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

Highlights from 2019–20

$400K grant

The Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts was awarded $400,000 from ArtPlace America (ArtPlace) to support its work in building the field of creative placemaking toward furthering healthy, equitable and sustainable communities. Herberger Institute was one of six other recipients. “Each of these institutions is working to bring traditionally siloed bodies of knowledge and ways of teaching together,” said ArtPlace Executive Director Jamie Bennett. “We are thrilled to support these institutions in a way that works for their educational philosophies to further the work of artists as allies in creating healthy, equitable and sustainable communities.” The funding awarded to ASU will be used to create concentrations and minors for multiple degree programs, as well as the case studies, learning modules and original research that will be required. Read more.

Support for design and arts education

To celebrate its 50th anniversary in business, Arizona-based Camelot Homes donated $50,000 for endowed scholarships for Herberger Institute students. A $25,000 scholarship was earmarked for students of ASU’s new popular music program, a bachelor’s degree concentration in the School of Music. A second $25,000 scholarship is available to students studying in any of the five schools of the Herberger Institute. In addition, the School of Music and the family-owned homebuilder joined forces to establish the Camelot Homes-ASU School of Music Concert Series, underwritten by a $10,000 gift from Camelot Homes and featuring music students.

‘Towards a More Perfect Union’

A protest of social injustice and an opportunity for change: ASU Symphony Orchestra in collaboration with ASU Gammage redesigned the classic orchestral concert. “Towards a More Perfect Union” debuted its first and only show Oct. 5, 2019 at ASU Gammage. The show followed seven composers through their personal journeys with the challenges of our time, backed with music from ASU students in the School of Music. Works by Tamar-kali (composer for Academy Award nominee “Mudbound”), Daniel Bernard Roumain (“We Shall Not Be Moved,” a New York Times top 10 classical new works), Joel Thompson (former ASU Projecting All Voices Fellow), Carlos Simon (Sundance/Time Warner Composer Fellow), Grammy winners Joan Tower and Martha Gonzalez and renowned spoken-word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph.

“I hope (the audience) has a new sensitivity and empathy towards people of color,” said Institute Professor Daniel Bernard Roumain, who co-directed the show with Associate Professor Jeffery Meyer. “I would like them to think of this as a challenge in a way that is engaging and to continue the conversation and dialogue.”

National summit

ASU’s Herberger Institute co-produced the National Leadership Summit on creative placemaking, along with the National Consortium for Creative Placemaking (NCCP) and ArtPlace America. Civic and cultural leaders who practice “creative placemaking,” the community approach that puts arts, culture and design at the heart of community planning and equitable development, convened in downtown Phoenix in November for three days of seminars with thought leaders, stimulating group discussions, hands-on workshops and networking with professionals working at the intersection of arts, culture, community planning and development.

Viral video

ASU student a cappella group the Devil Clefs performed a mashup of two Billie Eilish songs in a stairwell in the School of Music building and the video has more than 12 million views on YouTube. The group includes students from every school in the Herberger Institute, which comprises the Schools of Art; Arts, Media and Engineering; Film, Dance and Theatre; Music; and The Design School. Several local and national publications have featured the viral vocalists. Good Morning America interviewed digital culture student Alexa Siegler who said, “It’s so surreal to see our group get so much hype and so much buzz.”

“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, Herberger Institute + School of Film, Dance and Theatre