National Endowment for the Arts Announces Webinar Series on Social Impact Design

National Endowment for the Arts,
21 February 2013, USA

Social impact design -- the practice of designing for public benefit, especially in disadvantaged communities -- has been garnering more attention from both professional and aspiring designers in a variety of disciplines. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has long supported design across these disciplines, from graphic to landscape design and architecture to product design.

As a natural outcome of that support and to promote the emerging field of social impact design, the NEA's design program will host a series of webinars to build on findings discussed in the just-released white paper, Design and Social Impact: A cross-sectoral agenda for design education, research and practice . The paper is a result of the Social Impact Design Summit that was hosted by Cooper-Hewitt, the Lemelson Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts in February 2012.

The NEA's webinar series will be curated and hosted by thought leaders in social impact design and will cover topics that enhance the field's capacity to design effectively for social impact.

"We are excited to build upon insightful discussions from the Social Impact Design Summit by highlighting the work in this field for both funders and designers," said NEA Director of Design Jason Schupbach. "The webinar series will enable design practitioners, educators, thought leaders, and supporters to delve more deeply into recommendations presented in the white paper and to build a stronger community of practice for social impact design."

For more information about the schedule, topics and speakers, see NEA's announcement on their website.

http://www.arts.endow.gov/news/news13/Social-Impact-Design.html