
WAHINGTON, D.C.—Artwork by students at the Corcoran College of Art + Design will adorn the exterior façade of the Corcoran’s Randall School in Southwest Washington. As part of the Corcoran’s benefits to the Southwest community, the College has committed to completing a beautification project at the Randall School site. Designed as part of the American Institute of Graphic Arts’ (AIGA) 2008 “Get out the Vote” campaign, the students’ poster designs will cover plywood on 20 windows facing I Street SW.
The Corcoran purchased the property from the DC Government in November 2006, the project passed Zoning on January 14, 2008, and work will begin this year. The Randall facility will be the Corcoran’s third campus for its College classrooms, in addition to the Seventeenth Street gallery space and the Fillmore site in upper Georgetown.
The AIGA, the professional association for design, has asked designers from all across the country to create non-partisan posters that will encourage the American public to participate in the electoral process. Graphic design and digital media design students at the Corcoran were among the first to address the concerns of this campaign. The students’ “Get out the Vote” designs reflect the importance of voting in this election year. In the 2004 United States presidential election, less than 60% of the voting age population voted.
Corcoran graphic design instructors Sam Shelton and Robert Lasater asked students to research key demographics for under-represented populations and examine the reasons why these constituencies did not vote. “The students’ objectives were straightforward: motivating people to register and vote,” Shelton said.
In addition to the Randall School beautification project, the Corcoran will deliver a variety of community benefits to the Southwest community—from art education in the southwest DC public schools to Continuing Education scholarships for ANC 6D residents.
At Randall, undergraduate students will have expanded classrooms for ceramics, sculpture and other equipment-intensive arts, as well as additional rooms for student exhibition display. The first undergraduates to use the new facility will be the entering class in fall 2011. Development of the facility is part of the Corcoran’s current strategic planning process, aimed at, among many priorities, expanding the College’s program scope, student base and competitive edge. The Corcoran College of Art + Design currently enrolls 350 undergraduates and 150 graduate students, as well as 2,500 students in continuing education programs.
Monument Realty—one of Washington’s most active real estate developers and a firm committed to the Southwest region—is the developer of the Randall property. For more information regarding the Corcoran’s project, visit http://corcoran.edu/randall.
ABOUT THE CORCORAN
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, a privately funded institution, was founded in
1869 as Washington’s first and largest non-federal museum of art. It is known
internationally for its distinguished collection of historical and modern
American art as well as contemporary art, photography, European painting,
sculpture and the decorative arts. Founded in 1890, the Corcoran College
of Art + Design is Washington’s only college of art and design offering Bachelor
of Fine Art degrees in Photojournalism, Digital Media Design, Fine Art, Graphic
Design, Interior Design, and Photography; Associate of Fine Art degrees in
Digital Media Design, Fine Art, Graphic Design and Photography; a five-year
Bachelor of Fine Arts/Master of Arts degree in Fine Art and Teaching (BFA/MAT);
and two-year Master of Arts degrees in Teaching, Art Education, Interior
Design, Exhibition Design, and the History of Decorative Arts. The College’s
Continuing Education program offers part-time credit and non-credit classes
for children and adults.
1/17/2008
RANDALL
SCHOOL PASSES ZONING COMMISSION
For more information on the Corcoran College of Art + Design and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, please visit our main press site at www.corcoran.org/press.