Introduction
Winterhouse Institute, the organization founded by William Drenttel and Jessica Helfand, is hosting a symposium at The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut, August 14 -16, 2011. This symposium will be an invitation-only gathering of thirty educators and interested parties to explore the teaching and practice of social design in undergraduate and graduate design education. The first Winterhouse Education Symposium was held in October 2010 at Winterhouse, and proceedings, case studies and participants are published on Change Observer.
This symposium will bring together leading educators at the intersection of design and social change from institutions throughout the United States as well as from abroad. The goal is to discuss strategies for teaching and practicing social design in the classroom and the field. This symposium also aims to foster collaborations among the participants and to build partnerships with the larger design community in effecting school-based solutions to social problems.
This symposium is a part of a larger Winterhouse initiative around design and social innovation funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. The symposium proceedings will be published on Change Observer, the Rockefeller Foundation–funded website devoted to design and social innovation. Change Observer is a channel of Design Observer, the critically acclaimed website focused on design and visual culture. Other symposia have been held in Aspen, Colorado and Bellagio, Italy.
Programming
Winterhouse Symposium on Design Education and Social Change will foster direct, detailed exchanges on four themes:
• Case studies of effective design projects for social change based in academic institutions
• Recommendations for transforming design school curricula to better accommodate such models
• Exploring the roles and opportunities for new centers of design research and practice housed within academic institutions
• Exploring the relationship between educators and outside partners and clients in facilitating social design projects
Participants
Mariana Amatullo, Vice President & CoFounder, Designmatters Department, Art Center College of Design
Scott Boylston, Professor, Sustainability and Graphic Design, Savannah College of Art and Design
Charlie Cannon, Associate Professor, Industrial Design, RISD Director, Research and Design, LOCAL Architecture Research Design
Lee Davis, Co-Founder, NESsT, Social Enterprise Fellow, Yale School of Management
William Drenttel, Editorial Director, Design Observer and Winterhouse Institute
Liz Gerber, Assistant Professor, Segal Design Institute, Northwestern University
Phil Hamlett, Graduate Director, School of Graphic Design, Academy of Art University
Cheryl Heller, Chair, Design for Social Innovation Masters Program, School of Visual Arts
Terry Irwin, Professor and Head, School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University
Debera Johnson, Academic Director of Sustainability, Pratt Institute
Wendy Ju, Assistant Professor, Graduate Program in Design, California College of the Arts
Jon Kolko, Executive Director, Thinktiv, Director, Austin Center for Design
Julie Lasky, Editor, Design Observer and Winterhouse Institute, New York
Marcia Lausen, Principal, Studio/lab, Director, School of Art and Design, University of Illinois at Chicago
Paul McKinley, Dean, Saybrook College, Yale University
Heather McGowan, Assistant Provost, College of Design+Engineering+Commerce, Philadelphia University
David Mohney, Dean Emeritus and Professor of Architecture, University of Kentucky College of Design
Caroline Payson, Director of Education, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
Natacha Poggio, Assistant Professor, Visual Communication Design, Hartford Art School, University of Hartford
Mark Randall, Principal, Worldstudio, Chair, Impact! Design for Social Change, School of Visual Arts
Arvi Raquel-Santos, Design Director, Weymouth Design
Vera Sacchetti, Design Critic and Writer
Jason Schupbach, Design Director, National Endowment for the Arts
Cameron Tonkinwise, Associate Dean for Sustainability, Parsons The New School for Design
Helen Walters, Editor, Doblin H
Mike Weikert, Director, Master of Arts in Social Design, Maryland Institute College of Art
Malcolm McKensie, Hotchkiss Headmaster
Kevin Hicks, Hotchkiss Dean of Faculty
Steve McKibben, Hotchkiss Summer Portals Director
Background
Winterhouse Institute acts as catalyst, coordinator and champion of an initiative in the public sphere to develop collective action and collaboration for social impact across the design industry; it also creates communication platforms for conferences and gatherings, including an editorial website to monitor and report on developments. Funding for this work is through the Rockefeller Foundation. William Drenttel directs the Winterhouse Institute and is editorial director of Design Observer.
Support for this symposium has been provided by Rockefeller Foundation, Hotchkiss School, and Sappi Fine Paper.
