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National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Research Lab

The Texas Tech NEA Research Lab will explore interdisciplinary and translational research across four unique projects, each treating a specific and pressing health concern.

Current Lab Projects

Animation-Making Workshops

The use of animated art materials and techniques to assist children with specific language impairments in expanding their comprehension and communication capacities

Remember This?

The use of devised theatre and dance to address and express the challenges of living with Alzheimer's disease as an aid to both patients and caregivers

Recent News

  • Winter 2023: Meeting of the Lab's Technical Working Group (J. Todd Frazier, Petr Janata, Kimberly Sena Moore); the group's collective expertise made for an excellent exchange about the Lab's current projects and strategies for identifying new projects for inclusion in a renewal of the Lab.
  • Fall 2022: Editing of the Remember This? footage for release in Spring 2023, that will allow for data collection along with the group's live performances.

  • Early Fall 2022: the Animation Making Workshop team wrapped up an 8-week summer program for at-risk youth at the Guadalupe-Parkway Sommerville Centers in Lubbock.

  • Summer 2022: the Remember This? artistic team completed choreography and filming resulting in nearly 1 terabyte of footage.

  • Summer 2022: the Animation Making Workshop team visited the University of Seville (Spain) School of Fine Arts and gave presentation at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain), the CINANIMA Animation Festival in Espinho (Portugal), and the 3rd Interdisciplinary and Virtual Conference on Arts in Education.  

  • Spring 2022: Leadership of the TTU NEA Research Lab PI shifted to Peter Martens, Ph.D., Professor of Music Theory and Associate Dean for Research. In addition to overseeing Lab projects, Dr. Martens also superintended a major collaboration between the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center and the Talkington College, bringing the Summer Arts Program of the Stroke/Aphasia Recovery Program (STAR), led by Melinda Corwin, Ph.D., to the Texas Tech campus for two weeks of arts activities, followed by an exhibit and a performance. This collaboration was a direct outgrowth of connections established between the Texas Tech NEA Research Lab and the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center through a previous project. 

  • Winter/Spring 2022: the Remember This? project team completed the interviews and data gathering for a new production of this work. The extensive data collection and analysis required for this project underpins the complex nature of the production and the challenges of translating the production's efficacy into a filmed medium as well as a live performance. 

  • Late 2021 (ongoing): the Animation-Making Workshop research team began offering iterations of their workshop series at community and educational organizations throughout the Lubbock area. In the process, the team also worked with undergraduate students, whose roles as data analysts and facilitators greatly enhanced their experience of academic research at a high level.

NEA Research Labs Program information

Kimberly Calvert-Gibson

Contact the Associate Dean

Peter Martens Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Faculty, Research, and Creative Activity

The opinions expressed in materials on this website are those of the author(s) and do not represent the views of the National Endowment for the Arts Office of Research & Analysis or the National Endowment for the Arts. The Arts Endowment does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information included in this material and is not responsible for any consequences of its use. This NEA Research Lab is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts (Award#: 1855516-38-C-19).