Why AxS from ArtCenter

As we begin a new year and a new season of change lab, I think most of us are torn between looking forward with hope and looking back with a kind of weary amazement we've prevailed over enormous obstacles in the last year. But as educators and designers, we know all too well that every challenge we meet offers an opportunity for learning and progress. That was certainly the case here at ArtCenter,...

Elle Hearns did not set out to lead movements for social justice. Nor was it her lifelong dream to make the world a better and safer place for Black transgender communities. Growing up in Ohio, she imagined herself as an iconic singer, a chart-topping diva with a voice powerful enough to crack your soul wide open.  In the end, she did end up using the power of her voice to inspire people -- just n...

Grace Lynne Haynes' creative calling didn't announce itself until she set foot in her first college painting class. But from that moment forward, Grace's artistic destiny came through loud and clear, as unmistakable as a spiritual epiphany. Here's how she describes it: "It almost reactivated my physical senses. I felt as if colors were brighter, senses were stronger. I just felt like my passion fo...

Throughout this season, on alternating weeks, we'll feature a handpicked episode from podcasts by, for or about the Black community. This week we're excited to share an episode from the Micheaux Mission. Since 2016, Len Webb and Vincent Williams have been challenging themselves to watch and review every Black feature film ever made and released to theaters. In Vincent's words, they hope to give 'R...

Last year, Cedric Johnson embedded himself at ArtCenter for a week-long residency. Included in that visit was a talk about the policing crisis as well as a workshop with students exploring what it means to "do good" in the world through art and design.  These issues have only become more timely in the intervening year. But as any good historian will tell you – and Cedric most definitely fits that...

Welcome to our third episode of Change Lab Presents Throughout this season, on alternating weeks, we'll feature a handpicked episode from podcasts by, for or about the Black community. This week we're excited to share an episode from Scene On Radio, produced by host John Biewen, in conversation with series collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika. Scene on Radio is a Peabody-nominated podcast that dives d...

Like the consummate designer he is -- Kevin Bethune has iterated his own job description.  Kevin's strikingly diverse career-path includes stints as a nuclear engineer at Westinghouse Electric, a financial manager at Nike and strategic design innovator at Boston Consulting group -- all achievements that would stand alone as a high-point on most resumes.  But Kevin still had goals he'd yet to artic...

Welcome to our second episode of Change Lab Presents Throughout this season, on alternating weeks, we'll feature a series of bonus episodes we've handpicked from some of our favorite podcasts by, for or about the Black community. This week, we're excited to share an episode from The Brown Girl's Guide to Politics from the Wonder Media Network. Host A'shanti Gholar leads conversations with women ch...

Throughout her long and distinguished career as a commercial and fine art photographer, Barbara DuMetz has produced images that feel familiar even if you're viewing them for the first time. Through her lens, even the most ordinary subject matter has a mythic quality. She has a story to tell that reaches far beyond the frame.  That's her unique creative gift. And it's one she began cultivating as a...

Welcome to our first episode of Change Lab Presents Throughout this season, on alternating weeks, we'll feature a handpicked episode from podcasts by, for or about the Black community. This week we're excited to share an episode from The Institute of Black Imagination. Hosted by artist, writer, and brand consultant Dario Calmese, the show features conversations from The Pool of Black Genius: a col...

There is something almost poetic about beginning this season, dedicated to amplifying Black voices, with today's interview with Bob Davidson, who recently stepped down from his post as Chairman of ArtCenter's Board of Trustees. Bob was instrumental in my decision to assume my current role as President of ArtCenter. And over the past eleven years, our collaboration has been among the most profoundl...

On September 23rd, Change Lab will kick off its seventh season, which is dedicated to amplifying Black voices in art, design and activism. Much has changed since our last episode – everything really. So in response to these radically shifting times, this next set of interviews will lean into the special relationship between uncertainty and creativity and how it just might hold the key to unlocking...

This episode of Change Lab happens to be the last one of this season and we'll resume again, as usual, in the fall. And though it wasn't planned this way, it's hard to think of an interview more timely or better suited to demonstrating the strength of the creative spirit to transcend expectations, assumptions and challenges than this one with Chaz Bojorquez, aka the Godfather of Graffiti. There ar...

Diane Luby Lane is the founder and executive director of Get Lit-Words Ignite, a leading arts education nonprofit dedicated to increasing literacy and stemming dropout rates among at-risk youth. Her groundbreaking curriculum, fusing classic literature with spoken word performance techniques, has been adopted by schools around the country. In this inspiring episode of Change Lab, Lorne Buchman sat...

Storytelling is Dennis Gassner's mother tongue. It's the language – and the context -- through which the ArtCenter alum and legendary production designer processes the ideas of a script, and it fundamentally shapes the worlds his characters inhabit on screen. The six-time Oscar nominee is best known for the technically ambitious and artfully realized environments he has created for six Coen Bros f...

It's not an overstatement to say that Jessica Helfand is a renaissance woman of the design world. She co-founded Design Observer , an authoritative digital publication on the state of visual culture and an oracle of wise and thoughtful discourse on design for many of us. She also co-hosts two podcasts: The Observatory and The Design of Business/ The Business of Design . In all aspects of her work...

Ini Archibong is a luxury goods designer. He is also a furniture and immersive experience designer and an ArtCenter alum. This is all accurate and incomplete. So we'll leave it to Ini to describe his creative practice: "Any of the objects I'm making -- all they are is a potential entry point to wonder." Ini has been accumulating accolades and prestigious commissions from the moment he graduated fr...

Ivy Meeropol is a documentary filmmaker whose emotionally and politically charged films explore social and cultural injustice from the inside out. Her work in TV and film ranges from an exploration of the threat posed by the nuclear power industry to the good, bad and ugly of the American political system, particularly as it relates to her family (more on that in a moment). But what distinguishes...

Sadie Red Wing and Saki Mafundikwa grew up a world and two generations apart. Sadie was born into the Lakota tribe and also considers herself a citizen of the Spirt Lake Nation of Fort Totten, South Dakota—two longstanding American indigenous communities. Saki, on the other hand, didn't set foot in the United States until he left his native Zimbabwe at age 24 in 1979, almost twenty years before Sa...

ArtCenter's Transportation Design program has a type and, at first glance, Vicente Magaña seems to fit it perfectly. A lifelong obsession with cars? Check. A childhood spent sketching every type of vehicle his imagination could conjure? Check. An insatiable desire to land a job designing supercars and road testing them at top speed? Well…that's where Vicente, a Summer 2019 ArtCenter alum, separate...

Though Phil Gilbert's official job title is General Manager of Design at IBM, he's more often referred to as IBM's very own design evangelist. But ask him to describe his earliest creative impulses and he'll tell you without hesitation that he was an entrepreneur from "day one." It quickly became clear that Phil is all these things and more after spending the day with him at IBM's colorful, post-i...

In the lead up to the launch of Change Lab Season 5 on September 25, we're releasing a series of "Encore" episodes. For this final installment, we caught up with graphic journalist Wendy MacNaughton to discuss her latest creative endeavor: A Honda Element she's tricked out to function as a mobile studio. The car features a custom-made drafting table, art supply storage, and a double bed to catch s...

In the lead up to the launch of Change Lab Season 5 on September 25, we're releasing a series of "Encore" episodes. For this installment, we caught up with designer and entrepreneur Jesse Genet for an update on the big changes she's undergone in the short time since we last spoke. As the home-shopping revolution continues to redefine the way we shop and live, Lumi, Genet's packaging business, has...

In the lead up to the launch of Change Lab Season 5 on September 25, we're releasing a series of "Encore" episodes. For this debut installment, we caught up with artist Jackie Amezquita before she embarked on a three-week journey from Southern California through Mexico, primarily on foot, all the way to her native Guatemala. Amezquita refers to this emotionally and physically arduous journey as a...

For thirty years, Father Greg Boyle has made it his mission to heal those afflicted by the epidemic of gang violence. As the founder of Homeboy Industries, Father Greg has been instrumental in turning the tide on violent crime in Los Angeles and beyond. The secret to his success begins with reframing a question. Instead of asking "how can we serve gang members?" Father Greg asks, "how can we stand...