Announcing the new director of The Sidney Poitier New American Film School and other highlights from April 2021
Beyond opening night
Update: Due to family reasons, Dianah Wynter will not be taking the position of director of The Sidney Poitier New American Film School.
Announcing Dianah Wynter, the new director of The Sidney Poitier New American Film School in ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts:
“Being very creative on a large scale is exhilarating,” Wynter said. “And it’s that experience, at scale, that defines the Poitier film school. Our goal goes beyond opening night. The goal is social change.”
Power Play
Fashion students in the Herberger Institute’s School of Art created superhero costumes for patients at Phoenix Children’s Hospital for Power Play 2021.
Roden Crater
Smithsonian Magazine gives an exclusive look at James Turrell’s masterpiece Roden Crater. A collaboration between the artist and ASU, led by the Herberger Institute, aims to help ensure the completion of this ambitious project in the desert.
Creative collaborations
InnovationSpace, a partnership between The Design School in the Herberger Institute, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, the W. P. Carey School of Business and the Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation at ASU, builds cross-disciplinary connections that fuel creative collaborations.
Spotlight on faculty
Maria Rosario Jackson, one of the nation’s leading authorities on creative placemaking, recently spoke on the role of anchor institutions in cities for the Rudy Bruner Award Speaker Series. She gave the talk, titled “Strengthening Cities Through University Community Partnerships,” with Jason Schupbach, dean of the Antoinette Westphal College of Arts & Design at Drexel University and former director of The Design School in the Herberger Institute. Both Jackson and Schupbach also recently contributed to the Routledge Handbook of Placemaking. In addition to acting as section editor for the book, Jackson contributed three pieces. Jackson is an Institute Professor, with an appointment in The Design School and a cross-appointment with the ASU College of Public Service and Community Solutions.
By the numbers
This month’s number is 11! ASU ranks No. 11 in the nation for total research expenditures in visual and performing arts according to the National Science Foundation (NSF) Higher Education Research and Development (HERD). With a total of $3,532,000 in expenditures in fiscal year 2019 at ASU, the university ranks ahead of Texas Tech, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of South Florida, UCLA and Cornell. HERD released its rankings earlier this year, and included data from 323 universities in the visual and performing arts category.
Explore Herberger Institute research projects
In pictures
The Herberger Institute collaborated with ASU Gammage and Lightswitch to transform a parking garage at ASU into designspace — a mile-long drive-thru sensory experience. Several students helped on the design and production and created installations for the drive-thru museum, which took riders on a journey from our world to outer space. #designspaceASU
