Each year, the Curb Center at 1801 Edgehill Ave. hosts acclaimed artists, educators and community leaders to engage with the public through art exhibitions, panel discussions and interactive workshops. This range of programming realizes the Curb Center’s mission to “elevate art as a mode of inquiry, a way of understanding, and a celebration of the human spirit at Vanderbilt and beyond.” Along with connecting visiting artists and educators with the campus and surrounding communities, the Curb Center also supports many homegrown initiatives through its Creative Inquiry Grant Program, which empowers Vanderbilt University students, faculty and staff through funding for their public-facing artistic and creative projects.
During the 2025–26 academic year, the Curb Center funded a total of 43 Creative Inquiry Grants to support Vanderbilt undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff as they engaged in arts-based inquiry and action on Vanderbilt’s campus and in their local communities. Last year’s Creative Inquiry Grant recipients curated projects diverse in both scope and spirit, from 24-hour live-drawing events to lectures on Japanese cuisine to workshops on Latinx social dancing.
Grant applications for the 2026–27 academic year open July 1. Read about some of last year’s projects below for more insight into the Creative Inquiry Grant Program.
Sindur Patel, “Canta Canta”
Patel, an undergraduate studying neuroscience, was awarded a Creative Inquiry Grant to aid her work with Canta Canta, a student-led initiative she founded to support the psychological well-being of children through bilingual interactive art books. Patel’s inquiry grant project focused on the development and distribution of guided reflection books that combine drawing, writing and puzzles to help children process their thoughts and feelings in a structured yet creative way. With support from Patel’s inquiry grant, Canta Canta printed 50 books for distribution at the Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital in New York, which will be available for both English-speaking and Spanish-speaking children. Patel remarked that “this project allowed us to form a team of tight-knit Vanderbilt students committed to the cause. We currently have more than 20 students involved in our initiative and eight executive directors supporting in outreach, distribution, recruitment and marketing, among other roles.”
Hideko Shimizu, “Washoku: A Celebration of Japanese Cuisine and Food Education”
Shimizu, principal senior lecturer in the Department of Asian Studies and Japanese language program coordinator at Vanderbilt, was awarded an inquiry grant for her project, “Washoku: A Celebration of Japanese Cuisine and Food Education,” a series of cultural and educational events in spring 2026 that brought together participants from Vanderbilt University and the Nashville community. Led by the expertise of Tsukiko Hattori, acting president of Hattori Nutrition College, and Chef Kiyoyuki Ichimaida, the Washoku Project included a student workshop, a public demonstration at the Frist Art Museum, and a professional workshop for Vanderbilt University campus chefs. Vanderbilt students, staff and residents of the greater Nashville area were given hands-on opportunities to learn and practice techniques for preparing traditional Japanese cuisine. Participants appreciated the precision, discipline and aesthetic principles of washoku. During this series of events, Shimizu played an active role as intermediary, facilitating communication between the visiting guests, Vanderbilt staff and the Japan-America Society of Tennessee. Shimizu helped to bridge language gaps by providing informal interpretation, ensuring that key instructions and cultural nuances were clearly conveyed. Shimizu has also completed an English translation of Tsukiko Hattori’s book on washoku to introduce washoku to a broader English-speaking audience.
Danielle Myers, “2000 Drawings in 24 Hours”
An especially ambitious inquiry grant project was Danielle Myers’ “2000 Drawings in 24 Hours.” During fall 2025, Myers and collaborator Dominique “Younique” Coleman, with the help of the Nashville community, completed 2,000 drawings in 24 hours at The Forge in Nashville, a makerspace on Willow Street. During the project’s run, visitors completed a range of 15-minute drawing prompts including lemon, teeth, can opener, flowers and something drawn with a nondominant hand. DJs kept morale high through the late hours, as Chef Marcus Rhodes satiated participants with a pasta party, and a live podcast streamed interviews of the artists and updates on the project’s progression. Myers, the program manager of Vanderbilt University’s Engine for Art, Democracy and Justice, is known for spearheading many creative initiatives aimed at increasing arts visibility and access in Nashville.
Manuel Macedo Lamana, “Queer Latinx Social Dancing as a Social Technology”
Manuel Macedo Lamana, a Ph.D. student in anthropology at Vanderbilt, collaborated with Irvin Manuel Gonzalez, assistant professor of dance at Ohio State University, to facilitate two events in March 2026. The first event, “Queer Latinx Social Dancing: A Lecture Workshop,” was held in Alumni Hall. Lamana and Gonzalez gave a lecture that investigated queer interventions that engage with popular Latinx social dances and their political implications. Lamana discussed queer folklore activism, and Gonzalez discussed his specialized field of research, queer Quebradita (a Mexican American dance style). Afterward, attendees were invited to “ponerle el cuerpo” (put the body) to what was discussed in the previous lecture through a dance workshop, allowing them to sense and experiment with different notions of what it is like to embody Latinx social dances in a queer manner.
Isidora Miranda, “Music Unbound Artist Residency”
Isidora Miranda, assistant professor of the practice in the Department of Musicology and Ethnomusicology, used her inquiry grant support, along with support from the Tennessee Arts Commission and the Blair School of Music, to host the Music Unbound Artist Residency at Blair. The Music Unbound residency features artists who strongly value intercultural dialogue and collaborative placemaking through genre-bending music. The primary artists hosted during the 2025–26 academic year were North Carolina–based duo Larry & Joe (Larry Bellorín and Joe Troop), who combine Venezuelan llanera with old-time and bluegrass music, and Wu Fei, Chinese guzheng virtuoso. Larry & Joe and Wu Fei spent their residencies performing at the Blair School, hosting workshops for the Vanderbilt community and offering performances and workshops for various off-campus organizations, such as Antioch High School, the W.O. Smith Music School, the Nashville Musicians Association, and the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.
For the 2026–27 academic year, the Curb Center will begin accepting applications for Creative Inquiry Grants on July 1, 2026. Grant applications are open to Vanderbilt University undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff. Learn more about the Curb Center’s Creative Inquiry Grant Program.
