Parsons The New School for Design will present its the second annual Parsons Festival, which will take place May 1 through 20, 2012, and feature exhibitions, symposia, panel discussions, critiques and special projects that celebrate the next generation of artists and designers working in a range of disciplines.
The following are a selection of events featured in the Parsons Festival, including exhibitions of graduating student work. For more information, including a full schedule of events, visit www.newschool.edu/parsons/
Parsons BFA Fine Arts Senior Show
May 5 – 20, 2012
Opening Reception: Wednesday, May 16, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Parsons The New School for Design, Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, 66 Fifth Avenue
Parsons presents an exhibition of selections from the final thesis projects of the BFA Fine Arts class of 2012. The culmination of a full year of individualized studio practice, their work spans the gamut from new media projects tracking avatars in Second Life to knitted webs for architectural spaces, from painting to performance. Students will present live performances during the event.
Parsons MFA Design and Technology Exhibition
May 5 – 20, 2012
Opening Reception: Sunday, May 6, 7:00 – 10:00 p.m.
Symposium: May 15 and 16, please visit the festival website for locations and times
Parsons The New School for Design, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, 2 West 13th Street
A two-week exhibition featuring installations and performances, objects and apps, games and video, and interactive experiences that explore the dynamic role of technology in our current lives. These 80 projects, produced by graduates of the MFA Design and Technology program at Parsons, explore issues related to technology—including its value—invoking the playful, the informative, the empowering, the critical, and the subversive to investigate emerging issues and provoke discussion.
Parts & Labor II: Parsons MFA Photography Exhibition
May 7 – 20, 2012
Opening Reception: Monday, May 14, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
The New School, Student Study Center, 90 Fifth Avenue
This exhibition features works by first and second year students in the MFA Photography program at Parsons, which seeks to redefine the creative role of photographer within contemporary culture. The featured works represent a wide range of interests, inquiries, methodologies, and approaches by these emerging photographic artists, and push the boundaries of the medium and the limits of creative vision.
Parsons BFA Communication Design and Design and Technology Thesis Shows
May 7 – 20, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, May 11, 5:30 – 8:00 p.m.
The New School, Albert and Vera List Academic Center, 6 East 16th Street, Sixth Floor
Parsons presents an exhibition featuring the work of more than a hundred graduating students in the BFA Communication Design and BFA Design and Technology programs. Projects address a wide range of practical and theoretical concerns across a variety of media, inflected with the programs’ shared optimism about the role of design in a global context.
Parsons BFA Illustration Senior Show
May 7 – 20, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, May 11, 6:30 – 9:00 p.m.
The New School, Albert and Vera List Academic Center, 6 East 16th Street, 6th floor
Parsons presents an exhibition of work by graduating students in the BFA Illustration program. The pieces on view lend themselves to a wide variety of careers, such as editorial illustration, comics and graphic novels, picture books, motion graphics and animation, toy and product design, and gallery art.
Parsons AAS Graphic Design Show
May 7 – 20, 2012
Opening Reception: Monday, May 7, 6:30 – 9:00 p.m.
The New School, Albert and Vera List Academic Center, 6 East 16th Street, 6th floor
Parsons presents an exhibition highlighting the best work from the last three years of the AAS Graphic Design program, a fast-track approach to creating world-class design thinkers. Its graduates go on to work in major design firms and companies throughout the world, including Chermayeff & Geismar, Pentagram, The New York Times, Random House, Nylon magazine, and V magazine, among others.
Parsons Scholars Exhibition
May 7 – 20, 2012
Presentations: Saturday, May 12, 2012, 4:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 12, 2012, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
The New School, Albert and Vera List Academic Center, 6 East 16th Street,12th floor
The Parsons Scholars Program is a three-year college preparation program in art and design for high school students from New York City public schools. This exhibit showcases the work of students at each stage of this program, spanning a variety of art and design disciplines. A presentation of the Senior Capstone Project precedes the exhibit. Students present work produced in collaboration with the organization Beyond Bullets, which uses documentary films to educate teenagers about gun violence.
Parsons BFA Photography Show
May 10 – 20, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 10, 6:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Calumet Gallery, 22 West 22nd Street
Parsons The New School for Design and Calumet present an exhibition of photographs, installations, video projections, and magazine and book displays by graduates of Parsons’ BFA Photography program, which challenges students to use analog and digital technology to create bodies of work influenced by film, design, fine art, video, and sound.
Parsons Art and Design History and Theory Graduate Student Symposium
May 10 – 11, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 10, 2012, 5:30 – 7:00 p.m.
Parsons The New School for Design, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, 2 West 13th Street
This symposium highlights a diverse sampling of student research on decorative arts history, fashion studies and history, and design studies and theory. The event promotes lively scholarly presentation and constructive dialogue on current research in these fields by bringing together scholars from the MA History of Decorative Arts and Design and MA Fashion Studies graduate programs and students to view and discuss the work of their colleagues.
Parsons MFA Fine Arts Exhibition
May 11 – 18, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 10, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street
Parsons presents work by graduating students in the MFA Fine Arts program, a cross-disciplinary program with student practices spanning a wide range of genres and fields of research. The exhibition is curated by Jane Panetta, an independent art historian currently working at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Veronica Roberts, a curator, writer, and teacher of modern and contemporary art who has worked at numerous museums, including the Museum of Modern Art.
INTERACT: A Forum on Collaboration, Civic Engagement, and Social Innovation
May 12, 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
The New School, Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, Arnhold Hall, 55 West 13th Street, 2nd Floor
This all-day forum explores civic engagement and social innovation activities at the university that incorporate art and design. Investigating the complexities of establishing resilient collaborations with community partners, public sector agencies and institutions in collaborative education-based projects will be the focus of the day’s discussions. Co-sponsored by the Parsons Dean’s Office and the University-wide Social Innovation Initiative.
Five Sixty 7th Ave: School of Fashion @ Parsons Exhibition
May 12 – 20, 2012
Parsons The New School for Design, David M. Schwartz Fashion Education Center, 560 7th Avenue, 2nd Floor
The School of Fashion at Parsons presents an exhibition of thesis work from across the fashion disciplines including menswear, women’s wear, children’s wear, accessories, and multimedia installations. Selected sponsored projects are also on view, including Allen Edmonds, Amicale, Coach, Swarovski, Saga Furs, Solstiss, and The Shoe Polytechnic.
Parsons MFA Fashion Design and Society Inaugural Exhibition
May 14 – 17, 2012
1359 Broadway, 19th Floor, New York
This exhibition marks the first graduating year of the newly launched MFA Fashion Design and Society Program at Parsons, a highly selective graduate program for emerging designers that was initiated through the support of alumna Donna Karan. The exhibition will showcase students’ work in womenswear, menswear, and knitwear, presenting the original and innovative vision of each student through an installation of clothing, film, and photography.
Thesis Exhibition: School of Constructed Environments @ Parsons
May 15 – 20, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 17, 2012 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Parsons The New School for Design, 25 East 13th Street, 2nd Floor
An exhibition of work by graduate students in the School of Constructed Environments at Parsons, the country’s only integrated school of architecture, interior design, lighting design and product design. Drawings, models, and prototypes will be exhibited in the studio space created by the Parsons Design Workshop—its signature design-build program—where work desks and adjacent spaces convert to exhibition space.
