DI Exhibits
Design Innovation hosts several exhibits in both the DI Gallery and MuseLab located on the second floor of the DI HUB. Our exhibition spaces offer Â鶹ÊÓƵ students, staff, faculty, alumni, and affiliates the opportunity to publicly display their artwork, design, research, or fabrication projects that emphasize cross-disciplinary collaborations and reflect the mission of the Design Innovation Initiative within the DI HUB.
Call for Exhibit Proposals: Fall 2024
Design Innovation is accepting exhibit proposals for installation in the DI Gallery for Fall 2024. The proposal process is open to all Â鶹ÊÓƵ students, staff, faculty, alumni, and affiliates and offers the opportunity to publicly display artwork, design, research, or fabrication projects within the DI HUB. Exhibitions can be a work in progress, finished expression, example of technological or scientific innovations, or other project, but should emphasize cross-disciplinary collaborations and reflect the mission of the Design Innovation Initiative.
Spring 2024 Exhibits
Interior Design Studio VII
Tuesday, February 27th - Friday, March 15th
DI Gallery
Bridget Tipton - badams7@kent.edu
An advanced studio course focused on developing concepts and capacities for independent future practice. Emphasis will be placed upon advanced theoretical and strategic development; advanced understandings of social, cultural, and spatial contexts; design as research; advanced representational strategies; and sophisticated design expression across all facets and scales of a project.
Material Matters: Fiber Art and Sustainability
Wednesday, April 4th – Thursday, April 18th
DI Gallery
Leigh Garcia – jgarci31@kent.edu
With world-wide plastic production growing to more than 380 million tons this past year, researchers across the globe are looking for healthier, more sustainable material alternatives. In this material search, many have returned to natural plant fibers such as cotton, flax, hemp, and bamboo, as well as animal fibers like wool, silk, angora, and mohair. In collaboration with the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Office of Sustainability, the Print Media and Photography graduate students and faculty of the School of Art are curating an exhibition of natural fiber-based work created by Â鶹ÊÓƵ students. This work, exhibited in the DI Hub Gallery, will include all disciplines and forms of fiber work including but not limited to artwork (including time-based media), clothing, textiles, science, architecture, engineering, functional objects, and video.
Learning Art in Contemporary Crises: Environmentalism and Cultural Appropriation
Wednesday, April 24th – Friday, May 3rd
DI Gallery
Pinyan Zhu – pzhu5@kent.edu
Koon-Hwee Kan – kkan@kent.edu
In the past decades, a variety of real-world crises and conflicts have deeply impacted what and how we learn in higher education. What can an education in Asian art history contribute to the discussion on contemporary environmental issues and cultural conflicts? In this exhibition, we show the process in which the students from Introduction to Asian Art apply critical thinking and analytical skills to tackle each of the two types of conflicts. Using different contemporary methods to recreate bronze vessels from ancient China, students will reflect on how materials and technologies– which human beings adapted and developed from natural resources– influenced artistic styles. On the topic of cultural appropriation, students will discuss how visual elements from Asia were appropriated in their familiar cultural contexts in the United States. Bringing these course activities together, this exhibition shows how studies of art and art history, and of the humanities in general, could guide students to become better global citizens in the increasingly contentious world.
The bronze project is made possible thanks to the expertise and help from professor Andrew Kuebeck from the Jewelry/Metals/Enameling program in the School of Art and Sarah McMahon from the Design Innovation Initiative.