2015-16 Creative Activity Research Grants

The Sam Fox School awarded five faculty its 2015-16 Creative Activity Research Grants, which encourage the pursuit of innovative new projects or the advancement of ongoing creative activity and research.

The following recipients were chosen by a jury of tenured and tenure-track faculty:

Professor Rod Barnett and senior lecturer Jacqueline Margetts will travel to New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia to complete field research for a book on New Zealand landscape architect Ted Smyth in the context of post-World War II landscape modernism in the Asia Pacific region.

Professor Stephen Leet is creating a new series of paintings based on artist Carlo Vivarelli’s layout and the color palette of Neue Grafik (1958-1965), the Swiss publication on graphic design. The paintings will illustrate “art drawn from and influenced by design” and be featured in a joint exhibition with professor Buzz Spector at the Marfa Book Company Gallery in Marfa, Texas, in 2016.

Assistant professor Derek Hoeferlin is collaborating with Public Laboratory for Open Technology to research water management and its impacts on design, using DIY balloon mapping kits to document typological sites along the Mississippi River.

To enhance her work documenting community protests and build curriculum for students, associate professor Denise Ward-Brown traveled to Venice, Italy, for the 2015 Creative Time Summit, which explored expanded notions of curriculum at the intersection of art and social justice.