Keynote Lecturers
John Maeda, Rhode Island School of Design
Named in 2008 as one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century by Esquire magazine, John Maeda is an award-winning artist, graphic designer, computer scientist and educator whose career reflects his philosophy of humanizing technology. Before assuming the presidency at RISD in June 2008, he taught media arts and sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for 12 years and served as associate director of research at the MIT Media Lab. Throughout his career, he has worked to integrate technology, education and the arts into a 21st-century synthesis of creativity and innovation.
Skandalaris Award for Excellence in Art + Architecture
This award will honor an artist, architect or designer whose individual or collaborative works, innovative projects and creative research have inspired new ideas and made a profound and lasting impact on society, culture, or the environment on a local, national or international level
Rick Lowe, Founder, Project Row Houses
Lowe is the founder of Project Row Houses, an arts and cultural community located in a historically significant Northern Third Ward of Houston, TX, one of the city’s oldest African-American communities. PRH is founded on the principle that art- and the community it creates- can be the foundation for revitalizing depressed inner-city neighborhoods. Mr. Lowe is also involved with the Watts House Project in Watts, CA, a large-scale artwork-as-urban development engaging art and architecture as a catalyst for expanding and enhancing community. In addition, Mr. Lowe is part of Transforma Projects, a collective of artists and creative professionals formed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The initiative explores how art making can intersect with other sectors such as education, health, environment and community development.
Skandalaris Awards for Entrepreneurship in Design & Visual Arts
For individuals who have demonstrated entrepreneurship in the fields of Art + Design + Architecture on a local, national or international level by promoting or establishing innovative understandings of “economy,” particularly through community-based and/or sustainable practices.
Anna Rubbo, Founder, Global Studio
Rubbo is Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Sydney and is being recognized for her leadership of Global Studio, an innovative, interdisciplinary program, established in 2005, that engages design students in participatory action research, community development and design. The program develops skills of importance in meeting the challenges of global poverty and social exclusion in cities. A member of the UN Task Force on Improving the Lives of Slum Dwellers, Dr. Rubbo went on to develop global Studio as a response to the need for new modes of education and practice for design and planning professions in relation to sustainable urbanization.
John Bielenberg, Founder, Studio M
Bielenberg is a partner and co-founder of the San Francisco-based design firm C2, has built his practice around a creative exercise that challenges our brain’s synaptic connections. Called “Think Wrong,” the process encourages participants to cast off embedded assumptions and approach design with a fresh perspective. In 2003, Bielenberg, founded Project M, an intensive immersion program meant to inspire designers, writers, filmmakers and photographers to use their work for impacting communities. He seeks to bridge the gap between design for design’s sake and its ability to change lives. ProjectM-ers have left their marks in East Baltimore; Belfast, ME; New Orleans; Costa Rica; and Ghana. Together they have worked to transform urban parks, preserve rainforests, promote micro financing, and help Gulf Coast designers displaced by Hurricane Katrina.