UNC’s performing arts center has been awarded a $1 million grant to launch a new and innovative performing arts program that seeks to combine the arts and academics.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded UNC with the grant to launch DisTIL, the Discovery Through Iterative Learning, Fellowship program.

DisTIL is a program meant to broaden the horizons of artists at the Carolina Performing Arts by allowing them to conduct research in a different field of study.

Emil Kang, the executive and artistic director and special assistant to the chancellor for the arts, said in a release, the CPA has an important role in the relationship between the artist and the academy.

CPA plans to invite select artists on campus for multi-week, multi-year research residencies allowing the artists sufficient time and resources to create a relationship with the faculty at Carolina, according to a release.

The fellowship will be awarded to four artists who are active leaders in their fields and have expressed a desire to work collaboratively with the university.

Each fellow will be placed into a specific academic unit or school department. The hope for the program is to have the artists evolve and advance themselves in ways they might never have thought of.

This is the fourth major grant awarded in support of Carolina Performing Arts from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation since 2011. Funding for DisTIL begins in July.

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