ArtEDGE, a collaborative program involving the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, OU Libraries, and the College of Architecture’s Interior Design Division, has unfolded throughout the Fall of 2017. This unique program will bring 50 seventh and eighth grade students from Norman Public Schools to the OU campus in order to interact with each of the three participating departments.
During the first portion of the program, students learn about the history, purpose and inspiration behind the architectural design of the various parts of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. The students then analyze and interpret an artwork in the museum as inspiration for their design project. Using observation skills, language, and sketching exercises, the students develop a story and a place inspired by the artwork. This fall, the focal work is Two Figures, a large abstract bronze sculpture by Barbara Hepworth.
The students then move to The EDGE in the Bizzell Memorial Library, where they interact with the sculpture and create and manipulate a virtual model of the architectural place they are designing. They additionally receive 3D-printed models of the sculpture that will be used in the collaboratively designed place, created and presented with an architectural model.
The final stage of each ArtEDGE visit takes place in a studio at the College of Architecture. The students unite their individually-developed designs into one finalized architectural place, inspired and inhabited by their 3D-printed sculpture of Two Figures. The students’ sketches and final models will be on display in the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art’s Education Gallery during Spring 2017.
For more information about the ArtEDGE program, contact Elizabeth Pober (epober@ou.edu).
Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture assistant professor Amy Leveno and Mark Leveno, co-founders of OFFICIAL Design, have received a 2026 AIA Central States Region Design Award for the firm’s Granger Annex Community Center project in Garland, Texas.
Construction Industry Speaker Series welcomed Stephen Evans from the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum to give a lecture on better conversations and relationship building.
The University of Oklahoma Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture Hall of Fame recognizes a select number of high-character individuals who have made a significant and lasting positive impact on Gibbs College, its students, staff, faculty, alumni and/or to communities across the globe. The impact may have been, or continues to be, in the form of service and mentorship, sustained professional excellence, and/or advancement and financial support. Joseph Edgar Smay is part of the 2025 Hall of Fame class.
