On Thursday, October 17, AIGA/NY brought together NYC’s five leading design schools for dinner and a spirited discussion about how AIGA/NY could better serve their design education communities.

In attendance were Suzanne Anoushian, Chair of the Communication Design Department at FIT; Juliette Cezzar, Director of BFA Communication Design and BFA Design & Technology at Parsons the New School for Design, and current AIGA/NY board member; Kathleen Creighton, Chair of the Communications Design program at Pratt Institute; Mike Essl, Associate Professor at Cooper Union; Benita Raphan, Project Coordinator for Richard Wilde, Chair of the Department of Advertising and Graphic Design Department at the School of Visual Arts; Josh Smith, AIGA/NY Treasurer; and Melanie Wiesenthal, Education Chair for AIGA/NY.

After getting to know each other, each participant presented their program’s vision for the future and shared the challenges they were currently engaging. As the evening progressed, a picture of a citywide design education community emerged: one that shared top-level knowledge and offered suggestions to one another. Although each school has its own vision, its own mission and its own challenges, it became clear that cross-institutional conversation would benefit everyone.

All participants agreed that AIGA/NY could serve the needs of their communities better by:

Clarifying
- Giving more definition and clarity to our ever-changing profession
- Celebrating the unique potentials of studying and practicing design in NYC
- Offering standards and guidelines for professional internships

Connecting Students
- Facilitating more connections between students and professionals by offering opportunities for students to present their work publicly, through public AIGA/NY events and/or new exhibitions, conferences, publications, and student presentations
- Hosting multi-school student-only or faculty-only events, where students and faculty can benefit from a wider range of connections

Thinking Long Term
- Continuing to offer more opportunities to meet professionals through portfolio reviews, studio tours, and post-event receptions
- Offer professional practice seminars where recent graduates can learn the skills needed to run a small practice
- Creating fellowship and residency programs which would create a transition between study and professional practice, while offering even more reasons for graduates to stay in NYC

AIGA/NY will keep the conversation going, include more voices from other schools, from the faculty, and from the students. The next step will be to bring together student leaders, listen, and then move forward with great energy this coming semester and the coming year.