Have you ever taken a photography class at Brandeis, participated in the Senior Festival or enjoyed a MusicUnitesUS performance? If so, it is probably thanks to the Brandeis Arts Council.

The Brandeis Arts Council was founded in 2007 by Scott Edmiston, the director of the Office of the Arts. In an interview with the Justice, he explained that the council currently gives around $100,000 each year to the School of the Creative Arts for special performances and courses with the goal of funding exhibitions and programs for the Fine Arts, Music and Theater departments.

For the 2014 to 2015 school year, Edmiston told the Justice in an email that the council plans to fund several art studio workshops, global art programs, the Art and Gender: Global Perspecives lecture series, a new program called "Art from Africa and the African Diaspora," two Brandeis Theater Company productions with a focus on clowning and dance theater, an improvisation festival and a composer residency by Sound Icon.

The council is made up primarily of alumni and parents of students. During the 2013 to 2014 academic year, the council gave around $30,000 to the Theater and Music departments and $36,000 to Fine Arts for a variety of events, including a speaker series on art and gender, Master of Fine Arts actor showcase, the Brandeis Theater Company's production of The Seagull and a residency for the Talea Ensemble. According to Edmiston in a phone interview with the Justice, beyond funding the arts, the council's goals are to "invite the [current Brandeis] students then to pay it forward" and to help establish new courses within the arts at Brandeis, such as a class on feminist playwrights or music tours to Europe.

Not every art initiative can get council funding, though, Edmiston said, detailing some of the criteria that a project must meet in order to receive funding. He said that the council aims to give "direct benefits to Fine Arts, Music and Theater students." They are also "looking for a potential impact on the broader Brandeis community" as well as "unique, curricular, artistic needs beyond the scope of the academic budget." Each department is allowed to submit up to three projects for funding, although this year, the Theater department only submitted two funding requests. Requests are a collaboration between professors, students and each department as a whole. Edmiston explained that while this year the council had $95,000 to allocate, the total requests they received came out to $128,000. The council will rarely fully reject any one project, but does "just trim a little bit off of each program," he said, and see if the rest of the money can be obtained through other grants or foundations.

At least once a year, the council also meets with various departments and students who are studying the arts. Generally, the members only meet with students who have declared majors in Fine Arts, Theater or Music, rather than those part of the myriad extracurricular art groups. Edmiston explained that "because this program really funds needs within the academy-within the arts departments, as opposed to the clubs-they will meet faculty and students who are in the departments... that doesn't mean they have to be a major or a minor. Sometimes, they aren't." In past years, the council has met with M.F.A. theater students, Fine Arts majors who attended the senior trip to New York City, another Brandeis Arts Council initiative and students who are enrolled in new arts courses such as "Introduction to Printmaking: Silkscreen."

Although most students, even those who are engaged in the arts, don't know very much about the Brandeis Arts council or even that it exists, the council continues to fund some of the most innovative arts courses and programs offered at Brandeis.