a2ru Conference Panel – Integrating Arts and Place-Based Performance at Corey Marsh Ecological Research Center

a2ru Conference Panel – Creative Futures: Driving Interdisciplinary Innovation Through the Arts Hamel Music Center Recital Hall

Panelists:

Garth Sabo, Megan Halpern, Ben Eiler, and Emily Pomeranz, Michigan State University

Corey Marsh Ecological Research Center (CMERC) occupies a 350-acre of land near Michigan State University, which has been owned and administered by the university (in various forms) since 1858. Since 2018, it has been considered a haven for research, restoration, outreach, and community engagement, as well a focal point of our university’s undergraduate research program in the Colleges of Natural Science and Agriculture & Natural Resources. CMERC is distinct among ecological research centers in the MSU ecosystem for its close integration with arts and humanities people and projects. In this panel, we focus on a 2024 grant-funded collaboration between local artists, scientists, community members, faculty, and MSU undergraduates to create and stage an original work of place-based theatre in the marsh. A key goal of this project was to generate processes and resources for supporting arts/sciences collaborations, especially those that might focus on sustainability and engagement, across MSU and broader land-grant contexts in higher education. Implementation was collaborative and interdisciplinary across fields and university statuses, with the lead project team composed of undergraduate students, tenured and non-tenured faculty across three colleges, and university administrators. Presentations within this panel will focus on design details and preliminary data emerging from the place-based theatre pilot, strategies for fostering undergraduate leadership and interdisciplinary collaboration within a land-grant university framework, and theorization of collaborative models and potential toolkits for similar interdisciplinary work engaging artists, researchers, and community participants.

This special panel is open to everyone – no conference registration required – and will take place at the Hamel Music Center Recital Hall. To attend all the a2ru events, register for the full conference here.