The Jim Crow Museum Project

This presentation outlines the Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University student and faculty application of design citizenship through socio-emotional story-telling and universal design methods. It includes a survey that connects the audience to permanent, temporary and conditional disabilities in a very personal way. User testing results and the full animations are included for viewing.

A life changing experience, young creatives at Kendall College of Art and Design, all studying entertainment arts, were blown away by their ability to affect change with their creative talent. Twenty eight students, three faculty, and six museum staff created five educational animations amplifying the history of Black achievers for the Jim Crow Museum. But that is only half the story. Along the way, we invented new methods to move video media beyond a separate but equal, ‘accessible’ design to a truly universal design where people of all abilities can experience media together, at the same time, in the same place, on the same channel.

Arts education is and has always centered around self expression and the idea of artist as celebrity. At KCAD, The EPIC Project aims to introduce and cement the idea that artists and designer's have the opportunity, indeed the obligation, in whole or in part, to sometimes put the needs of society before their own. We call this 'Design Citizenship'.