Representatives from 40 colleges of art and design across North America will gather together at New York's Pratt Institute to take part in a leadership summit on sustainability. The event aims to help colleges work collectively to build a strategic plan for integrating environmental sustainability education into art and design programs. The program will focus on the future of design education, curricula for a new generation of artists and designers, and strategies for organizational change.
The purpose of the summit is to provide academic leaders with the tools and strategies they need to integrate sustainability into their programs and set the stage for art and design education for the class of 2030.
"Right now each institution is working on its own and we're losing valuable time," said Debera Johnson, Director of PALSS, who leads Pratt's Center for Sustainable Design Studies as Director of Sustainability. "To ensure a future for art and design education in the new millennia, we need to move forward from a model of competition to one of collaboration and shared resources. The aim of the PALSS summit is to encourage the integration of sustainability into our programs collectively so we can advance the academic dialogue to the next level."
The summit is partially funded by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) Grant from the U.S. Department of Education and the Association of Independent Colleges Art and Design (AICAD). It takes place September 29 through October 2, 2010 at Pratt's Manhattan Campus and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.
Participants include the following colleges of art and design: Alberta College of Art + Design, Art Academy of Cincinnati, Art Center College of Design, Art Institute of Boston, California College of Arts, California Institute of the Arts, Cleveland Institute of Art, College for Creative Studies, Columbus College of Art & Design, Corcoran College of Art + Design, Cornish College of the Arts, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Kansas City Art Institute, Laguna College of Art and Design, Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, Maryland Institute College of Art, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Moore College of Art & Design, Montserrat College of Art, Nova Scotia School of Art & Design, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Parsons The New School for Design, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Pratt Institute, Ontario College of Art & Design, Oregon College of Art & Craft, Otis College of Art and Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Ringling College of Art and Design, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, School of Visual Arts.
