ArtsCorpsDetroit engages Wayne State University students and community volunteers in neighborhood arts projects to enliven neighborhoods, build relationships, develop skills, and strengthen our community. Reid Honors College, Wayne State University, with support fromProfessor Jerry Herron, Dean of the Irvin D. Reid, Wayne State University President Emeritus and Eugene Applebaum Professor of Commun
ity Engagement. Principal individuals involved in the establishment of ArtsCorpsDetroit were Marion "Mame" Jackson, Professor of Art History whose new service-learning course, "Art as a Social Process" served as a stimulus for the idea; Holly Feen-Calligan, Assoc. Professor and Director of Art Therapy, who immediately saw the research potential of service-learning in community-based arts and directed her own and her students' research toward this new field of inquiry; and Elizabeth Barton, who was then director of CommunityEngagement@Wayne. Inspired by the Peace Corps and established on its 50th anniversary, ArtsCorpsDetroit grew from service-learning courses and the interest among faculty in three Wayne State University colleges (Education; Fine, Performing and Communication Arts; and Honors) to promote arts-based service-learning for students, faculty, and community art programs. In 2010, Holly Feen-Calligan received a Wayne State University Arts and Humanities Research Enhancement Program Grant for ArtsCorpsDetroit Research. Funds from this award provided the initial support for a five-year research study of student, alumni and agency experiences with service-learning. Art, art history, honors, art education, music education and art therapy students participated in the research, as did directors and constituents from nine Detroit community agencies. In addition, funding from local foundations, including a generous anchor grant from the Fred A. Erb Family Foundation, enabled the volunteer component to grow and community projects to expand. Through arts-based programming and with a dynamic corps of students and volunteers, ArtsCorpsDetroit has contributed to the well-being of Detroit residents and the vitality of Detroit communities and, at the same time, has fostered the academic and personal growth of students and volunteers and the collection of data for research. Appendices A and B lists the service-learning and volunteer settings and agency partners. In 2016, ArtsCorpsDetroit found a temporary home in the James Pearson Duffy Department of Art and Art History, Wayne State University. There, it was led by Joan Verla, with its research component directed by Holly Feen-Calligan, associate professor and art therapy coordinator in the College of Education and co-founder of ArtsCorpsDetroit. Joan Verla oversaw the community projects described in this report which included working with artists, service-learners and volunteers. Relationships with these organizations are strong and numerous projects are ongoing.
