THE CENTER FOR MULTIMEDIA ARTS (CMA) is a research, professional services, and engaged scholarship center recently established within the new FedEx Institute of Technology (FIT) at The University of Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee. A joint venture of faculty from over a dozen departments and schools, the CMA formed around one desire shared among the Centerʼs founders: to collaborate as members of multidisciplinary teams on projects of social value. And so the CMA has built several unique teams from its “Expertise Core:” our cadre of more than twenty professors, professional staff, and community members presently engaging clients such as The National Civil Rights Museum and initiating projects with STAX Music Academy, STAX Museum, and St Jude Childrenʼs Research Hospital. Furthermore, the CMA is quickly becoming a popular hub within the University for faculty who wish to connect with colleagues from other purviews on causes of mutual interest, particularly health communications and community development.

The CMA seeks to improve communication, enhance comprehension, and enrich human experiences through new media applications and collaborative scholarship.

By August of 2004, just ten weeks into its operation, the CMA had netted over twenty projects, funds to support its fifi rst and second years of operation, two directors, three graduate assistants, and an assistant director for development. Unlike most of the Universityʼs previously established research centers, no grants, endowments, or general University dollars were available to initiate operation. Instead, fifi rst-year start-up funds were cobbled together from the College of Communication and Fine Artsʼ small discretionary fund and the 30 Universityʼs Advanced Learning Center, which shared a portion of its external grant funds and general operating budget to cover course buyouts for the two directors—both graphic design professors from the Department of Art. The directors then invested their time in outside client services to generate funds for a second year of course buy-outs, grad assistantships, and capital purchases. Other faculty, too, approached the CMA for collaboration and expertise, writing the Center into their research grants.

During this same period, the CMA tapped into available resources on campus to provide the facilities it could not afford, such as a large television studio and state-of-the-art classroom facilities. Equipment, however, was tough to get, so much so the directors donated their own offifi ce workstations and even brought in video decks, a TV, and a printer from home.

While we initially wanted to focus exclusively on research and creative activities, the business of building the CMA as a self-supporting University department within the fifi rst 9-12 months presented itself as the foremost project, especially since our start-up dollars were specififi ed as non-renewable. Furthermore, we found ourselves in the curious position of being the poster child for all the “good” community-focused research our urban University loves to tout while being pushed to the margins by the growing drive towards fast cash from big grants, defense contracts, and corporate salesmanship—indicative of the turn our public institutions have been forced to take in light of decreasing state support.

In the months to come we will work to build multidisciplinary teams of researchers to meet the challenges of projects from informed medical consent for parents of children with cancer to interactive learning tools for kids to the legacies of Civil Rights and Memphis Soul music. Somehow we will learn to do this while surviving the “show me the money” agenda of the University administration, the lack of funds or space for expansion, and the general challenges faced by any and all of us who balance teaching with research. Our motivation, which has helped us cope with many challenges thus far, comes from the amazing experiences we have every week as we work with our colleagues and community members. We get to see our city from the vantage point of its bravest residents, its most caring custodians, and its most intelligent minds. And therein lies the beauty of what we can do and experience as researchers and educators when we network our resources.