ON THE COVER /

School of Music students Isabel Cossa (right) plays Alice, Sam Plumb (center) plays the Mad Hatter, and Michael Shoaf (left) is the March Hare in “The Nonsense Song” of composer Amy Scurria’s premiere of “A.L.I.C.E.” The opera is an empowering take on Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and featured the University of Utah Philharmonia directed by Robert Baldwin and U Opera directed by Robert Breault. This Kingsbury Hall production included a sensory friendly performance and an intermission tea-party. Costumes by voice student Robin Farnsley-Becker. Lighting by Seth Miller (Artistic/Executive Director of the Grand Theatre).

Walt Whitman described our complexities well: that we contain multitudes.

We are far more sophisticated than the simplistic idea that our left and right brain hemispheres delineate logical and creative thinking or that each of us is only capable of one or the other. Our capacity as humans to use curiosity to fuel investigation that leads to discovery is unmatched. And it is powered by our ability to imagine and create.

Sometimes our intelligence is a product of systematic and linear thinking. Sometimes, though, it’s something more mystical and inventive, the ability not just to notice, analyze and manipulate, but to dream and manifest.

At a Research 1 institution, one dedicated to the generation and dissemination of new knowledge, we see clearly how the engagement of all types of thinking are what make for the richest innovations.

As German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said, “Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.”

Here at the University of Utah, our thriving arts-based and interdisciplinary research acts like the proverbial tide that lifts all boats. From the arts to the sciences, creative and scholarly research is providing beauty, representation, enlightenment, inspiration, growth, change, and, as you will see in the pages of this magazine, fuller investigations into the ideas of health and wellbeing.

The human experience is not just being reflected by the genius of the arts; it is being made better. Sometimes that’s the bliss of being transported by a film because it so realistically depicts a scene. Sometimes it’s ensuring all communities’ contributions to the arts and culture are remembered and recorded. And sometimes it’s safeguarding creative thinking and artistic expression’s vitality in our public schools.

I hope you enjoy these stories of some of our folks’ notable contributions to art and life. Thank you for reading.