The Brown Arts Initiative (BAI) cultivates creative expression and fosters an interdisciplinary environment where faculty and students learn from one another and from artists and scholars in a wide range of fields across the campus and around the world.
The BAI is home to six academic arts departments plus the David Winton Bell Gallery and Africana/Rites and Reason Theatre. Taking full advantage of the University’s Open Curriculum, the BAI builds on Brown’s reputation as a destination for arts exploration, contributing to cultural enterprise through the integration of theory and practice, with an emphasis on innovation and discovery that results from rigorous art-making and experimentation.
Our Goals
Launched in 2016, the Brown Arts Initiative (BAI) builds on over a decade of work fostered by the Creative Arts Council and represents the full breadth of the performing, literary, and visual arts at Brown. The goals of the Brown Arts Initiative are:
- To expand Brown’s legacy of enriching tradition by supporting all that is experimental, forward-thinking and cutting-edge in the arts.
- To facilitate greater opportunity for collaboration across arts departments, among artists, with other academic fields, and with external partners locally, nationally and globally.
- To enhance opportunities for engaged, activist artists and scholars whose work responds to contemporary issues.