ART 395 Design Entrepreneurship

3 semester hours

This course emphasizes the role of the designer in the community by raising public awareness and engaging social responsibility through participatory design, civic engagement, and service learning. This project-based course enables students to explore the design process and its power to affect societal change through social entrepreneurship. This class serves marginalized segments of society through empathetic and innovative design solutions. Emphasis is placed on collaborative processes and sustainable business strategies using design thinking to benefit communities in need. Students discuss the entire process as it relates to design practice, social justice, and business ethics. Students explore and analyze social problems and create innovative ways to solve them. This course includes minimum 20 hours of fieldwork experience to enhance student learning: 10 hours of research end users through volunteer work–getting to know the community and understanding their problems–and an additional 10 hours interacting with end users: focus groups, interviews, testing prototypes, and getting feedback. Where applicable, the instructor will assist in partnering student teams with non-profit community organizations.

University Core fulfilled: Integrations: Interdisciplinary Connections; Flags: Engaged Learning, Oral Skills.

Consent of instructor required.

ART 302 recommended for Studio Arts majors.