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For your info: the Roski School of Fine Arts in Los Angeles has a Master of Public Art Studies Program at USC: Art/Curatorial Practices in the Public Sphere

Application deadline for the 2010-2011 Academic Year is extended to May 10, 2010

Director of the Program: Joshua Decter

Roski School of Fine Arts, University of Southern California, Watt Hall 104 University Park Campus Los Angeles, CA 90089-0292 – Fax: 213 743 4563 – pasprog@usc.edu - http://roski.usc.edu/pas

Last week a workshop started off at our academy with the title Design for togetherness. It is led by Nik Baerten and Virginia Tassinari. It takes community life as a starting point. Community life has always been the subject of sociology and urban planning, but the field of design also steps in to actively uncover latent needs and potential within communities in order to jointly develop solutions and plant seeds of positive change. When assessing today’s neighbourhoods’ challenges, a crucial ingredient for resilience appears to be a positive sense of togetherness. Socio-cultural megatrends such as the individualization of Western society and the loss of social cohesion are frequently mentioned as threats to this sense of togetherness and consequently to healthy community life. Furthermore, both community members as well local authorities are rediscovering the benefits of resilient communities built around a positive sense of togetherness in contrast to those delegating responsibilities and problem solving strength to third parties. During a 3 month case study, product design and communication & multimedia design students went out into the surrounding former mining neighbourhoods. Their core challenge: How can we – designers and community together – stimulate togetherness through design?