Wake the Arts Center
The Wake the Arts Center at Wake Forest University is a hub that delivers on the promise of Pro Humanitate by creating community and providing funding support for all faculty, staff and students through experiential learning opportunities and creative research. Building upon the already high quality of artistic work at Wake Forest, the Wake the Arts Center ignites the disciplinary and interdisciplinary power of the arts to invigorate the intellectual, artistic, and cultural life of the university. The Wake the Arts Center strives to ensure that Wake Forest is an environment where the Arts thrive and are available and accessible to all.
History
Learn about the history of the Wake the Arts Center from 2012 to the present.
Connection to real-world problems
Wake Forest University’s Wake the Arts Center operates with the beliefs that the Arts belong to everyone, and that the foundation of a robust liberal arts education fosters an arts-rich experience. The arts reflect the world we live in and provide space, time and a reason to discuss topics that are challenging or often difficult to understand. The Wake the Arts Center inspires and supports the creative scholarship of our faculty, staff, and students while continuing to expand our community of campus and external partners and advocates.
As catalysts for good in the city of Arts and Innovation, the Wake the Arts Center invests in the arts as a tool to build inclusive communities of mutual excellence. We are dedicated to supporting our local, regional and national community partners and leading with an arts-based mindset.
Experiential and interdisciplinary learning
The Arts are inherently interdisciplinary and experiential—empowering members of the Wake Forest community to engage in and address many topics that cross over broad societal and campus boundaries. Wake Forest has had a long history of supporting interdisciplinary arts programming, beginning in 2010 with the formation of IPLACe (Interdisciplinary Performance and the Liberal Arts Center). We fund interdisciplinary projects through course enhancements, performance projects, guest artist visits, commissioned works, exhibitions, panel discussions, receptions, lectures, and research and conference support, demonstrating the teacher-scholar model in action. Our application process is straightforward and fair. Projects are received and evaluated on a rolling basis by our executive committee, usually within one week.
Student impact and external reach
For three consecutive years, the Wakeville Student Arts Festival has created a platform for students in the performing and visual arts to highlight their work to the campus and wider community. Wakeville student leaders plan and execute the day-long event, working closely with Wake the Arts, Campus Life, dozens of student arts organizations, and student artists to reach hundreds of attendees each year.
Over the past five years,
the Wake the Arts Center has:
- funded 125 interdisciplinary projects.
- collaborated with 51 academic departments and programs, including African American Studies, Chemistry, the School of Business and the School of Medicine.
- collaborated with 25 additional units on campus, including the Humanities Institute, Literacy Center, the Lam Museum of Anthropology, the Program for Leadership and Character, and the Center for Research, Engagement and Collaboration in African American Life (RECAAL).
- supported 67 projects involving partnerships with local community.
