NEWS & EVENTS
LEADING
THE WAY Parsons Dean Tim Marshall has assumed the newly expanded role of provost of The New School for the period from March 2009 to June 2010. Marshall’s appointment follows a season of debate and discussion on campus regarding a more collaborative balance between the university’s academic and administrative voices. The appointment has been welcomed by students, faculty, the deans and officers, and the board of trustees as well as President Bob Kerrey. Joel Towers, Dean of the School of Design Strategies, has been named interim Dean of Parsons to serve until Marshall reassumes that post in 2010.
SHOTS
FROM THE HEART On Valentine’s Day, the names, faces, stories, and dreams of hundreds of homeless teenagers flooded the website of Do1Thing. Co-founded by Design and Technology student Najlah Feanny Hicks, the organization raises awareness of the 1.3 million homeless young people in the United States and involves the public in doing “one thing” to lower that number. In response to the 24-hour Web launch, Hicks’ thesis project, more than 100 photographers and filmmakers, including 24 Pulitzer Prize winners, uploaded images of children who have aged out of foster care or left troubled families. Visit www.Do1Thing.org to learn more.
ORIGAMI RESIDENT Design and Technology student Jonah Model’s Origami project is one of 19 winners of the Digital Media and Learning Competition, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Origami is a file-sharing system that promotes ad hoc learning spaces using a visual tag for linking physical spaces with existing collaborative software.
MASTERS
OF INNOVATION This fall, Parsons will welcome the first class of students into its long-anticipated MFA Program in Interior Design (pending state approval). The innovative program will integrate tradition with new challenges and dimensions in interior design practice, such as sustainable design and enhanced building performance, new developments in technology and materials, and new types of clients and users that arise from social change and shifts in demographics. “With Parsons’ strong emphasis on the social impact of design, this program is uniquely qualified to confront these modern challenges,” said Lois Weinthal, director of Interior Design at Parsons. The faculty are also developing dynamic graduate programs in Transdisciplinary Design, Fashion Studies, Design Management, and Fashion Design and Society. Collectively, they signal a shift to understanding design as a connective practice that addresses environmental and economic challenges in global contexts and in emerging industries.
ARTIST MFA Fine Arts student Kyoung Eun Kang was chosen to attend the prestigious Skowhegan Institute, an intensive residency for emerging visual artists. Her work pushes self-awareness in explorations of her body, materials, and surroundings.
PHOTO
OPPORTUNITY Interaction and Space, the first photography exhibit by U.S. students in the history of the State Hermitage Museum will be on view in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in June. Co-curated by faculty member Thomas Werner, the show features work by 13 Parsons undergrads.
GREEN
CARPET MOMENT On Earth Day, April 22, KIEHL’S stores nationwide unveiled a Limited Edition Label Art series for their Superbly Restorative Argan Body Lotion, including a design created by a team of students from Parsons’ Sustainable Design Review. Marie Clare Brush, Alex Bulloch, and Jennifer Mutrux joined socially conscious celebrity designers, including surfer Kelly Slater, musician Erykah Badu, and actor Adrian Grenier. All of the net proceeds will go to the grassroots waterways protection organization, Waterkeeper Alliance. Parsons was brought into the project by alumna Maria Gustafson ‘91, the head of design at KIEHL’S.
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RM RIV VU Visitors to PULSE New York, the city’s hottest contemporary art fair, found a peaceful haven in a public reading room designed by students in the MFA Fine Arts program. The room incorporated work by the program’s 40-plus students, chosen by independent curator Eva Diaz.
GLOBAL
V I S ION The Par sons Institute For Information Mapping (PIIM) has received funding from the United Nations to create an online tool to help the world’s citizens understand and further the UN’s work.
LIGHTS,
CAMERA, TAKE ACTION In honor of International Women’s Day, 450 movie theaters across the United States screened A Powerful Noise, a compelling documentary produced by Sheila C. Johnson, chair of Parsons’ board of governors and global ambassador for CARE International. The film focuses on three women—living in Vietnam, Bosnia, and Mali—whose activism has opened up possibilities for themselves and their communities. Said Johnson, “I am convinced that the more women in developed nations hear the stories of these courageous women … the more they will step up to help them.” Learn more at www.apowerfulnoise.org. AND … On March 21, the History of Decorative Arts and Design master’s program hosted a symposium, Design on Film, at the CooperHewitt. Faculty members Jamer Hunt, Cameron Tonkinwise, and Marilyn Cohen discussed the interplay between cinema and design studies, using films such as Safe and Koyaanisqatsi as examples. The School of Constructed Environments is a university partner for the second international Professional Lighting Design Conference, to be held in Berlin, October 28–31, 2009.
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