The Provost has established two University Imagine Fund chairs, each a two-year award during which the recipient carries the title of Imagine Fund Arts, Humanities, and Design Chair. During each two-year award, the faculty awardee (or co-awardees) receives up to $100,000 to work with a group of faculty, staff, students, and other collaborators to create a program of activities for the University community and the community at large. The goal of these projects is to catalyze cross-departmental, intercollegiate, multi-campus, and collaborative work.

The chair position supports an emergent process that includes a generative first year and a second year of visible public activities that engage the campus and local communities. One chair is awarded each year. With chairs awarded in successive years, the dual chairs and their staggered terms establish a rhythm of one chair beginning its generative phase while the other culminates with significant public engagement activity.

The committee encourages applicants to demonstrate success in working collaboratively with others, to build on existing work, or begin new work that will benefit from a highly collaborative process.

Deadline & Timeline

The next round of applications will be due Spring 2025 for a collaborative program of activities taking place September 2025–August 2027.

The new chair will be announced by April 15, 2025.

Eligibility

Applicants for the chair role must be tenured or tenure-track faculty from the arts, humanities, and/or design fields at any University of Minnesota system campus.
Multiple eligible faculty members may apply together and share the named chair position; however, one individual must be identified as the “lead co-chair” among the team.
Eligibility does not include: visiting faculty, students pursuing a Ph.D., non-salaried faculty appointment type W, or employees with T appointments or A appointments.

Project Criteria

The chair can assemble collaborators, or groups can come together and name a chair from among the collaborators. The proposed activities should galvanize sustained intellectual dialogue around a particular academic theme. The program of interrelated activities can include workshops, symposia, reading groups, speaker events, public engagement actions, partnerships across and outside the university, graduate and undergraduate classes, exhibitions, lectures, and performances.

Criteria for selection:

Proposed project is collaborative, cross-departmental, and interdisciplinary
Involvement of more than one campus is encouraged
Plan appears to be achievable by the team involved
Purpose/goals are clearly stated
Generative phase addresses purpose in sufficient detail
Activities are likely to be attractive to proposed audience(s)
Activities advance project goals
Activities advance University of Minnesota mission, values, and goals
Project includes significant public engagement activity

Application Instructions

Applications will be submitted via InfoReady. NOTE: Uploaded documents must be either Word or PDF; budget documents may be in Excel, Word, or PDF. The budget document must be saved in portrait (not landscape) orientation.

Required fields:

Name, email, department, college, and campus of applicant (chair). If you intend to apply as a team (co-chairs), the lead co-chair should be the person completing this form.
Title(s) of the proposed project(s)
Name(s) and department(s) of additional collaborators (not including co-chairs)
Email of the department chair(s) of the applicant and all co-chairs. The application will be routed to the department chair, who must indicate support for the applicant(s) to assume the Arts, Design, and Humanities Chair role and carry out the proposed project(s).
Names of any faculty members aside from co-chairs for who you have budgeted a course release, and emails of their department chairs. The application will be routed to these department chairs to obtain their support of the course release.

Required documents:

Project narrative (up to 1,200 words) describing:
- the goals and rationale of the project(s)
- proposed activities
- audience(s)
- how the project will incite cross-departmental, interdisciplinary, and collaborative work
Curriculum vitae for chair or co-chairs
Two-year project schedule. Include plans for the generative phase and program of activities.
Budget, including chair (or lead co-chair, if applying as part of a team) stipend of $5,000 and costs associated with replacement teaching for any proposed course releases. See budget instructions below. Budget document must be saved in portrait (not landscape) orientation.
Budget justification describing why budget items are necessary and explaining the basis for cost estimates. Budget justification document must be saved in portrait (not landscape) orientation.
Images, maps, information graphics, and other visual items are highly encouraged as supporting material for the full application.

Funding Parameters

All applicants must submit a budget and budget justification. The details of the budget will be reviewed with the awardee. While there may be flexibility with allocations, the following serves as a guide to the distribution of the $100,000 budget.

Salary/stipend of $5,000 per year for named chair (or lead co-chair, if applying as part of a team).
Discretionary Funding (for chair/s). These funds are intended to advance the project and can be used for any program activity support such as: venue fees, hosting expenses, refreshments, marketing support, etc. ($15,000-$25,000 per year)
Course release(s). These may be included as expenses for replacement teaching. Budget may include up to four course releases (depending on budget/availability), to be decided and distributed among team members (lead/chair and collaborating team members) at the discretion of the chair. These team members must be UMN faculty, and the majority must be from arts, humanities, and design fields. Distribution of these course releases should adhere to the following guidelines:
- The chair (or the lead co-chair within a team) may receive a maximum of two course releases over the two-year period (no more than one per semester).
- Supporting team members can also receive one release per semester. These releases may be interdisciplinary, with team members coming from more than one department.
- Course releases should be distributed, when possible, in a manner that strives to include system campuses.
- There will be no more than one course release per person per semester.
- These course releases must be accounted for in the $100,000 budget and approved by department chairs.
Non-UMN Collaborators (team members/speakers/artists/participants). Funding for honoraria, hotel/rental fees, airfare, etc. ($15,000-$25,000 per year).
Marketing Support, including promotional, graphic design, and production services ($5,000).
Production Support. These funds will support the production of some concrete outcome from the two-year project—publication, website, blog, piece of art, etc.—and can be used for graduate student salary and fringe, graphic design, print, web support, etc. ($10,000-$15,000).
Departmental Support. Although it is anticipated that departments will provide some in-kind support, the budget may include up to $2,000 to offset costs for departmental administrative staff support ($2,000).

Recipients are expected to provide a publicly retrievable record of the project in the University Digital Conservancy, UMedia, or elsewhere in order to document the project (e.g. documentation through texts, photography, or other media). Details will be discussed at the time of award notification.

About the Imagine Fund

The Imagine Fund is an initiative of the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost. Imagine Fund grant programs support projects in the arts, humanities, and design at the University of Minnesota. This initiative is supported by a generous grant from the McKnight Foundation. The three Imagine Fund grant programs—the Imagine Fund Chair, Special Event Grants Program, and Annual Faculty Awards—support innovative lines of research or scholarship that may not otherwise be possible. Awards often leverage investments and funds from other sources in support of projects in the arts, humanities, and design.

The Imagine Fund Arts, Humanities, and Design Chair is administered by Faculty and Academic Affairs and applications are managed by the Institute for Advanced Study.

Learn more about the AHD Chair Award

Imagine Fund Arts, Humanities, and Design Chair Awards

Deadline & Timeline

Eligibility

Project Criteria

Institute for Advanced Study

Contact

Affiliation

Twin Cities Campus

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Imagine Fund Arts, Humanities, and Design Chair Awards

Deadline & Timeline

Eligibility

Project Criteria

Contact

Affiliation

Connect

Twin Cities Campus