Fourteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

The Arts Co-curricular Enhancement (ACE) experience was designed at the University of Calgary to encourage students to participate in co-curricular, arts-based opportunities on-and-off campus. At the same time, ACE became a mechanism to document and reward students already actively participating in arts-based experiences outside their formal program. This paper shares details on the novel program design, describes how ACE contributes to the University’s overall strategy, and includes preliminary findings from focus groups as part of a study on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. It also includes the narrative of how scholars and staff from different faculties collaborated to transform the undergraduate experience in such a way that co-curricular arts became a recognized part of post-secondary education.