2025 IA Collaboratories
Call for Proposals
Imagining America (IA): Artists and Scholars in Public Life invites IA members to submit proposals to form new Collaboratories starting in 2025. Please submit your proposal via this online form by 11:59pm PT on Monday, December 2, 2024.
This is the first invitation for IA Collaboratories in over a decade, welcoming emergent partnerships and new communities of practice to form in areas of shared interest among IA members and partners in the broader IA network. Collaboratories have long been part of IA’s work to connect members across the IA consortium in the production of public knowledge and collective imagination through collaborative research and experimentation. IA Collaboratories have included Assessing the Practices of Public Scholarship (APPS), the Collective of Publicly Engaged Designers (CoPED), Performing Our Future and other action research initiatives.
As we approach Imagining America’s 25th anniversary, to be celebrated at the 2025 IA National Gathering in Cincinnati, we are particularly interested in Collaboratories with a focus on the first two IA guiding values. These two IA values combined represent some of the most critical tensions and opportunities in our work and in the world today:
1) It is important to struggle with the idea of America. The idea of ‘America’ embodies both the prophetic vision and legacy of social movements that have fought for a fully equitable broad-based popular democracy, and a troubling legacy of violence, oppression, and genocide. To realize our vision, we believe that it is important to struggle with this contradiction and how it has and continues to manifest domestically, regionally, and globally.
2) Creative culture is an important site of liberation. The bold power of art and design holds the key to bringing people together in imagining and embodying a better future. Creative practices force us to suspend belief, step outside of dead-end thinking, and imagine a different way of being. Collaborative creative culture-making brings people together in ways that foster empathy, joy, play, and connection.
Each IA Collaboratory will receive:
• $2000 to support activities and convenings.
• One reserved presentation slot at the 2025 IA National Gathering.
• Two complimentary registrations to the 2025 IA National Gathering.
• Promotion and operations support from IA staff throughout the year.
• Opportunities to share work through IA programming and network communication.
IA will award three initiatives for 2025. Selected initiatives will have the option to apply for continued support in subsequent years.
Eligibility and Expectations
• One or more lead convener(s) must be from an IA member campus. Faculty, staff, or graduate students are invited to propose. We encourage proposals co-led by conveners at different IA member institutions.
• Proposals should demonstrate deep collaboration either within your institution, with other IA member campuses, or in your region. Proposals involving multiple institutions and partners within and beyond higher education are encouraged but not required.
• Convenings and planned activities are required (virtual or in-person).
Dates and Deadlines
• December 2, 2024: Deadline to submit proposal.
• December 15, 2024: Notifications of acceptance.
• Winter 2025: Convene Collaboratories, submit IA National Gathering session proposal.
• Spring 2025: Convene Collaboratories, submit mid-year update on activities.
• Summer 2025: Convene Collaboratories, prepare for IA National Gathering session.
• Fall 2025: Attend IA National Gathering in Cincinnati, convene for post-gathering reflection.
• January 30, 2026: Submit end-of-year update on activities.
Proposal Requirements and Submission Form
1. Lead Convener(s) Name, Email, Role, Affiliation, and Institution (up to three).
2. Title of Collaboratory.
3. Purpose: describe the Collaboratory purpose and focus area (500 words or less).
4. Activities: describe Collaboratory activities and convenings (500 words or less).
5. Goals: describe the goals and outcomes for Collaboratory (500 words or less).
6. Collaborators: list confirmed or potential collaborators, include other IA member institutions, community organizations, and/or campus units.
7. Budget Narrative: describe how the $2,000 will be spent (250 words or less).
Please share any questions via an email to connect@imaginingamerica.org.
Funding has been provided by California Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
