Questlove Launches a New Arts Scholarship Program in Philly (Unpublished)
Source: The Balvenie / The Balvenie[/caption]
Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson has been on a roll of success as of late.
Questlove is still riding the massive wave of his directorial debut film Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). Even after winning a slew of awards, including a Grammy and an Oscar, the Philadelphia product wants to bring that success to other people's lives. Questlove's partnership with Scottish whisky brand, Balvenie, is proving to be more than just a face. Questlove is partnering up with Philly's University of Arts to create a whole new scholarship program for creatives.
The program titled The Balvenie Fellowship, will let students explore creativity in various fields including arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences. Most PhD programs require six or seven years to complete. This program is looking to cut that requirement down to three years. What helps that quicker completion is the fact that the program chooses students that already have training or professional experience in their field. Dr. Johnathan Fineberg is the creator and director of the PhD Program at the University of Arts. The story of Fineberg and Questlove's relationship started in the buyer's market for a house. Questlove and his manager, Shawn Gee, were selling their home and it just so happened that Dr. Fineberg was the buyer. In short time, the three have become partners in another venture within creativity.
In a conversation with The Philadelphia Tribune, Dr. Johnathan Fineberg spoke about the importance of the program.
I created this PhD program because we’re still using a five hundred year old model. It hasn’t really changed. It’s great for people who want to be very focused in a narrow kind of way and they know what the field is.
We start with accomplished people who are already professional researchers and very good at doing something creative. 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.
Questlove and Dr. Fineberg have already selected their first student for the fellowship. James Brandon Lewis' skills in composing, writing and playing music have led him to the inaugural honor. Lewis intends to use the fellowship to intertwine music studies with molecular biology.
Of course, it wouldn't very "Questlovey" if music wasn't involved in the first go-around.
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