Skidmore receives grant to fuel innovation and course development
The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations (AVDF) has awarded a $300,000 grant for a project
designed to help Skidmore expand the cohort of its faculty who are skilled in using
elements of making—broadly defined as fashioning objects—in their classes.
The project, titled "The Idea Lab: Innovative Pedagogy and Maker Spaces," will support
combining models of experimental pedagogy with existing maker spaces on campus. In
addition to creating advances in teaching and learning, this project is designed to
generate robust data on the best spatial configurations and teaching methods associated
with maker spaces.
The AVDF funds will also build the capacity of Skidmore's faculty to engage in the
type of educational approaches that makes optimal use of the physical Idea Lab, which
will be part of the college's new Center for Integrated Sciences. The grant will also
help the college continue to refine and develop the "Hub," the temporary shared maker
space created in this project's planning phase.
"I am thrilled we can continue these creative initiatives fostering an acumen for
making among our faculty, staff and students and energizing our classrooms in compelling
and fresh ways," said Rebecca Krefting, associate professor of American studies. "We
see this grant as supplying the necessary bridge toward institutionalizing new modes
of critical making and innovative pedagogies at Skidmore."
The new facility will serve as a model for other colleges and universities looking
to expand beyond the perception of maker spaces as an outgrowth of only the disciplines
of engineering, science, technology and art.
"We have pursued this project with enthusiasm and we believe it will offer our community
an opportunity to think beyond the usual classroom experiences," said Erica Bastress-Dukehart,
associate professor of history. "Our hope is that with the new funding, the Hub and
Idea Lab will continue to disrupt the status quo at Skidmore and beyond."
In addition to Krefting and Bastress-Dukehart, other coauthors of the grant proposal
and members of the Idea Lab Steering Committee include Beau Breslin, professor of
political science, Sarah Sweeney, associate professor of art, and Kim Frederick, professor
of chemistry.
The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations were organized in 1952 under a living trust established
by Arthur Vining Davis. The foundations were built upon Davis's successful corporate
leadership and his visionary, entrepreneurial spirit in philanthropy. Since inception,
the foundations have given more than 3,800 grants totaling more than $300 million
to colleges and universities, hospitals, medical schools and divinity schools.
