Brown is unwavering in its support of the intertwined and interdependent nature of practice and study in the arts, convinced that theory, history, and creative processes develop best in combination with each other. The principle that arts are a meaningful form of research – and that artists deploy research in innovative forms – undergirds the integration of study and practice that characterizes BAI’s research mission. BAI collaborates with academic partners across campus to provide resources and infrastructure to support interdisciplinary arts research among Brown faculty and students, and to supplement the creative and scholarly excellence of the arts departments by encouraging new connections among diverse arts scholars and practitioners.

BAI supports individual faculty and student research, and is especially focused on incubating interdisciplinary projects in which the collaborative efforts of faculty, students, and fellows from diverse disciplines and knowledge domains contribute to new forms of art knowledge and practice. Examples of such efforts include the Black Music Lab, an in-development hub at the Brown Arts Institute for events, projects, discussions, and more on campus and in the greater Providence area that engage the study and practice of black musical forms across the diaspora and on the continent, with a particular focus on popular forms and practices that remain underrepresented and undersupported within academic contexts, and the Conference for research on Choreographic Interfaces (CRCI).