School of Visual Arts (SVA), New York City, has named additional faculty members and guest lecturers in the MFA Design Criticism Department, the country's first graduate-level degree program dedicated to understanding and interpreting design in all its forms. Joining the faculty are:
Akiko Busch, design critic; contributing editor, Metropolis magazine; and author, The Uncommon Life of Common Objects (Metropolis Books, 2005), with Susan Szenasy, George Skelcher and Diana Murphy; and Nine Ways to Cross a River: Midstream Reflections on Swimming and Getting There From Here (Bloomsbury USA, 2007)
Russell Flinchum, design historian, curator and author, Henry Dreyfuss, Industrial Designer: The Man in the Brown Suit (Rizzoli, 1997)
Janet Froelich, creative director, The New York Times Magazine
Emily Gordon, journalist; editor, Print magazine; and host, emdashes, a blog about The New Yorker
Alexandra Lange, urban design critic and contributing editor, New York magazine
Elaine Louie, assistant editor, Home & Garden section, The New York Times
Philip Nobel, architectural critic; contributing editor, Metropolis; and author, Sixteen Acres: The Rebuilding of the World Trade Center Site (Holt Paperbacks, 2005)
Guest lecturers will include: Eugenia Bell, design editor, Frieze; Gerry Beegan, design historian; Andrew Blauvelt, design director, Walker Art Center; Allan Chochinov, co-founder and editor, Core 77; Andrea Codrington, design journalist and editor, Phaidon Press; Stuart Ewan, design historian; Rob Giampietro, designer and writer; Peter Hall, design journalist; Emily King, author, curator and design historian; Cathy Leff, director, Wolfsonian-Florida International University Museum; Victor Margolin, design historian; Christopher Mount, curator; Kerry Purcell Williams, editor and design writer; Rick Poynor, author and design critic; Louise Schouwenberg, design critic; Matt Soar, associate editor, Design and Culture; Deyan Sudjic, director, Design Museum, London.
Previously announced faculty include: Kurt Andersen, co-creator and host, Studio 360, a weekly arts and design program produced by WNYC and Public Radio International; Paola Antonelli, curator, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art; Michael Bierut, partner, Pentagram, an international design firm; Ralph Caplan, writer, design consultant and author, By Design (Fairchild Books & Visuals, 2005); Steven Heller, author, former art director of The New York Times Book Review and co-chair, MFA Design Department at SVA; Karrie Jacobs, former founding editor, Dwell, and contributing editor, Metropolis; Julie Lasky, editor-in-chief, I.D.: The International Design Magazine; and Phil Patton, design journalist and columnist, The New York Times and Esquire.
Scheduled to begin in the fall of 2008, the new program was founded by writer, critic and educator Alice Twemlow, who chairs the department, and Steven Heller, co-chair of the MFA Design Department at SVA.
The MFA in Design Criticism will prepare graduates for careers as design critics by providing the intellectual tools for researching, analyzing, evaluating and chronicling all aspects of design. The two-year, 64-credit curriculum emphasizes the skills and knowledge relevant to those who wish to write about design on a full-time, professional basis; or pursue alternative critical practices, such as curating, publishing, design management or teaching. In addition to courses taught by core faculty, there will be an ongoing program of lectures by distinguished international critics, authors, journalists, curators, designers, editors and historians. Students will produce tangible documents of their critical practice, such as books, blogs, documentaries, course syllabi, conferences and exhibitions. The program will culminate in a thesis, which students will present at an annual public conference dedicated to design criticism, to be inaugurated in the spring of 2010.
The graphic identity for the new program has been created by the design team at the Walker Art Center.
In anticipation of the program's inauguration next Fall, the MFA Design Criticism Department is organizing a range of public activities, including an Open House at SVA on October 27, a Design Criticism Reading Series at the KGB Bar starting on November 29, and a panel discussion on the future of design criticism in the Spring of 2008.
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