[Source: Artdaily.org] — Arizona State University (ASU) has established F.A.R. @ ASU to engage artists with the university and greater community. Based in downtown Phoenix, F.A.R. (Future Arts Research) will host 20–24 leading national and international artists, critics, and scholars each year who will conduct research in collaboration with departments within the university and work closely with the surrounding community. F.A.R. is an initiative of the university president’s office, independent of the ASU’s Herberger College of the Arts. F.A.R. artists will follow an applied research method focusing in its first phase on three areas important to Phoenix: new technologies in the arts; desert aesthetics; and issues of justice and human rights. “Artistic production creates bridges between different cultural, expressive and ethical traditions; these will be at the heart of F.A.R.’s work in linking Phoenix and the region to the greater world,” said F.A.R. Director Bruce W. Ferguson. “F.A.R. has initiated a new model for arts institutions by supporting artists whose ‘action research’ generates new forms of knowledge, using one of our specific areas which resonate with the Phoenix community. F.A.R. will introduce artistic exploration models to the university to complement the empirical, ‘pure research’ ones typical of research universities.”
“ASU is renowned for its cutting-edge research and for fostering a strong intellectual community that fuses different cultural perspectives,” said Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University. “F.A.R. brings an important new dimension to our university community, serving as a catalyst, bringing together creative people and ideas, and providing different ways to analyze, understand, and problem solve. Its location in downtown Phoenix is integral to the university’s mission to weave creative programs into the community and its emerging downtown campus.” [Note: To read the full article, click here.]
Downtown Voices Coalition 