Research

A new special report released by the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative (IWERC) details why arts graduates in Illinois may seek employment outside of creative fields and what this means for how we are educating and training future creatives.

The Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI) announced the awarded projects for their 2025 Summer Community-Academic Scholars Program. Three projects will be led by FAA staff and faculty.

The Illinois Creative Workforce Partnership, a partnership focused on understanding and elevating the creative workforce in Illinois, released a new spotlight issue this month. The report, Who Works in the Arts? The Demographic Characteristics of Illinois Arts Graduates in Arts Jobs, examines the demographic characteristics of Illinois arts graduates working in arts jobs, disaggregating the population by race, ethnicity, gender, and disability status to see if inequity in these professions persists beyond graduation.

The Illinois Creative Workforce Partnership, a partnership focused on understanding and elevating the creative workforce in Illinois, announced the release of its first report this month. The report, Where Do Artists work? Exploring the Careers of Arts Graduates in Illinois and the U.S., explores career pathways in Illinois for arts graduates.

A new special report released by the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project paints a clearer picture of how artists and creative workers in the U.S. were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Arts and Design Alumni was authored by Dr. Jennifer L. Novak-Leonard, faculty in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Illinois, as well as Dr. Rachel Skaggs and Dr. Jeff Barbee with The Ohio State University. The data for the report came from over 40,000 alumni from 118 postsecondary institutions that participated in the 2022 SNAAP Survey. The College of Fine and Applied Arts is an institutional partner of the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project.

Recognizing the critical need for universities across our nation to prioritize research focused on systemic racial inequities and injustices that exist not only in our communities but in higher education itself, the Chancellor’s Call to Action Research Program provides support for academic research and the expansion of community-based knowledge that advances the understanding of systemic racism and generationally embedded racial disparity. For 2024, the research program will focus on areas that span domestic, international, and transnational spaces.

Kevin Hamilton, noted scholar, artist, and dean of the College of Fine & Applied Arts will begin a new role this year as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation - Humanities, Arts, and related fields. The recent announcement from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research emphasized Hamilton's commitment to scholarly research and creativity.

A team of three students from the Sustainable Design program in the College of Fine and Applied Arts won the top prize for the Reimagine Our Future Sustainability Competition. Congratulations to Margot O'Malley, Tom George, and Jasper Nord whose project, Grounds for Nutrition, used coffee grounds to grow nutritious oyster mushrooms.

Research support at FAA is growing with new appointments for faculty at the college level to support applied research in the arts. By Mariana Seda

Beginning January 2021, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will serve as a host institution  for the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project.

Starting on July 23, FAA will present five sessions of "We Got Next" through Zoom as webinars and stream live on YouTube on Thursday evenings from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.