Why AxS from ArtCenter

To many of our listeners, this guest needs no introduction. She is someone who has burst through seemingly impenetrable ceilings – glass and otherwise – to claim leadership roles historically held by men. She rose through the ranks as a strategic industrial designer before returning to ArtCenter, her alma mater, for a transformative stint as Chair of our Product Design department. She was also a driving force behind ArtCenter’s innovative DesignStorm program, through which major brands engage our students in developing new products and ideas.

The force of nature I’m describing here is none other than ArtCenter Provost and President-elect, Karen Hofmann, who is the first woman to serve in either of those roles. On a personal and professional level, I couldn’t have asked for a better partner in leading this College through the uncertainties of Covid-19 and the enormous logistical, creative, social and emotional adjustments that went along with the transition to remote learning and back. Thanks in no small part to Karen’s dedication and unflagging optimism, we’ve emerged stronger and better equipped to face the future than we’ve ever been. And, come July, Karen will be poised to build on those achievements when she takes office, upon my retirement, as ArtCenter’s first female president.

Throughout her tenure as provost, Karen tackled a set of complex challenges with an eye toward ensuring ArtCenter’s health and longevity. Karen managed to keep calm and carry on, facing each new obstacle with a solution-minded determination that is the hallmark of every great designer. In fact, it was almost as if she was making the case, in real time, that there is no better person to lead ArtCenter through the uncertainties that lie ahead.

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Aimee Mullins is a true polymath. Her passions and professional pursuits are as varied and boundless as the awards and groundbreaking strides she’s achieved within her many chosen fields. She broke new ground in athletics as the first amputee in history to compete against able-bodied athletes in the NCAA’s Division 1 track and field events. She went on to set records in the 100 and 200 meter races and the long jump.

Her poise and athleticism led to a career in fashion as a runway model for Alexander McQueen and as a global ambassador for L’Oreal. She then added acting to her portfolio with roles in wildly varied projects ranging from artist Matthew Barney’s Cremaster series to Netflix’s Stranger Things. Through it all, Aimee has continued to make sense of the many trails she’s blazed in a series of influential TED talks that have been viewed by millions and translated into 42 languages.

It was her paradigm-shifting talk on the “opportunity of adversity” that offered a veritable proof of concept for the ideas we're exploring in this season of Change Lab. Her powerful argument for the creative leaps that result only from the hurdles we face resonated deeply with the idea that the human imagination feeds on challenge and uncertainty – a familiar concept to regular listeners of this podcast.

Aimee contends that we meet and exceed our goals because of—not despite—each obstacle we encounter. An insight she’s earned the hard way navigating the world as a double amputee. Her insistence that “good enough” isn’t good enough has led to advances in prosthetic design that would never exist without her. In fact, Aimee contends that disability itself is a misnomer better attributed to a broken piece of machinery than a human being whose differences are the source of their strength. We all have much to learn from Aimee’s self-determination, curiosity and wonder.

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Dr. James Hollis is an accomplished Jungian Analyst and highly-regarded author who has published fifteen published books and over fifty articles throughout the course of his career. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the Jung Society in Washington D.C. James co-founded the Philadelphia Jung Institute and began as its first Director of Training. He is also the Vice President of the Philemon Foundation, dedicated to publishing the unpublished works of Jung. He was the founder and first director of Jungian Studies at Saybrook University (in collaboration with Lorne Buchman), and he remains the Director Emeritus of the Houston, Texas Jung Educational Center.

His philosophical approach to engaging the relationship between creativity and transformation sets him apart from previous guests on the show. James' thoughts on creativity are invaluable for not only artists and designers; but also for all who strive to find meaning in their careers and lives.

In this episode, Dr. James Hollis and ArtCenter President Lorne Buchman discuss the creative potential of entering worlds of uncertainty, the role of dreams in our imagination and how we understand our creativity in relation to the soul.

Links Mentioned:

• http://philemonfoundation.org
• https://jungstudies.net/maphd-jungian-studies-from-saybrook-university
• https://www.junginstitut.ch/english
• https://www.jameshollis.net/hollisBooks.html

Learn more about James Hollis's work:

• https://www.fcagroup.com/en-US/group/governance/management/Pages/ralph_gilles.aspx

Learn more about this episode of Change Lab at www.artcenter.edu.

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When we first heard from Jackie Amezquita four years ago, she was an ArtCenter Fine Art student on the cusp of graduating. In a raw and revealing interview, she traced the arduous path she’d walked to find the stability she needed to risk everything for her art.

Her remarkable journey (captured in E14 of Change Lab) began in her native Guatemala, where surging violence and poverty had forced Jackie’s mother to migrate to the United States to provide for her family. At age seventeen, Jackie followed her mother’s footsteps to the US (quite literally), and barely survived a dangerous border crossing. After years spent working as an undocumented nanny to put herself through community college, Jackie eventually earned her Bachelor of Fine Art at ArtCenter. Her thesis project drew international media coverage when she bravely embarked on a second grueling walk from the Tijuana border all the way to Downtown Los Angeles.

The power of her resilience and grit continues to stand out as an example of a purpose-driven artist whose message brilliantly aligns with her chosen medium. We’ve held her story close to our hearts, and the hardships she’s transmuted into art resonated all the more this season as we explore the alchemy of creativity and adversity.

It’s for those reasons that We’ve asked Jackie to join us as Change Lab’s first returning guest, even as she puts the finishing touches on her MFA thesis at UCLA. We waned to know more about her investigation into grief and displacement, and we were fascinated by the bravery and creative energy it took to revisit her trauma and to give depth and dimension to a painful story that needed to be told.

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For twenty years, Charlie Hodges heeded his creative calling to dance at the highest level. With roles in acclaimed Broadway productions and as part of Twyla Tharp’s legendary repertory company, his trek to the peak of that profession was grueling to say the least. Charlie endured waves of intensely personal rejection – oftentimes targeting his body type and appearance. But he ultimately prevailed, thanks to his abundance of talent, perseverance and incredibly high pain threshold.

Most people would be more than satisfied with those achievements. But for Charlie, that was simply act one. He then pivoted – or, more accurately, pirouetted – toward a completely new creative métier: product design. Drawing on his lifelong passion for architecture, he enrolled in ArtCenter’s Product Design program.

His natural creative abilities and propensity for hard work continued to serve him well. Charlie developed Urbanette, a sustainable dollhouse, as part of an ArtCenter project sponsored by a major toy company, for which he received a prestigious IDSA award. He recently delivered a remarkably vulnerable and wise TEDx talk on the resilience he acquired pursuing a career in dance with an unconventional body type. And, finally, true to his commitment to excellence, Charlie graduated from ArtCenter College of Design as the summer 2018 valedictorian.

In this episode, Charlie and ArtCenter President Lorne Buchman discuss his hard-won ascent to the top of the dance world, the evolution of his passion for design, his lifelong belief in the power of persistence and his new passion for designing toys that can influence change.

Learn more about Charlies's work:

• https://www.charliehodges.design
• http://ladanceproject.org
• https://www.twylatharp.org
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrEDTelG_9U
• http://broadwaymusicalhome.com/shows/movinout.htm

Learn more about this episode of Change Lab at www.artcenter.edu.

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