March 3- 9, 2005

cityspace

Designer Scenes

by Nicole Sarrubbo

A coalition of design experts, both professional and academic, will host the city's first-ever celebration of their discipline from April 1 to 17. DesignPhiladelphia will feature exhibitions from seven universities, a two-part panel discussion and more than 67 events that will highlight Philadelphia design of the past and its contemporary role in society.

Hilary Jay, co-founder of Design Philadelphia and director of the Design Center at Philadelphia University, says she wanted to create a celebration of the design arts that will impact how the city is viewed.

"Philadelphia is known for having over 300 years of history and architecture, but we are not considered to be on the forefront of design in the 21st century and that's a mistake," maintains Jay, noting that design can be seen everywhere, from the pill you take in the morning to the organization of an HMO. The program will highlight every aspect of design from how to create the perfect eyebrow to a lecture on the "soft furniture and delirious architecture" of Salvador Dal'.

"DesignPhiladelphia is a great spectacle of over two weeks of design events," says co-founder Jamer Hunt, who is the director of the University of the Arts' graduate program in Industrial design. The events "are really going to change people's perspective on design's presence in Philadelphia."

Jay says the collaboration of seven local colleges, called the Philadelphia Design Experiment Version 1.0, is unique in that each school will use a different medium to address contemporary issues and problems. Participating schools are the Art Institute of Philadelphia, Drexel University, Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia University, Temple University's Tyler School of Art, University of the Arts and Penn Praxis at the University of Pennsylvania. The work, including everything from interior to textile design, will be showcased at the Charter High School for Architecture and Design.

Janice Lewis, interim chair of the fashion design department at Moore, says her students are creating a children's clothing line on the theme, "Back to nature and into the future." Harris Steinberg, executive director of Penn Praxis, says his students worked on architectural designs to transform Bensalem's hodgepodge of post-industrial remnants into a fresh, revitalized waterfront.

Organizers hope the multilevel celebration will also offer new design ideas for the Philadelphia of the future.

For more information about Design Philadelphia events, visit www.designphiladelphia.org.