2017 was a big year for Drexel University, which made strides in research and developments that could impact all of our futures.

Ala Felemban, Interior Architecture & Design Masters student, is the winner of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's 2017 Collab Student Design Competition's People Choice Award, with an astounding 1,401 votes for the work AF Partition. 

Do you have children, siblings, friends or peers interested in attending Westphal? Our Summer Programs are now enrolling High School students who want to get a head start on college studies.

We sat down with Mark Stockton, Art & Art History Professor, to learn more about his work, practice, and perspectives. 

Interdisciplinary learning is a key component to our curriculum at Westphal. In the winter term students will have the opportunity to learn from a product designer and visual artists duo in Making Things Move; explore the physicality of virtual reality in Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Reality; develop wearable technology in Pattern Material and Form; or get lost in the oddities of 1950s television programming in Supernatural Drama.  Click to read full descriptions about these engaging course offerings. 

Edinburgh, UK is the epicenter for global creativity each August when the city hosts the annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe (The Fringe) for over three full weeks. In 2017 alone an astounding 53,232 performances of 3,398 shows in 300 venues took place, and Drexel students were there for every minute of it as part of the Drexel Summer Break in Scotland: Edinburgh Fringe Intensive. 

The Drexel Concert Band, comprised of over 70 musicians from across the University, will present Luminescence on Sunday, December 10 at 7PM in Mandell Theater. Their Fall Concert program is curated around the theme of light and the spirit of the holiday season, and includes works by Tchaikovsky, Wilson, Ticheli, Zainelli, & Reed.

Mutant Water Babies is an original musical receiving its first workshop production through the collaboration of Drexel’s Co-Op Theatre Company and New York based theater company CollaborationTown (CTown), and playing at the Mandell Theater from November 8th through the 19th.  

Edgar Endress, an award-winning, international, multi-disciplinary artist and activist, will present his work and life in an engaging, interactive lecture on the evening of Wednesday, November 15th to commence his three-day residency featuring a variety of classroom workshops, film screenings, and panel discussions as a Rankin Scholar in Residence.

Emiko Ono, Program Officer in Performing Arts at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, will deliver a public talk in the early evening of November 6th in the URBN Annex Lobby, speaking to research she's conducted that examines generational changes in the cultural workforce. 

BioDesign Challenge is a special topics course that will be offered this winter term and is open to all undergraduate and graduate students. Participants will work towards a coveted spot in the annual BioDesign Challenge Summit, an annual competition held in conjunction with the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).

Graphic Design Professor Eric Karnes sat down with us for the third edition of Office Hours, a recurring column interviewing our leading faculty. 

Two local teenagers researched the identity of a hat designer during an internship this past summer with three of Drexel’s collections on fashion, art and medical history.

Maggie Orth is an artist, writer, and technologist who creates electronic textiles and interactive art at her studio in Seattle, WA. As an innovator, Maggie believes we can solve the complex problems facing today’s world through innovation, collaboration, and interdisciplinary thinking. 

The Digital Media’s new minor in Interactive Immersive Media will introduce experiences that are fully interactive, allowing students to manipulate and navigate digital media through the immersive experience, rather than view it passively.

Tony Award-winning Broadway producer and New York Times bestselling author, Vivek Tiwary, will return to campus this fall to deliver Jagged Little Pill, a public lecture that speaks to his work bringing Alanis Morissette's iconic album to the stage.

This October, Westphal will partner with Intellect Books to host Fashion And Media , an annual and intensive three-day symposium focused on how fashion is portrayed throughout varying forms of media. 

The Design Research Symposium , organized by the graduate program in Design Research , part of this year’s Intersections in Process, returns again this October with DesignPhiladelphia . The symposium features a day of free programming that explores the emerging field growing out of collaborations between artists, designers and interdisciplinary collaborators who push the boundaries of traditional disciplines unearthing solutions to practical and aesthetic problems through the mastery of new technologies and intensive research. 

From 1985 to this past summer, Susan S. Szenasy led Metropolis Magazine as editor in chief and publisher. Szenasy will kick off the 2017 ARFAA Lecture Series. 

Elena Sabinson joins our Interior Design Program as an Assistant Teaching Professor. 

Sandra Parks joins the Performing Arts Department as an Assistant Teaching Professor of Dance.

Brea Heidelberg has joined the Entertainment & Arts Management program as an Assistant Professor and Associate Program Director.

Drexel’s Leonard Pearlstein Gallery will open The Expanded Caribbean: Contemporary Photograph at the Crossroads, an exhibition of over 50 photographs and four related sculptural and video installations this fall. 

An intensive course abroad places Drexel students alongside professional filmmakers at a legendary film school in Cuba to make short documentaries as they discover the complexities of the island nation and the filmmaking process.

World-renowned flamenco dancer, teacher and scholar Belén Maya will perform for the first time in Philadelphia this fall as part of a residency at Drexel University’s Westphal College of Media Arts & Design. As a 2017 Rankin-Scholar-In-Residence, Maya will give two public performances, lead demonstrations and workshops, and teach classes on campus. 

Television Management Professor Karen Curry believes to understand global TV you have to visit London. That’s why Professor Curry connected her former London colleagues and her students during a whirlwind week of visits to global media companies that affect the way news is reported and distributed around the world. 

Lela Thompson, a 2017 Westphal fashion design alumna, will represent Westphal as one of the coveted and highly selective participants during the tenth annual 2017 SUPIMA design competition. 

The Robert & Penny Fox Historic Costume Collection (FHCC) has collaborated with Google and hundreds of world renowned cultural institutions to bring 3,000 years of the world's fashion together in the largest virtual exhibition of style. The "We wear culture" project by Google Arts & Culture is a collaboration between the FHCC and over 180  institutions from New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, S ão Paulo and around the world. 

Teaching Professor Marilynne Rose has been a major contributor to our nationally ranked undergraduate and graduate Interior Design programs for many years. She is universally admired by colleagues in her department and beyond for her talents as a working designer, and as a knowledgeable and compassionate teacher who has taught almost every course in the Interior’s extensive curriculum.

David Raizman has twice been Interim Dean of this College, has served as both our Department Head of Media Arts and Department Head of Fashion and Visual Studies, and was twice the Academic Associate Dean of the College. 

Dr. Charles Morscheck, Art & Art History Professor, has made studying Art History at Drexel possible. He was patient, determined, and insistent in advocating for the creation of our Art History major. He was instrumental in creating the curriculum and has served as the Art History Co-Program Director since its inception just last year.

Blaise Tobia is a gifted and productive artist, a committed teacher, and a tremendous citizen of the College and University. 

Lydia Hunn, Art & Art History Professor, is a visual and performance artist whose work is in the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, the Otis Art Institute, and the Rosenwald Collection of the Library of Congress, among others.

Jack Cliggett, Graphic Design Professor, was a founding faculty member of our outstanding Graphic Design program, contributing to the creation of the program’s curriculum at its conception and serving as Program Director.

Renee Weiss Chase, Fashion Design Professor, has been dedicated to the growth of our graduate and undergraduate Fashion Design programs, which now enjoy rankings as the third best in the country and the 13th best in the world.

Professor Theo. A. Artz. is one of the original faculty for our nationally ranked programs in Digital Media.

The last in a year-long series of public lectures celebrating Drexel’s 125th anniversary brought President John Fry together with several generations of students, faculty, staff and alumni to look back at the personal experiences that define the University.

Three-thousand years of the world’s fashion is being brought together in the largest virtual exhibition of style. The “We wear culture” project, by Google Arts & Culture, is a collaboration with Drexel University’s Robert and Penny Fox Historic Costume Collection and more than 180 renowned cultural institutions from New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, São Paulo and others around the world. 

Romanticism, mythological creatures, the Taj Mahal and engineered infrastructure were the inspiration for a handful of Drexel student designers whose collections will be featured in Drexel University’s Annual Fashion Show on Saturday, June 10, presented by the Fashion Design and Design & Merchandising programs in Westphal College of Media Arts & Design.

TVMN graduate student, Hamad Al-Samrin, participated in an informative panel discussion focusing on how news is delivered and interpreted around the world. 

The Department of Performing Arts will enliven our campus with a variety of performances from May 24th - June 11th. Whether your interests lie in dance, music, or theatre, there will be wonderful performances for virtually everyone’s tastes.

The Drexel Interiors Group (DIG) will host the 2017 Interior Design Senior Show of the best work from the graduating class, including their yearlong senior projects, on Monday, June 12th from 6-9PM in the URBN Center lobby (3501 Market Street). 

The Graphic Design Senior Show is Monday, June 12. There will be a private industry reception from 6-7PM followed by a reception for friends, family, alumni, and the general public from 7-9PM in the Leonard Pearlstein Gallery (3401 Filbert St.).  

The fun begins at 2PM on Monday, June 12 at the International House (3710 Chestnut Street), when sixteen senior directors will screen their projects. You’ll find a mix of genres including documentaries, experimental films, narratives, and music videos.

Romanticism, mythological creatures, the Taj Mahal, and engineered infrastructure were the inspiration for some of our student designers whose collections will be featured in Fashion '17, Drexel University’s Annual Fashion Show, on Saturday, June 10 at the Urban Outfitters Corporate Headquarters in Philadelphia's Navy Yard (5000 South Broad St., Building 543). The first show will be held at 4PM with a ticket price of $30. The second show will be held at 8PM and will be followed by a wine and cheese reception with a ticket price of $60. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased here. 

Through an intensive nine-month thesis process, eight Photography seniors have completed a diverse body of work that ranges from portraiture to landscape, from commercial to fine art, in color as well as in black and white. Their thesis will be on view in the Leonard Pearlstein Gallery (3401 Filbert Street) from June 7 –10, with an opening reception on Friday, June 9 at 6PM.

This fall, Drexel University’s Graduate College instituted the option for graduate students to minor in academic programs other than their primary course of study, allowing for strong interdisciplinary connections that not only kick-start but elevate your career long after graduating.  With just twelve credits, enrolled graduate students can elect to minor in either of our Arts Administration and Museum Leadership programs, creating a distinct but encompassing skillset. 

This year's FreshDance ensemble is our largest to date, comprising forty dedicated freshmen dancers from the University's many Colleges. Their Spring concert, Beyond the Mind, is a series of six unique pieces that investigate and express the connection between body and mind, rendering their internal dialogues into tangibly visible depictions.

Support for this College’s faculty’s creative and scholarly research is vital now more than ever in our time of diminishing governmental, foundation, and corporate support. The Westphal College’s Mini Grants and Creativity Awards program is dedicated to doing just that.

Ken Downing, the Senior Vice President and Global Fashion Ambassador of Neiman Marcus, is no stranger to the Westphal College. For the past four years, Downing has visited at the start of each spring to share his behind-the-runway forecast of the year’s coveted fashion trends, while giving an overview of the top shows in Paris, London, Milan, and New York to our many dedicated followers of fashion. 

Join the Arts Administration Graduation Association (AAGA) for an evening of arts and culture at their annual auction, where all proceeds will support the AAGA's efforts at Arts Advocacy Day in Washington D.C.

What do recent college graduates do with their lives after graduation from a puppet’s point of view? Find out in the Drexel Co-op Theatre's latest lollapalooza of a production, Avenue Q, a TONY Award-winning musical that follows recent college graduate, Princeton, as he navigates the big city with even bigger dreams… but with a tiny bank account.

Bob Gruen and Rona Elliot, rock and roll veterans, will get together on Wednesday, May 3 in our Leonard Pearlstein Gallery, where Gruen's photographs are on display now through May 26, to discuss his lively and long career, and his latest book, Rock Seen.

Iceland has harnessed the business of design to create a strong and sustainable economy leading to a recovery from the economic downturn of 2008. Earlier this year, twenty-two students from across the University along with Design & Merchandising Professors Anne Cecil and Alphonso McClendon visited Reykjavik, Iceland and participated in Design Talks and the Reykjavik Fashion Festival, all part of Iceland’s weeklong Design March festival. 

Please join us in welcoming Nik Kozel as our new Director of Development. 

Last term Design & Merchandising students partnered with SEAMAAC, an organization whose mission is to support immigrants, refugees, and their families as they seek access to opportunities that will advance the condition of their lives in the United States. 

The Triangle: Ableton Partners with Flux for Production Presentation

Our undergraduate and graduate Digital Media Gaming programs have once again been ranked in the top ten by The Princeton Review in their eighth annual ranking of the best schools for students to not only study but kick start their career in game design. 

Beginning Fall 2017, we'll add the MS in Retail & Merchandising Online to our growing roster of graduate degree offerings. Spearheaded by Program Director Joseph Hancock, II, this degree is designed for both current industry professionals and those seeking a change in their career. 

Ableton, the Berlin-based source for the products that contemporary musicians, producers, and DJs utilize when creating and performing their music, is visiting Westphal as part of their 2017 University Tour, bringing a series of presentations that will inspire experienced musicians and novice music-makers alike.

April is Jazz Appreciation Month, and to honor this historical and culturally rich art form our Drexel Jazz Orchestra will perform a dual-concert with Howard University's Jazz Ensemble at Drexel's annual Jazz Extravaganza.

Legendary rock and roll photographer Bob Gruen’s ROCKERS exhibit brings rock’s excitement and spirit – onstage, backstage, at home – to Pearlstein Gallery. For more than 40 years, Bob Gruen’s name has been synonymous with rock and roll. From taking early photos on tour with Ike and Tina Turner and capturing the early CBGB/Max’s Kansas City scene, to hanging out with John and Yoko and covering current stadium rockers such as Green Day, Gruen has always been at the right place at the right time.  

Computational design guru John Maeda will address the class of 2017 at Drexel University’s commencement, which will be held on June 13 at 7:30 p.m. Maeda is the global head of Computational Design and Inclusion at Automattic, the parent company of Jetpack, WooCommerce, Longreads, WordPress.com and more. The University-wide ceremony will be held at Citizens Bank Park for the second consecutive year.

The 2017 Interdisciplinary Design weekend-long Charrette is just around the corner and will be led this year by principals of Snøhetta, the award-winning, internationally renowned design firm. 

Nicole Koltick is an Assistant Professor in Architecture, Design & Urbanism and Director of the Design Futures Lab, where she leads graduate research groups in critical design practices and speculative proposals focused on three main areas of inquiry: tangible interaction in the built environment, the incorporation of novel advancements in science and computation into our built environments, and new models for ambient communication. We sat down with Nicole to learn more about her work, process and perspectives.

The Performing Arts Music program is back at it again with two show stopping performances this weekend from our Mediterranean and Fusion Band & Rock ensembles, bringing interdisciplinary and worldly compositions to our audiences on campus.

Add style to your closet with the D&M Shop's latest Spring arrivals, hand-selected and curated exclusively for you and available in the URBN Lobby through the end of the week. Local artists and retailers are collaborating with the D&M Shop to bring you new products in apparel, jewelry, home goods and accessories. 

Seven graduate students from the Drexel University TV Management Program presented to a crowd of more than one hundred fellow students, faculty and high school students at the 10th Annual Student Conference on Global Challenges.

Over an intensive weekend Charrette starting this Friday, dance students studying choreography and film students will work together as directors, performers, editors and cinematographers to create dance films, music videos and multi-media performances.

March Madness isn't only for basketball fans, as our Performing Arts brings you bracket-busting back-to-back performances this month from our University Orchestra and Choral ensembles.

Our Product Design program has been awarded $19,600 from VentureWell to support their latest course offering, Clinical Immersion to Product Innovation. 

We're adding two new minor offerings in Museum Leadership and Arts Administration open to the students of our University's many diverse graduate programs, complimenting those pursuing professional degrees in fields as varied as Biology, Digital Media, Communications, Environmental Sciences, Archival Studies and Hospitality Management.

From the East Coast to the West Coast, Television Management Graduate students are demonstrating the Drexel Difference while working on a wide array of projects with industry leaders. Master’s candidates Rutika Raikar, Alessia Porcari and David Clark accepted Winter Quarter career opportunities with three prominent media organizations. 

Our latest degree is the Urban Strategy Masters in Science, with classes beginning Fall 2017, a two-year interdisciplinary program focused on how the urban challenges of the 21st century can be addressed by incorporating approaches from the creative, economic, design, engineering, health and business sectors.

The Drexel Department of Architecture, Design & Urbanism is pleased to announce an upcoming program with Florentine architect Andrea Ponsi, international creator, city planner, designer, painter and writer, featuring a weekend worth of programming that includes an exhibition, lecture, reception and workshop through the generous support of the Good Idea Fund. 

We're approaching the big moment we've been waiting for as Drexel's Tiny House reaches completion. Before our Tiny House moves to Greensgrow West, where it will be utilized as a small education center, attendees will have the opportunity to explore the completed house during a reveal to the public on Wednesday, February 22 at 4PM in the URBN Center's parking lot.

Join us on Wednesday, February 1 at the African American Museum in Philadelphia to explore the enduring power of Roots. 

On Thursday, January 27 Plakat Polski: Selections from The Frank Fox Polish Poster Collection and the Kenneth F. Lewalski Polish Posters Collection will open to a reception from 4-6PM in the Rincliffe Gallery and Anthony J. Drexel Picture Gallery, located on the third floor of Main Building at 3141 Chestnut Street. 

Last year we told you about an Architecture & Interiors' course which was part of an initiative to build a Tiny House for Greensgrow , a community organization that employs urban agriculture to cultivate food, community and entrepreneurship. The journey continues this term with an emphasis on completing the structure's interior. Be sure to stop by the corner of 36th & Filbert to see the house as it nears completion.  

In honor and celebration of Drexel University’s 125th anniversary, the Leonard Pearlstein Gallery will present a new exhibition showcasing the influences of art, science and industry that have shaped the university’s past and continue to inspire its future. The exhibit, ‘125 Years: Drexel & the City’, will run from Jan. 12 through March 19 – with the opening reception taking place on Jan. 12, from 5-7 p.m. in the Pearlstein Gallery (3401 Filbert Street).