COLLEGE OF ART + DESIGN 2020-21
Celebrate! A&D Pandemos* vs. COVID-19 Pandemic We are slowly but surely coming out of the pandemic healthy and strong having taught 80% of our courses in person/hybrid - an LSU record, I’m sure - without casualties. Celebrate!
LSU COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
Kudos to the faculty, staff and students for persevering through the Covid restrictions and for meticulously respecting the protocols. And thanks to the LSU administration for the successful response to a potentially deadly situation. Celebrate!
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Hundreds of facility enhancement were placed in all our buildings following smart and innovative classroom and studio arrangements. The placement of protective shields and the strategic use of technology enabled efficient in person and online teaching and learning and kept us healthy in body and mind especially during the first few months of uncertainty and fear. Once again
Art and Design and Health and Wellbeing have travelled together in harmony! Celebrate! Celebrate also, the record number of new students and the record number of students continuing a straight path toward graduation, the arrival of outstanding new faculty, the completion of the Laura and Clark Boyce Gallery and the new CxC and IT facilities, the progress of work on the major renovation of the Ogden-Barnes Studio Arts complex scheduled to be move in ready in April 2022, the recognition of faculty and student work, the high ranking of our academic units, the $1.25 million grant from Louisiana Economic Development for digital arts work force development, and the resumption of our presence abroad with Paris 2021 leading the way this fall!! And much more!!! *The origin of the word pandemic is from the Greek pan meaning all and demos meaning people. The coming together of our people, our pandemos, our community, has prevailed over the pandemic and will continue to take us further and higher, onward and upward….
Alkis Tsolakis, Dean
The 2020-21 Annual Report is a digital document, with videos and links embedded throughout the pages. Follow the icons that indicate when to click and explore more.
SCHOOLS School of Architecture School of Art School of Interior Design Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture
ADMINISTRATION Alkis Tsolakis – Dean, College of Art & Design Tom Sofranko – Associate Dean of Academic Services Lake Douglas – Associate Dean of Research & Development Elizabeth Duffy – Assistant Dean of Finance & Administration Marwan Ghandour – Director, School of Architecture Rod Parker – Director, School of Art Marsha Cuddeback – Director, School of Interior Design Mark Boyer – Director, Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture Michael Desmond – Director, Graduate Studies
DEGREES Bachelor of Architecture Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of Fine Arts Bachelor of Interior Design
Master of Architecture Dean Alkis Tsolakis leading a drawing workshop in the Design Paris 2021 program. Students examined the essence of architecture’s beauty.
Master of Art in Art History Master of Fine Arts Master of Landscape Architecture Doctor of Design
ANNUAL REPORT 2020 - 2021
Bachelor of Landscape Architecture
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2020 1,136
150
STUDENTS ENROLLED
1,041 Undergraduate Students
134 Undergraduate Degrees
+ 95 Graduate Students
14 Master Degrees
1 ST
Doctor of Design Degree
$159,700
in scholarships awarded to 107 students
LSU COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
Landscape Architecture 50 / $87,500
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DEGREES CONFERRED
Architecture 18 / $36,800 Art 25 / $21,300 Interior Design 14 / $14,100
0-2021
14 LECTURES in the first ever LSU Art & Design Virtual Lecture Series
$41,864
28 RECRUITMENT EVENTS to connect with future LSU students
3 MAJOR FACILITY
WATCH: Studio Arts Building Renovation
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Exhibitions by the School of Art students
Watch: LSU Student Artwork on Display
renovation projects, including the Studio Arts Building transformation underway!
HUNDREDS of facility enhancements to protect against the COVID-19 virus:
86% of design courses were taught in person (with safety precautions in place)
125 STUDIO DESK SHIELDS were fabricated, assembled and installed in Atkinson Hall
100 PLEXIGLASS SHIELDS in interior design studios and offices
ANNUAL REPORT 2020 - 2021
raised to support students in need during the COVID-19 pandemic
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NEW FACULTY
LSU COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
MEREDITH GAGLIO joined the LSU School of Architecture faculty in fall 2020. She received a Ph.D. in Architecture from Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (2019), a Master in Design Studies from Harvard University Graduate School of Design (2010), and Master and Bachelor of Architecture from Tulane University School of Architecture (2005). Meredith is an historian of modern and contemporary architectural technology, urbanism, and the environment, with previous experience in professional practice. Her dissertation addressed the development and implementation of sustainable community planning and architectural strategies in the United States from the late-1960s through the early-1980s.
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Meredith has received fellowships from the Smithsonian Institution, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and the Buell Center for American Architecture to pursue her research. She co-edited with Caroline ManiaqueBenton the Whole Earth Field Guide (MIT Press, 2016), a volume of countercultural texts, and has contributed
pieces on the RAIN group and New Alchemy Institute to the ArchiteXX “Now What?! Advocacy, Activism, and Alliances in American Architecture since 1968” traveling exhibition. Recently, she prepared an essay on California’s Office of Appropriate Technology for inclusion in Design Radicals: Building Bay Area Counterculture, edited by Greg Castillo and Lee Stickells.
FACULTY ACTIVITY Beyond teaching, instructing, and advising students and fulfilling administrative and university responsibilities, the 65 full-time faculty members of the College of Art & Design participated in a variety of research projects and creative initiatives. These figures are based on faculty activity reports for the 2020 calendar year.
48 47 140 $587,733
Publications, including essays, journals, conference proceedings, newspaper and magazine articles, exhibition catalogs, and books.
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New courses developed or adapted to maintain safety precautions during the COVID-19 pandemic
In newly funded research in 2020
Exhibitions in 2020-2021
22 National
8 Solo
13 Regional
5 International ANNUAL REPORT 2020 - 2021
Presentations, Lectures, and Workshops
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LSU COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
YEARS
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YEARS
YEARS
Denyce Celentano
Chenta Franklin
Dana Mitchell
Kevin Risk
Associate Professor of Art/Painting & Drawing
School of Art Administrative Program Specialist
Assistant Dean for Diversity & Recruitment
Associate Pro Landscape &
ofessor of & Architecture
YEARS
YEARS
Loren Schwerd
Josef Horáček
Frederick Ostrenko
Associate Professor of Art/Sculpture
CXC Coordinator
Associate Professor of Digital Art
Years at LSU
ANNUAL REPORT 2020 - 2021
YEARS
YEARS
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LSU COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
JEREMIAH ARIAZ, professor of photography, debuted his exhibition We Hold These Truths, a selection of photographs he made across the U.S. during the Trump presidency, on display October – November, 2020, at Zeitgeist, in Nashville, Tennessee. We Hold These Truths is a selection of photographs made across the U.S. during the Trump presidency. Read more.
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KEVIN BENHAM, assistant professor of landscape architecture, was awarded the prestigious Rome Prize 2020–21 fellowship to advance his research on transhumance. The American Academy in Rome (AAR) awards the highly competitive fellowships to support advanced independent work and research in the arts and humanities. Read more. HALEY BLAKEMAN, assistant professor of landscape architecture, was named a 2020 Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). ASLA has elevated 19 members as Fellows this year “for their exceptional contributions to the landscape architecture profession and society at large. Read more.
MEREDITH GAGLIO, assistant professor of architecture, received a Graham Foundation grant for her research project “Life Arks: Science, Spirituality, and Survival in the Work of the New Alchemy Institute” exploring sustainable bioshelters: internalized organic structures as a response to a potentially devastating ecological threat.
WILLIAM MA, assistant professor of art history, presented “Lights, Reflections, and Reverse Glass Paintings at the Nguyen Court” at the 47th Annual Conference for the Midwest Art History Society in March 2021. ROBIN REED, assistant professor of landscape architecture, won the National Association of Landscape Professionals Gold Award for Modern Field House in October 2020. LOREN SCHWERD, associate professor of art/sculpture, was awarded the 2021 Moab Arts Center Re-Use residency, in which artists consider their studio practice in through the lens of sustainability and thoughtfully reassess their processes of material sourcing and waste disposal.
ANNUAL REPORT 2020 - 2021
MARK BOYER, professor and director of the LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture, was inducted to the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) Academy of Fellows during the 2021 CELA Conference in March 2021. The CELA Academy of Fellows recognizes outstanding landscape architecture educators who advance the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture’s mission. Membership in the Academy of Fellows represents the highest level of achievement within the CELA membership and honors a faculty member’s accomplishments in teaching, scholarship and/or creative activity, and service. Read more.
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The LSU Reveille The Mag’s “Best of Campus Guide 2020” named art history professor DARIUS SPIETH “Favorite Professor” of the year. The course ART 1001: Intro to Fine Arts, which Professor Spieth teaches, won “Best Class.” Polled students voted for the “Best of Campus” winners. Read more.
BRUCE SHARKY,
professor emeritus of landscape architecture, retired in spring 2021 after a long tenure teaching in the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture. Bruce Sharky has been at LSU since 1990.
KRISTINE THOMPSON , associate professor of photography, debuted her exhibition A Matter of Time at the Baton Rouge Gallery for Contemporary Art in May 2021. The compositions “reflect upon the contemporary political and cultural landscape—one overwhelmed by unfathomable loss, a heightened awareness of our physical bodies, and a hunger for civility and equality.” Read more.
Of Capacity and Breath by Kristine Thompson. Archival Pigment Print on Aluminum 9" x 12
“Breonna Taylor” by Amy Sherald. Amy Sherald (b. 1973) Breonna Taylor. 2020. Oil on linen. 137.2 x 109.2 cm / 54 x 43 inches. © Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Joseph Hyde
WATCH: LBP’s Art Rocks! MICHAELENE “MIKEY” WALSH, associate professor of art/ceramics, shared her creative process with Louisiana Public Broadcast.
ANNUAL REPORT 2020 - 2021
ALLISON YOUNG , assistant professor of art history, is on the National Advisory Board of exhibition Promise, Witness, Remembrance — which debuted April 2021 at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, KY. The exhibition is a tribute to Breonna Taylor , the 26-year-old medical worker killed in her home by police in a no-knock raid there almost a year ago. Curator Allison Glenn, of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AR, guest coordinated the collaborative project, which brings together work by Black contemporary artists to honor Taylor and her legacy. Read more.
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LSU COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
STUDENT ACCOLADES
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WATCH: Nico Budde: A Tiger Artist
WATCH: Wanderer of Planet Parallelogram
Undergraduate
BFA candidate JANIECE CAMBELL, digital art concentration, was awarded an LSU Discover Grant for her research project “STEM Accessibility through Creative Coding.” Digital art associate professor Hye Yeon Nam is her faculty advisor.
Digital art student NNAMDI ANYAELE won the Student “Best of Show” ADDY award for animated short “Wanderer of Planet Parallelogram.” The piece is the official selection at the Sidewalk Film Festival and received an honorable mention at the Nassau Film Festival 2021. Read more.
Graphic design students also won gold ADDY awards: LINDSEY HENRIQUES, BFA 2020 and GABRIELLE TRUPIANO, BFA 2021, for the Quad LSU College of Art & Design Magazine, Summer 2020 issue design; YERIN HEO, MFA 2021, for the LSU Foundation Cornerstone Magazine cover illustration.
COBY NAQUIN, BFA candidate, won a silver award for the digital publication design for the LSU College of Art & Design 2019-2020 Annual Report. Read More.
Architecture students in associate professor Robert Holton’s class won the Earth Made Competition, an international design challenge to plan buildings using earth materials.
WATCH: Jacob Lyons, Destined to Be a Tiger The project Gardens Above Accra by SAMUEL METHVIN and HANNAH MOLLERE is the competition winner, and the project Stacked//Metropolis by BArch candidates JACQUELYN DUPONT and CHASE WELCH received the Institutional Excellence Award. All five LSU School of Architecture entries were shortlisted finalists. Read more. ANNUAL REPORT 2020 - 2021
JACOB LYONS, BArch 2020, won third place in the 2020 Steel Design Student Competition, awarded by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), for his design titled Pesce Plaza. The competition recognizes eighteen exceptional projects, in two categories, that explore a variety of design issues related to the use of steel in design and construction. The 2020 ACSA/AISC Steel Design Student Competition challenged architecture students to design an “urban food hub.” Students explored ways to incorporate food production and distribution into an urban setting. Read More.
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Stacked//Metropolis design by Chase Welch and Jacquelyn Dupont, Earth Made Competition entry
“Picture Picture” by Luke Atkinson, New American Paintings
LSU COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
Graduate
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MFA candidates LUKE ATKINSON, STEPHANIE COBB, and SAMANTHA ROSADO were selected to have their paintings featured in critically acclaimed art periodical, New American Paintings. Each issue is a highly selective juried exhibition of contemporary artists in print, chosen by renowned curators. Stephanie Cobb’s paintings were selected for the 154th issue of New American Paintings, June 2021. Samantha Rosado, fellow MFA candidate of painting & drawing, had her work featured in the NAP No. 148. MFA Luke Atkinson’s paintings were in NAP issue #141 in 2020. Read more.
“At Rest” by Stephanie Cobb, 2020. NAP
ANDREW WRIGHT, MLA 2020, received a 2020 American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Student Award for his project titled “The Siltcatcher: A Sediment-Capture System for Wetland Creation and Coastal Protection in Western Lake Pontchartrain.” Brendan Harmon, assistant professor of landscape architecture, was the faculty advisor. Read more.
NASRIN IRAVANI, Doctor of Design candidate, was on the winning team at the virtual 2020 International Integrated Design Camp supported by Korea Institute of Design Promotion. The 2020 camp’s annual theme was “Design Against Pandemic” – tasking participants with the challenge to design solutions for current global concerns. Read more.
Time Series Proposal by Andrew Wright, ASLA 2020
ANNUAL REPORT 2020 - 2021
“La sala, no sale” by Samantha Rosado, NAP
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INTERDISCIPLINARY CO To the Moon & Beyond: LSU Students Design Tiger Eye I Mission Logo When LSU art and religious studies senior Katie Hostetler was in fifth grade, she entered an art competition to design a flag that would be sent to the Moon for a space mission.
LSU COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
“I ended up coming in second place and was devastated that my artwork wouldn’t be going into outer space,” she shared.
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Katie, who has loved art since she was young, went on to study graphic design in the LSU School of Art. When she had another chance to design for a space mission to the Moon, this time the patch logo design for the Tiger Eye I mission, she jumped at the opportunity. “I knew that this would be possibly a once-in-a-lifetime chance to design something like this,” she said. “It was awesome to be chosen.”
Tiger Eye 1 logo in International Space Station Image courtesy of Professor Jeff Chancellor
OLLABORATIONS The interdisciplinary collaboration that led to this galactic mission brought together faculty and students from across LSU’s campus, spearheaded by JEFFERY CHANCELLOR, assistant professor of physics. Chancellor’s research investigates astronaut health and performance during future long-duration missions beyond low-Earth orbit. His research team at Space Radiation Transport & Applied Nuclear (SpaRTAN) physics laboratory developed a sensor that will measure cosmic radiation levels on the surface of the Moon, to help protect astronauts and equipment. Read more about Professor Chancellor’s project.
The project, dubbed the Tiger Eye I mission, was in need of an emblematic space flight mission logo design, to artistically communicate the groundbreaking technology developed by LSU researchers. Who better to design the mission patches than LSU art & design students? Courtney Barr, associate professor of graphic design, introduced the project to the Graphic Design Student Office (GDSO), a team of graphic design undergraduate and graduate students. With creative direction from Barr and professors of graphic design Lynne Baggett and Luisa Restrepo, and direct feedback from the SpaRTAN lab, the graphic design team developed a series of design solutions inspired by the decades-long historical precedent of space mission patches. This project presented a design challenge that was completely new to the GDSO team, Barr said. “Jeff Chancellor gave us an idea of what visual direction he would be interested in, and he also explained that these mission patches often have a great deal of symbolism,” she said. “There’s a great opportunity with this sort
ANNUAL REPORT 2020 - 2021
The Tiger Eye I mission logo that Katie designed will be etched onto LSU-made technology that will travel to the Moon next year on IM-1, the first commercial research mission to the lunar surface in cooperation with NASA. This will be the first time the U.S. astronauts land on the Moon since the Apollo program in 1972. The logo has been displayed at the International Space Station, as seen in photos by astronauts.
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of challenge to integrate messaging that the average person might not even be aware of, but it makes it meaningful to the mission team.” The final selected design that Katie created combines the iconic LSU brand tiger eye with a retro-inspired rocket illustration.
LSU COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
“The mission logo serves as an identifying emblem for all mission team members, as a way of encouraging camaraderie,” Barr said. The design functions as an embroidered patch on garments and as a logo to be used in across a range of mediums to promote the mission and inform the public.
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“My inspiration for the Tiger Eye I patch design was quite simple,” Katie said. “I wanted the design of the patch to give a straight-forward depiction of what the mission is about and who it represents. I used LSU’s iconic purple and gold colors all throughout the patch to let people know that this is an accomplishment of LSU.” Since the mission entails sending a device to the Moon that detects radiation that may be harmful to astronauts, the tiger eye in the design not only represents LSU and the mission name, but also symbolizes a protective force. “In a way, the tiger is looking down on the mission. The position of the eye over the moon represents an ‘all-seeing eye’ that is overlooking the mission and protecting humans from potential harm,” she said. Katie has worked as a design intern for LSU Creative Services, creating designs for LSU athletics. She said that while she was thrilled that her design concept was chosen for the project, the graphic design creative process was a collaborative effort. “I really enjoyed working with the other students in GDSO, seeing the different concepts that they came up with, and sharing ideas.”
Tiger Eye I logo design by Katie Hostetler
There are endless ways to create with graphic design, she said.
“To me, graphic design is a form of art that allows people to express themselves with very few limits. I love seeing what each person in the graphic design community has to offer with their uniqueness, creativity, and imagination, and seeing other people’s work inspires me to be a better designer and artist.”
And what would young Katie have thought if she could know that one day she’d be designing for a real space mission? “This project would have made fifth grade me proud.” Fellow undergraduate students also contributed to this groundbreaking research: Haley Pellegrin, (LSU College of Science, is a LaSpace Undergraduate Research Fellow
Katie Hostetler in center. Photo by Eddy Perez
and member of the SpaRTAN lab where she develops new technologies to make better radiation shielding). Jacob Miller, (LSU College of Engineering, LSU Honors College), is an electrical engineering major who builds new devices for medical applications. Read more about the Tiger Eye I mission. WATCH: BRPROUD LSU Tiger Eye 1 mission set to take place next year on the moon
ANNUAL REPORT 2020 - 2021
Drawing has always been a hobby of Katie’s, but when she learned about graphic design, she realized that there are so many digital tools and programs that can be used to make things that one couldn’t easily create on paper. “When I was little I didn’t really know what graphic design was, but I enjoyed art. I liked playing on the computer and I would go on Microsoft publisher and make graphics – not knowing this would be my career one day.”
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LSU COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
Coastal Communities
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Traci Birch, interim managing director of the LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio and assistant professor in In the wake of the 2016 floods, which devastated not just the LSU School of Architecture, engaged communities in Tangipahoa Parish to ensure their concerns and Tangipahoa but turned 21 South Louisiana parishes into desires became part of the proposed design. Clint federal disaster areas, the LSU Coastal Sustainability Willson, director of the LSU Center for River Studies Studio invited Louisiana mayors and parish presidents and professor in the LSU Department of Civil & to a workshop, part of their Louisiana Community Environmental Engineering, deployed eight teams Resilience Institute. The workshop was modeled on a of senior-level hydrologic design students to take a national initiative called the Mayors’ Institute on City watershed approach to the issues in Tangipahoa Parish. Design, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, to help transform communities through holistic design. The team has been working closely with Dana Brown & Associates, a landscape architecture and planning firm The Studio’s goal was to refine and advance Louisiana decision-makers’ ideas to solve flooding problems across based in New Orleans. the state while also improving neighborhoods, transportation, “LSU showed us some things that were missing recreation, public health, economic development, etc. and where we could start implementing projects While LSU is home to hundreds of experts in engineering, much sooner.” — Dana Brown of the New Orleans science, and design—and the #1 landscape architecture program in the nation—units like the LSU Coastal landscape architecture and planning firm Dana Sustainability Studio help bring all of this expertise Brown & Associates together to take on pressing challenges.
WATCH: Planning a Sustainable Future for Coastal Louisiana
Baton Rouge Roots Baton Roots Community Farm opened last year in North Baton Rouge as a restorative landscape to support healthy lifestyles, mental welfare and environmental security. With recent support from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio is partnering with the nonprofit organization The Walls Project, which operates Baton Roots Community Farm at BREC Howell Park, and Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome’s HealthyBR initiative, to develop a master plan for four acres of Baton Roots Community Farm. LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio faculty and students are lending their expertise in design and engineering to help develop the site plan with the local community, BREC and Build Baton Rouge, the parish’s redevelopment authority. ANNUAL REPORT 2020 - 2021
“We’ve been able to use the results and modeling the LSU team did and build on that work,” said Dana Brown, who is an LSU landscape architecture alum. “By designing with nature, you can reduce flood risk while also preserving and protecting the natural environment that makes Tangipahoa such a beautiful place to live.”
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“The LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio will facilitate design studios where our students and faculty will work collaboratively with artists and design consultants to help develop a master plan for the Baton Roots Community Farm. Our intention is to help this valuable community space expand in scope from urban agriculture to creative place making by incorporating public art with community gardening, green infrastructure and urban ecology,” said Nicholas Serrano, LSU assistant professor of landscape architecture, who is a principal investigator for the project.
security. The new NEA Our Town grant will fund the development of a comprehensive master plan engaging artists, designers, engineers, students and residents to repurpose an additional 115 acres of an abandoned golf course in a flood-prone area of North Baton Rouge.
LSU COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
Baton Roots Community Farm opened in January 2019 during MLK Fest with the intergenerational Harmony Garden and is expanding to four acres of farm rows to yield 200,000 pounds of fresh food in North Baton Rouge. It currently offers multiple programs including a youth urban agriculture training program, Hustle & Grow, and “Garden In a Box,” which promotes backyard gardening to promote healthy eating and food
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LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio is partnering with The Walls Project to develop a master plan for the Baton Roots Community Farm. Photo Credit: The Walls Project
Facing Food Insecurity Architecture students in assistant professor Traci Birch’s ARCH 4072: Community Design Studies course tackled the challenges of food insecurity in the Baton Rouge region, when communities lack reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. The students designed innovative strategies for land use redevelopment, food access, and public spaces. The class worked with Build Baton Rouge [formerly known as the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority], Baton Roots, the Three O’Clock Project, and Feeding Louisiana to further advance concepts developed by the Baton Rouge Food Insecurity Coalition. The architecture
teams designed strategic urban design and policy conceptualizations that support those who are food insecure, to be implemented in the community. “As designers we have an important and unique role to play in mitigating the effects of food insecurity,” Birch said. “We can apply our skills to design healthy community spaces that provide access, build community capacity, and create opportunities for residents to highlight cultural histories and assets. This multidisciplinary course will examine public health policy, urban planning, and community design as intertwined endeavors in the making of healthy communities.”
NEW INITATIVES Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion The College of Art & Design has been working to address systematic racism on campus and throughout the fields of architecture, art, landscape architecture, and interior design, to promote inclusivity for LSU students, faculty, and staff.
LSU COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
In 2020-21 the college’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee of staff, faculty, and students worked with the four schools in the College of Art & Design to help promote diversity and inclusion across the disciplines. Events focused on these topics include:
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On November 6, 2020, College of Art & Design faculty and staff attended the Racism Untaught workshop, a virtual conference led by educators Terresa Moses and Lisa Mercer. The workshop used the design research process to assist participants in identifying racialized design and critically assessing anti-racist design approaches.
The workshop’s goal is to facilitate opportunities in academia and within organizations to further explore issues of race and racism, by: critically analyzing and identifying artifacts of “racialized design;” shared experiences of microaggressions and implicit bias; and systematic forms of racism and how we and our culture perpetuate them. “I am grateful to have participated in this experience where faculty and staff from College of Art & Design came together to reflect on their identity and consider how power, privilege, and marginalization impact experience in our everyday lives,” said Marsha Cuddeback, Director of the School of Interior Design. Faculty from the Schools of Architecture, Art, Interior Design, and Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture participated in the workshop, working in teams to address racialized design challenges relevant to the LSU community. Workshop participants explored topics such as identity, privilege, oppression, stereotypes, and discussed some of the many challenges that marginalized communities face routinely.
Through these exercises, the organizers note, the LSU art & design faculty are better prepared to address instances of racism in the future. “How can we, as educators, intervene to make sure the design process is anti-racist?” Mercer posed the question to participants.
The Julian T. White Memorial Scholarship Fund honors the legacy of the first Black professor at LSU and the second licensed architect in Louisiana.
WATCH: Standing on Each Other’s Shoulders
Racism Untaught After LSU College of Art & Design faculty members participated in the Racism Untaught virtual workshop, analyzing systemic racism from critical lenses, they applied those strategies to teaching methods. The workshop informed their perspectives when approaching racialized design in the future. The Interior Design Studio III taught by instructor Andrew Baque explored themes around racialized
ANNUAL REPORT 2020 - 2021
Additionally, the LSU Art & Design Virtual Lecture Series 2020-21 themes were diversity and inclusion in art and design, drawing speakers from a wide range of disciplines and expertise to educate students and faculty about topics such as “Equitable Communities” by Kia Weatherspoon, Determined by Design Founder and “Racial and Spatial Justice” by Liz Ogbu, designer, urbanist, and spatial justice activist.
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design and identified instances of racism in the built environment. The challenge was to create innovative physical environments that foster healing, hope, trust, recovery, comfort and inclusion for all demographics including racial and ethnic groups. To address the issues of equity, inclusion and diversity the class overlaid the design process with the Racism Untaught toolkit, aimed to reveal and unlearning racialized design. “The idea of Racism Untaught is trying to discover places where racialized design exists,” Baque explained. “That leads you to something that you reconcile with, in our case that’s a project design. We use our physical interior design to reconcile the existing racialized design.”
“During the semester, I gained so much insight on how interrelated racism is with design which I was not aware of before,” said Marigny Deblanc, BID candidate. “We did copious research at the beginning of the semester, and I learned a great deal about the history of racism in architecture. I learned how ideals of race are ingrained in the design and the history of so many buildings, structures, and public infrastructure to keep people of color oppressed. This could be done very purposefully or not even consciously but either way it is so important to acknowledge and be aware of its existence.”
The interior design students researched buildings across the United States and learned about facilities that were build during segregation, responses to the Jim Crow era, including hospital and high schools and buildings coined the “school to prison” model. The students studied communities trying to erase and eradicate any evidence of segregation, and looked at the physical responses to a long history of inequity in American society. The class identified three racial themes: hidden racism, leftover racism, and blatant racism. Therapy garden design by Guoyin, Qin
“These four design elements can be done by: 1) including variations for the user, 2) using diversity in architectural solutions, materials, finishes, and most importantly, 3) defining an identity using the local and surrounding community to create a more equitable solution to design. By including diversity, you can create equitable design solutions that establish justice for the space and community,” he said.
“This course has sparked an interest and passion towards including equity, inclusion, diversity, and justice from start to finish. However, it was not until I was tasked with finding a solution to end racism that I began to see the vision of what that looks like through design,” said Michael Howell, BID candidate.
The Racism Untaught program helps to foster conversations and safe learning environments focused on difficult and uncomfortable social, cultural and racial issues to ensure new ideas, critical thinking and diverse and alternative forms of creating. In the studio class, the students opened up to discuss honestly the complex issues surrounding racism, and learn from each other. “Many people contributed to making it a safe and understanding place to talk and I found most students were then eager to share their perspective,” Marigny said. “I think everyone is a student and also a teacher so that means no matter who you are-gender, race, religion, etc. that is your story which is valid and important. This was such a unique class and I loved how it went way beyond just race or interior design but is so universal and multifaceted.”
ANNUAL REPORT 2020 - 2021
The students then designed new facilities as “healing strategies” to reckon with the legacy of racialized design, and aim to heal communities through carefully designed sites that would promote equity and inclusion in the future. Their projects included redesigning schools into transformed academic learning neighborhoods, planned community sites that focused on health and wellbeing as key to the educational experience. Project designs included meditation spaces, art therapy, and healing gardens.
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Clark and Laura Boyce Gallery
LSU COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
The new Clark and Laura Boyce Gallery and store in the LSU Design Building was renovated in the summer of 2021. Mrs. Laura W. Boyce and Mr. Clark G. Boyce were both longtime supporters of LSU, the College of Art & Design, and the LSU Museum of Art. Collectively, they supported many initiatives on campus and established several endowed scholarships within the College of Art & Design. Those scholarships support undergraduate students in the areas of interior design, painting, and sculpture.
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The newly renovated Boyce Gallery. Photo by Ashley Motsinger
Most recently, Clark’s company, Louisiana CAT continued to support the future of art education by funding a graduate assistantship at the LSU Museum of Art. During her life, Laura was a community activist, philanthropist, and advocate of the arts, including service with LSU College of Art and Design, the LSU Museum of Art and the Shaw Center for the Arts. Laura, a member of the Forever LSU Campaign cabinet, served as the Chairman for the College of Art & Design.
Architecture firm Eskew + Dumez + Ripple gave a major gift to add to the Allen Eskew Endowed Lecture Series which brings guest experts in design fields to the LSU College of Art & Design. The award-winning firm, led by Steve Dumez (BArch ’82), Mark Ripple (BArch ’79) and co-founded by the late Allen Eskew, (BArch ’71), is also working on several projects on LSU campus now, including the Science Interdisciplinary Building and the Burden Museum & Gardens Welcome Center.
Culbertson Award of Excellence in Landscape Architecture Kurt (BLA 1976) and Gene Ann Culbertson (BS 1976) donated to create the award for students or faculty who have exhibited excellence in the field of landscape architecture. The award may be used to recognize or defray expenses related to achievements such as publication in leading peer-reviewed venues, or recognition in national design competitions or at industry conferences.
ANNUAL REPORT 2020 - 2021
Eskew + Dumez + Ripple
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Lucien and Mary Lou Cutrera Planning Scholarship
Lacour Family Architecture Scholarship
Lu Cutrera (BLA 1977) started a new nonendowed scholarship fund for the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture. Recipients must be full-time fourth or fifth year undergrad students or grad students, with preferential consideration given first to grad students with a business undergrad degree or interest in urban and reginal planning, and second to undergrad students with an interest in urban and regional planning.
Greg (BArch 1982) and Mindy Lacour (BS 1982) started a new nonendowed scholarship for architecture students. Greg is now LSU Director of Campus Planning. Scholarship recipients must be full-time undergraduate students; financial need shall be a consideration; in the interest of promoting diversity in enrollment, preference shall be given to minority students who are demographically underrepresented in the College.
Glassell Family Foundation Gift
Alton (BLA 1969) and Hillery Scavo
The Glassell family agreed to match the funds raised for the College of Art & Design on LSU Giving Day 2021 to support the Art and Design General Scholarship Fund. Distinguished alumnus Alfred C. Glassell, Jr.’s family has once again affirmed their commitment to the arts at LSU, this time in support of students who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Started three new endowed scholarships in art, architecture, and interior design to complement their existing support for landscape architecture. They join Ace Torre in having a scholarship in all four of our units.
Endowed Funds
Non-Endowed Funds
$12,705,880
$984,952
Chairs & Professorships $5,113,239
Other $578,318
Scholarships & Awards $3,385,658
Scholarships & Awards $394,450
Other $2,581,384
Lecture Series $12,183
Estate Gifts
$274,837
Total
$13,965,6689
ANNUAL REPORT 2020 - 2021
Lecture Series $1,625,600
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Louisiana State University 102 Design Building Baton Rouge, LA 70803
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The LSU College of Art & Design’s mission is to educate a diverse student population to become creative thinkers who, through their creative professional work, contribute to making a better world.
Design by Samantha Smitley, BFA Candidate