The Balvenie Fellowship will be offered at the University of Arts’ Ph.D. Program in Creativity.
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson is partnering with the University of Arts Ph.D. program in Philadelphia to create scholarships for creatives. The Grammy and Academy Award-winner linked up with Dr. Jonathan Fineberg, the director of the Ph.D. Program in Creativity, to design The Balvenie Fellowship.
The fellowship is a fully-funded program that will start this June that will only require three years to complete, according to the Philadelphia Tribune. Most Ph.D. programs require completion in six to seven years.
“We start with accomplished people who are already professional researchers and very good at doing something creative,” Fineberg said. “We use group critique and other ideas from art school practice. We try to break down the hierarchy of conventional thinking of whatever their field happens to be and create a committee for them from all over the world.”
The first recipient of the fellowship is Brooklyn-based musician James Brandon Lewis.
For Lewis, the fellowship, made in tandem with single malt scotch whisky distillery The Balvenie, will be a primarily remote program, except for intensive two-week summer immersion and long-weekend visits. Lewis, a saxophonist and composer, will use the fellowship to intertwine music studies with molecular biology.
The Ph.D. program was designed for creatives to research the creative aspects of various fields. This includes arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences. They will be charged with finding out what happens to the brain during creative endeavors.
“We’re honored to be granting this scholarship to James Brandon Lewis, who is already a well-established and incredible saxophonist,” Questlove said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what he achieves while honing his craft in my hometown of Philadelphia, and the impact he will have on the music community.”
Fineberg and Questlove came together after Fineberg purchased a house from Questlove and The Roots’ manager, Shawn Gee.
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