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The Creative Process and Critical Thinking
As I walked through the exhibits of our graduating Art and Design students at the end of the spring semester, I was reminded of a wonderful story about the composer Johannes Brahms that people like to tell when talking about creativity–or the creative process. One evening in Vienna, so the story goes, Brahms was with…
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FIT’s Rooftop Natural Dye Garden
I love gardens and have always enjoyed the greenery on the 9th floor terrace of the Marvin Feldman Center. But little did I expect that one day we would have growing there a veritable kingdom of plant life: fennel and hollyhocks, indigo, purple cabbage, rosemary and zinnias, Black eyed Susans, Queen Anne’s lace, purple basil.…
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Expanding Arts Education in New York City
New York City got some excellent news the other day when Mayor De Blasio and Comptroller Scott Stringer announced that as part of the new fiscal budget, $23 million will be spent to expand arts education in the city’s schools. This news follows a report issued by Comptroller Stringer in April which found that many…
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Sustainability Shapes Millennial Shopping Habits
One of the most interesting outcomes of one of the latest polls on the Millenials came as a kind of a footnote. The poll was designed to examine the purchasing patterns of these 18 to 34-year olds–probably the most intensely and frequently studied generation in research history. And while the findings on how they buy…
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A Marriage Proposal at Commencement
I have attended more commencements in my life as an educator than I can remember. Happy as they are, they sometimes blur in recollection. However, FIT’s Commencement 2014 offered one moment that I will never forget. It took place at our morning ceremony while David Hamilton, our student government president, spoke. David is an energetic…