Art department adds ‘design’ to title
The art department at the Caine Colllege of the Arts officially changed its name last week in order to more fully represent its interior and graphic design students, said Craig Jessop, dean of the college.
The new department of art and design will be the same as before, but with the word “design” in its title, said Laura Gelfand, head of the department.
“It changes our profile in terms of what we are and what we do,” Gelfand said.
The name-changing decision came up in 2010 when the art department absorbed the interior design program as the Caine College of the Arts was organized, Gelfand said. Graphic design, the largest program in the department, was already a part of it.
Graphic design major Nathan Firth, a senior, said he is glad for the added distinction in name and the clarification it gives about what design students do, but at the same time he said it doesn’t seriously affect him.
“Art is a very general term, but yet we know what we’re doing as designers,” Firth said. “I don’t mind being called an art student, but for me the (new) name sounds more distinguished.”
Although the change didn’t come until interior design was officially added, Gelfand said the change should benefit all students in the department of art and design.
“It’s actually for the artists as well,” Gelfand said. “Design is a really strong component of everything all of us do.”
Jessop said design crosses all sorts of disciplines not traditionally art related.
“Graphic design is so all encompassing,” Jessop said. “It partners with business, it partners with science. It crosses all boundaries.”
Design is the wave of the future, he said. It’s a broad subject important to the success of businesses and researchers. Anyone can have cold, hard data, he said, but knowing what to do with it creatively and in an innovative way is another matter.
“More and more, the arts students partner with the sciences in helping to employ new technologies in creative ways, and design is important in that,” Jessop said.
Design programs have partnered with the Huntsman School of Business over the last two summers for a new study abroad certificate based in Switzerland that includes graphic design, marketing and product design, he said.
The new name improves the department’s mission as it seeks accreditation through the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, Gelfand said. The interior design program is already accredited, but the department of art and design as a whole is not.
Jessop said when he became dean of the Caine College of the Arts, seeking accreditation for both the theater and art and design departments became a goal for him.
The process of becoming fully accredited should take about two years, he said. Officials with the accrediting associations have already visited the school to figure out what elements of the curriculum and structure need improvement, he said.
“It’s hard to believe we have been in existence this long, and the programs have not been accredited,” Jessop said.
Jessop’s long-term plans for the college include adding film to the curriculum, as well as a dance program in the theater department, he said.
For the short term, Gelfand said her department is looking for ways to reach out to the community, including an exhibition at the Swaner Preserve and EcoCenter in Park City in time for the Sundance Film Festival this January, she said.
– la.stewart@aggiemail.usu.edu