The Design and Arts Corps in ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts partners with communities to place designers, artists, scholars and educators in public life and prepares students to use their creative capacities to advance culture, strengthen democracy and imaginatively address today’s most pressing challenges. herbergerinstitute.asu.edu/design-and-arts-corps
Partnering with community to make the world a better place
“My main takeaway was the importance of collaboration and interaction with community, and how it’s possible to make a difference. It’s not impossible to make change.” – Max Schweiger, Design and Arts Corps freshman
For example, a digital storytelling program called iCreate calls for Design and Arts Corps students to partner with Phoenix Children’s Hospital. The resident artists work with children to create playful explorations of their most creative selves. Patients get to dance in space or travel around the world or vanquish volcano monsters in these videos, which help them build creative capacities, reduce stress responses and strengthen psychological resiliency.
Changing the world A bold vision The Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University is the largest comprehensive design and arts school in the nation, with a bold vision of transforming society through design and the arts. When fully realized, the Design and Arts Corps will engage every single Herberger Institute student.
Leveraging creative skills The Design and Arts Corps addresses a unique 21st-century challenge for design and arts colleges. About 85 percent of design and arts graduates work outside of the arts at some point in their careers, according to a national survey of more than 80,000 design and arts alumni. But schools do not train design and art students to leverage their creative skills to serve in nontraditional settings like health care, youth development, faith communities, civic institutions and social profit organizations. Design and Arts Corps does. This initiative fundamentally shifts design and arts education to ensure that every student gets a chance to work with a community partner and to deeply understand how they can equitably use their creative talents and imaginations to improve their communities. What happens when artists partner with scientists to communicate and advance research? How much more relevant can parks become when designers are invited to work with the families who use those parks? How can we transform senior centers into hubs of meaningful community-driven arts and culture?
For more information, please contact Herberger Institute’s Development Office at 480-727-6881.
For the last decade, gifts from generous alumni and friends have fueled the Herberger Institute’s passion and trajectory. An investment in the Design and Arts Corps is an investment in society’s wellbeing: Donors enable our most creative students and graduates to change the world. The Design and Art Corps transforms what design and arts schools can do in the world. We are excited by this work and know there is much more to be done. Be a part of re-imagining our future. Together, we can make the world a better place.
“I am curious to look beyond how to engage with a community professionally, but also how ethical interactions could elevate the level of understanding and openness of a community to enable positive change.” – Sarah Gaughan, graduate landscape architecture student
“They thoughtfully produced our very first public service announcement, which tells our ‘why’ in a creative and professional way. We use it every chance we get!” – Christy Moore, founder and owner of Social Spin
“The nation is asking us how can we lead — how can we show the way forward so that every artist and designer who graduates in the U.S. recognizes they have the tools, the capacity, the imagination, the competencies to work anywhere, in any place, with any partner, to engage, to advance ideas, to solve problems, to build communities, to create a more equitable world. That is what our mandate is.”
An investment in the Design and Arts Corps is an investment in society’s well-being
– Steven J. Tepper, dean of ASU’s Herberger Institute
herbergerinstitute.asu.edu/design-and-arts-corps
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