How can higher education best support the work high schools are doing to provide design education programming to their students? Through the High School to Higher Education program, we are seeking to advance a more effective pipeline for students who have been historically underrepresented in the design industries as they choose electives and extra-curricular programs in high school all the way through their experiences in higher education.

Each participating school will receive a Little Library of books on Black design (see list below). 

High school teachers, librarians, and administrators from the NYC Tri-State area are invited to join us for a day of discussion, resource-sharing, and network-building. In our 2nd consortium, we have room for up to two self-selecting schools. If you would like your school to participate, please register on this page and we will be in touch to learn more about your interest.

Consortium

*NEW DATE* Saturday, April 26th

11:00am to 3:00pm

Parsons School of Design

Lunch and light refreshments will be served

AGENDA

Welcome and Distribution of Books

Curriculum share-outs by participating schools

Presentation of the Higher Education Opportunity Program initiative

Review of Parsons college prep and first year programming

2025 Little Library book selection

Amos Kennedy: Citizen Printer (2024), Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.

Black Designers in American Fashion (2021), Elizabeth Way

Called to the Camera: Black American Studio Photographers (2023), Brian Piper, New Orleans Museum of Art

Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practices of Contemporary Black Caribbean Makers (2024), Malene Barnett

In the Black Fantastic (2022), Ekow Eshun

Now You See Me: An Introduction to 100 Years of Black Design (2024), Charlene Prempeh

2023 Little Library book selection

_{Berry, Anne, Kelly Walters, Jennifer Rittner, Eds. (2022), The Black Experience in Design}

_{Barber, Tiffany E., Nettrice Gaskins, et al. (2015), Afrofuturism 2.0: The Rise of Astro-blackness}

_{Benjamin, Ruha. (2019), Race after technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code}

_{Campt, Tina (2021), A Black Gaze: Artists Changing How We See}

_{Drew, Kimberly and Jenna Wortham (2020), Black Futures}

_{brown, adrienne maree (2017), Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds}

_{Eglash, Ron (1999), African fractals: Modern computing and indigenous design}

_{hooks, bell (1994), Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom}

_{David Pilgrim (2015), Understanding Jim Crow: Using Racist Memorabilia to Teach Tolerance and Promote Social Justice}

_{Leigh Raiford and Heike Raphael-Hernandez, Eds. (2017), Migrating the Black Body: The African Diaspora and Visual Culture}

_{Kelly Walters (2021), Black, Brown + Latinx Design Educators: Conversations on Design and Race}

_{Craig Wilkins (2007), The Aesthetics of Equity: Notes on Race, Space, Architecture, and Music}

_{Ytasha Womack (2013),  Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture}

_{Mark Godfrey, Ed. (2021), The Soul of a Nation Reader}

_{Sean Anderson, Mabel O. Wilson etal. (2021), Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America}

_{Walter Hood (2020), Black Landscapes Matter}

_{Andre Brock (2020), Distributed Blackness in American Cyberculture}

_{Robin D.G. Kelley (2002), Freedom Dreams: Black Radical Imagination}

_{Kristina Wilson (2021), Mid-Century Modernism and the American Body}

_{National Museum of African American History & Culture et. al (2023), Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures}

 
Study on CTE and Design Industry Partnership programming

We are also looking to learn more about design-focused CTE programming and design industry partnerships in high schools in the Tri-State area. We would like to speak with you if:

1.) Your school is a designated CTE with a focus on design
2.) You are not a designated CTE school but have developed design industry partnerships for pedagogical and/or career development purposes for your school or district

If you would like to participate in the study, please contact Jennifer Rittner at rittnerj@newschool.edu, subject heading: CTE Study. 

 
Consortium Leaders

Jennifer Rittner, Assistant Professor, Strategic Design and Management

Kelly Walters, Associate Professor, Communication Design & Director of BFA Communication Design