to spotlight the ways UMD students find common ground between creative projects and their academic expertise. 

ArtsAMP Graduate Student Research Grants

Katia Destine, a Ph.D. student in sociology, will explore how research knowledge is understood, contested and conveyed at the community level in two communities in Nairobi, Kenya. By implementing an arts-based methodology in conjunction with sociological research methods, this project will invite participants to craft counter-narratives through storytelling art forms like children’s books, graphic novels, documentaries and podcasts, fostering a collaborative space where the production of science is a tool for collective empowerment and epistemic justice.
 

Casey Fisher, an MFA candidate in art, will develop “Printing Our Shared Landscape,” a yearlong studio research project investigating how environmental memory, industrial histories and invasive plant ecologies can be materially embedded into textile and photographic surfaces through eco-printing, cyanotype and rust printing processes. Working on-site at Patapsco Valley State Park, this project positions artmaking as a form of environmental inquiry and memory work, where material becomes both archive and collaborator.
 

Lindsay A. Jenkins, a Ph.D. student in theatre and performance studies, will develop “Second Sight,” a multimedia exhibit designed to reclaim the narratives of Black towns that have been systemically erased through hostile takeover, deliberate blight and environmental racism. This project is inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois' “Data Portraits”  and will deploy new technologies to bring a sense of "second sight" to geographic locations where Black people lived, worked and built communities. Grounded in Black geography, ethnography and anthropology, this project aims to humanize the experiences of Black people who have faced displacement.

Tania Nachrin, a Ph.D. candidate in communication, will integrate arts-based creative practice with qualitative interviewing to examine how international students interpret and navigate disruption and sustain mental well-being. This project brings artmaking into the research process to offer culturally inclusive avenues for expression that transcend language barriers and allow participants to communicate complex emotional experiences through visual and narrative forms, generating deeper insights into resilience, belonging and coping.
 

James Perla, a Ph.D. candidate in English, will organize a series of arts-based workshops that offer an accessible entry point to digital minimalism. Participants will learn how to reclaim agency over their digital tools through a variety of workshops focused on building a digital minimalist starter-kit, reclaiming data, and zine-making and letter-writing campaigns about Internet policy.

ArtsAMP Student Impact Grants

Requiem Zine, a student-produced publication by WMUC Radio, will use funding to produce the next issues of their independent zine featuring visual art, articles, poetry and photography from UMD students and local DMV artists. Through expanded printing capacity and increased collaboration with local artists and creatives at community events, Requiem Zine will create a long-term, accessible platform that uplifts local artists, gives students an outlet for their self-expression, and strengthens the creative ecosystem on and around campus.

Maryland Latin Dance will produce a Latin Cultural Arts Showcase, designed to expand representation of Latin American and Caribbean dance traditions and cultural affirmation on campus. While rooted in bachata and salsa, this showcase will introduce students to underrepresented styles from Central and South America. By intentionally expanding their programming beyond familiar styles, they will create space for students of all backgrounds to experience new artistic forms while centering cultural authenticity.
 

ArtsAMP Collaborative Faculty Grants

Jill Bradbury, director of the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, will develop and test wearable devices that use haptic stimuli as both a means of access to music performance for people with hearing disabilities and as an artistic practice. This interdisciplinary project will be launched with multiple faculty members as a part of the Sensory Augmentation and Composition team, including Andrew Cissna, lecturer in lighting design; Sam Crawford, UMD sound and media technologist and co-director of the Maya Brin Institute; Dan Leizman MFA ’24, lecturer in art; Jun Nishida, assistant professor in computer science; and Nirupam Roy, associate professor in computer science.

Adriane Fang, associate professor of dance, will further develop DANCExDANCE. This interactive, interdisciplinary performance will explore the intersection of dance, robotics and audience engagement, and involves collaborators across UMD including Jonathan David Martin, lecturer in immersive media studies; Huaishu Peng, assistant professor in computer science; Bill Kules, director in human-computer interaction; and Sam Crawford, UMD sound and media technologist and co-director of the Maya Brin Institute. 

Jessica Grimmer, lecturer in the College of Information, and Anna Rose Nelson, assistant clinical professor in music theory, will address persistent barriers to accessing and using musical works by historically underrepresented composers. This project will combine optical music recognition and Music Encoding Initiative standards to convert manuscripts and limited-circulation scores into structured, machine-readable data that supports preservation, analysis and performance. This work will transform difficult-to-use materials into accessible, reusable digital formats.

Madeline Potter, faculty specialist in entomology; Mollye Bendell, assistant professor of art; and Lindsay Barranco, experiential learning coordinator in applied agriculture, will explore visual art in environmental education, focusing on Maryland’s insect biodiversity. This project will invite students to create original works inspired by endangered and threatened Maryland insect species, integrating ecological and conservation information into their piece, and will culminate in a competition exhibition at the Herman Maril Gallery. By engaging students in science communication through art, this project will contribute to a replicable arts-based model for conservation education.

Heidi Scott, senior lecturer in English and associate clinical professor in global, environmental, and occupational health, and Rachel E. Rosenberg Goldstein, associate professor in global, environmental, and occupational health, will engage a local artist to design and paint a mural for the Plantation Park Heights Urban Farm in Baltimore City and develop nature-art workshops for the Plantation Park Heights Urban Farm community. This project will unite community engagement with public health, nutrition, environmental justice and the visual public arts to enhance climate resilience and protect global public health.

ArtsAMP Faculty Impact Grants

Brandon Donahue-Shipp, assistant professor in art, will work with UMD students on “Storytelling Through Objects,” a large-scale community relief mural for the BlackRock Center for the Arts, constructed from objects contributed by community residents. This project will elevate everyday objects as cultural artifacts and embed equity and belonging into the artistic process. “Storytelling Through Objects” positions public art as shared authorship through an artwork shaped by the community it represents. 
 

Jennifer Golbeck, professor in the College of Information; Alex Leitch, senior lecturer in the College of Information; and Celia Chen, post-doctoral student in the College of Information, will combine technology, information science and visual art as they create “The Annihilation Room.” This immersive exhibition invites participants into a visceral experience that confronts the expansion of state and institutional surveillance into the bodies, movements and lives of everyday people.
 

Christina Hnatov and Mira Azarm, both lecturers in the Academy for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, will create a program for student musicians at the National Orchestral Institute + Festival to learn how to integrate design and innovation into their creative practices and explore different disciplinary perspectives on their artistic musical expression. This program will allow students to carve out the space and time to explore their ideas more deeply, work collaboratively and learn from a variety of experiments.

Sarah Bonnie Humud, assistant clinical professor in honors humanities, and Randy Ontiveros, associate professor of English, brought California-based muralist and street artist Corie Mattie ’12, known as the “L.A. Hope Dealer,” to campus to guide students in designing and creating a mobile mural built for public engagement. Rooted in themes of democratic participation, free expression and civic responsibility, the mobile mural will be deployed across campus this fall to invite reflection and exchange, encouraging the campus community to see civic engagement as active, collective and ongoing. By positioning art as a tool for public discourse, this project empowers students and community members to see themselves as active participants in shaping civic life.

Top photo: Mariana Yanes '29 works on the mobile mural that is part of the ArtsAMP grant awarded to Sarah Bonnie Humud and Randy Ontiveros. Photo by Dylan Singleton.