Engaging with the Visual Arts

Abstract

The Basile Center for Art, Design and Public Life is the primary contact point at Herron School of Art and Design for people in the community who want to partner with Herron and its faculty and students on creative projects. The Basile Center receives and assesses inquiries to determine the appropriateness and feasibility of incorporating potential projects into an academic curriculum in order to give students professional practice opportunities. The Basile Center’s poster will highlight two multidisciplinary projects that were completed during the 2011-2012 academic year. One project that the poster will highlight is a partnership with Dow AgroSciences, a biotechnology company that develops and produces agricultural products that improve the health and growth of crops around the world. Dow AgroSciences commissioned one large-scale outdoor sculpture, three benches, and two 2-dimensional artworks for their expanded facility on the northwest side of Indianapolis. The other project that will be featured on the Basile Center’s poster is a partnership with the IU Health Neuroscience Center, a brand new facility in downtown Indianapolis where patients can be treated for neurological conditions related to a wide variety of causes, including Alzheimer’s Disease, stroke, epilepsy, Huntington’s disease, and more. The IU Health Neuroscience Center commissioned benches and a 3-dimensional, site-specific installation. Through these two examples, the Basile Center’s Research Day poster will illustrate the process of such partnerships from the time the students propose their ideas to community partners to the time when they install their artworks on-location.