Herberger Institute Highlights | DISRUPT | Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts

Highlights from 2018–19

Innovation Day

The Herberger Institute participated in Arizona State University’s inaugural Innovation Day, where several thousand faculty, staff and students gathered at Sun Devil Stadium to celebrate what ASU has accomplished together and take a day to learn, play, experiment and explore new ideas. It was a day to share what innovation means at ASU’s Herberger Institute: It means breaking out of the containers that have held design and the arts for most of the 20th century, in special places and for special functions, and reimagining how and where designers and artists can work in the world, who they can work with and how their creativity activates public life.

Sexual violence awareness initiative

When ASU launched the sexual violence prevention initiative CounterAct, with creative partnership from the Herberger Institute, one of the goals was to catalyze 880 creative acts to counter the 880 acts of sexual violence that occur each day in the United States. CounterAct exceeded that goal with 908 creative actions against sexual violence. Counteractions included a performance that reimagined individual and collective masculine experiences, the creation of an Amazon Alexa Skill that gives relevant answers on how to combat sexual harassment and sexual violence, an arts-based exhibition exploring how the current conversation about sexual violence has been a re-occuring theme throughout history and a panel discussion on experiences of people with visible or invisible disabilities in the realm of relationships, sex and sexuality.

Design, Resilience and Sustainability

Six researchers from ASU’s Herberger Institute presented at the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru) at the University of Georgia in November. The 2018 theme, Arts Environments: Design, Resilience and Sustainability, was an invitation to explore the relationship between creativity and diverse cultural locations, by framing discussions about design, resilience and sustainability in context of interdisciplinary artistic and environmental practice. Presenters included Lauren Hayes and Sha Xin Wei with the School of Arts, Media and Engineering, Dan Collins and Christine Lee with the School of Art, Filiz Ozel with The Design School and Megan Workmon, director of Herberger Institute student engagement.

Generation Creative

A team of ASU alumni, including two Herberger Institute alumni, was accepted into the Obama Foundation’s Community Leadership Corps (CLC), a six-month program designed to train young leaders to create a world they want to live in by addressing an issue in their community. Herberger Institute alumni Anna Dong and Darby Vance, along with W.P. Carey alum Mischa Aurita, developed Generation Creative, a digital storytelling campaign that shares the stories of local Arizona creatives to help inspire and empower young adults interested in pursuing careers in creative disciplines. As part of their capstone for the program, the Generation Creative team was invited to the Obama Foundation Summit in Chicago Nov. 17–19, 2018, where Dong interviewed activist, singer and actress Janelle Monáe.

Urban Bush Women

Projecting All Voices, an initiative launched by ASU’s Herberger Institute and supported by ASU Gammage, partnered with Urban Bush Women to bring the Summer Leadership Institute to ASU. Held at the School of Film, Dance and Theatre, the Summer Leadership Institute explored the theme: “You, Me, We: Understanding Internalized Racial Oppression and How it Manifests in Our Artistic Community.” Participants also performed in two culminating public performances that featured music, dance, theater, visual design and spoken word.

Conversations with artists

“As a Black, Haitian-American composer, I wanted to have conversations with other artists that could share and understand how wonderfully diverse our field is, in terms of how we identify and define our bodies, passions, politics and work.” – Daniel Bernard Roumain

Institute Professor Daniel Bernard Roumain launched DBR Lab with a group of students and alumni from across the Herberger Institute. Through creative sessions, one-on-one meetings, local and national performances, and more, the lab has established itself as a class, concert experience and arts collective. In addition to performing their own work at the internationally recognized arts space National Sawdust, the students had the opportunity to see Roumain perform at Carnegie Hall in “The Just and the Blind,” Roumain’s collaborative work with Marc Bamuthi Joseph. “The Just and the Blind” is a visual multimedia work that uses music, dance and spoken word to explore fatherhood, racial injustice and juvenile incarceration. Students from the Curb Creative Enterprise and Cultural Leadership class Roumain co-teaches and Assistant Professor Johanna Taylor were also able to attend the premiere.

“There’s a history across the globe and across the human experience of people ‘making’ as a function of something else that is happening — and that making being beautiful and that making having meaning.”

MIchael Rohd, Institute Professor

By the numbers

Numbers reflect 2018-19 and are accurate as of June 30, 2019.

Rankings: 10+ programs ranked Top 20

icon - group of people Text: Faculty 518 Text: Staff 223 Text: Students 5,399

Illustration of graduation hat Graduates: 1,158 Alumni: 31,000+

Student demographics: 85% undergraduate, 20% first generation (undergraduate), 39% non-resident 15% graduate, 11% international 38% minority, 61% resident