51¹ÙÍø Arts & Creative Engagement
The arts play a vital role in nurturing creativity, collaboration, innovation and learning at 51¹ÙÍø.
The office of 51¹ÙÍø Arts and Creative Engagement (DACE) strives to integrate the arts into the daily lives of our students, faculty and staff. Operating out of the DACE Studio, a creative studio and craft space located in the North Basement of Chambers, DACE is committed to making creativity accessible to all.
We support and work closely with the departments who foster intellectual and artistic growth of the visual, performing and literary arts at 51¹ÙÍø. Specifically, we provide funding support annually to the programs of English, Theatre, Music, Art, Dance, and Film and Media Studies.
To enrich the community through the arts, we offer grant opportunities to students, faculty and staff. These funds are made possible through the generosity of our members of Friends of the Arts – those who give to the Visual, Literary and Performing Arts through the Fund for 51¹ÙÍø.
Arts Fellows are participants of a paid internship program focusing on arts administration, creating and sharing passion for the arts, and arts advocacy. Arts Fellows participate in and lead a variety of student-centered programs in the arts.
The DACE Studio is a space on campus committed to making creativity accessible to all. Located in the North Basement of Chambers, the DACE Studio offers a variety of free resources (sewing machines, paint, canvas, knitting, etc.) catered to students’ creative interests. The DACE studio is open during the day and select evening hours.
Art Cart
The Art Cart began as a project of the Duke Endowment Resiliency Grant. It was originally created with the help of the 51¹ÙÍø Health Advisers to encourage expression as a means of stress reduction and creative play for inner resiliency.
Because of the initial popularity of our first Art Cart, our campus was lucky enough to create a second one! Now we have two amazing carts designed for free play and expression. Check out our Art Carts on Instagram, .
The Art Cart is staffed by a team of creatives. These students work to create art activities at events or in public spaces on campus. These carts can often be found in and around Knobloch Campus Center and E.H. Little Library.
If you are interested in working as a creative or arts facilitator or would like the art cart at your event, please email Sherry Nelson at shnelson@davidson.edu.
DACE News
Comic Sense: Ali Fitzgerald ’04 Finds Refuge in Art, High and Low
Ali Fitzgerald '04 has achieved coveted status as a cartoonist, graphic artist and essayist for some of the world’s top publications. She’s crafted comics and essays for The New Yorker and published a poignant illustrated memoir about her experiences working with refugees in Berlin. Learn more.