Join us for another installment of the College of Performing Arts’ Creative Community Conversations Series. This conversation between artist and activist, Juan William Chávez and Associate Professor of Design Strategies at Parsons School of Design, Eduardo Staszowski, Ph.D., will explore the intersection of place, design, sustainability, and urban ecosystems in Chávez’s work.

Juan William Chávez is an artist, activist and director of Northside Workshop. His studio practice focuses on sculpting space within urban ecosystems through partnerships and collaborations as a way to address social and environmental issues. His work includes public sculptures, multimedia installations, paintings, drawings, and unconventional forms of beekeeping and agriculture. His exhibitions focus on themes of the urban environment, ecology, sustainability, craft/labor, activism, identity and archaeology of place. Chavez has exhibited at ArtPace, Van Abbemuseum, McColl Center for Art, Tube Factory Artspace, 21c Museum Hotel, Laumeier Sculpture Park, and Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. Recently, Chavez’s work was included in El Museo's survey of contemporary Latinx art, ESTAMOS BIEN - LA TRIENAL 20/21. His interdisciplinary approach to art has gained the attention and support of prestigious institutions like the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, Creative Capital, Graham Foundation, ArtPlace America, Andy Warhol Foundation, and Art Matters Foundation. Chávez holds a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Studio Website

Northside Workshop Website

Additional Links

Charlotte Young Honey Crew

Indianapolis Bee Sanctuary, Mesa Hive

Eduardo Staszowski, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Design Strategies at Parsons School of Design. Staszowski is also the co-founder and Director of the Parsons DESIS Lab, an action-research laboratory created at The New School to advance the practice and discourse of design-led social innovation to foster more equitable and sustainable cities and practices. Staszowski's research interests center on the intersection of design, social innovation, and public policy, which has as its core the development of experimental yet practical approaches to enhancing participation in policy development and civic service design. Specifically he studies how design as a method, language and agency can act as an intermediary among different stakeholders and environments to create, orient and govern processes of social innovation and sustainability. This research practice has led to the successful receipt of a number of merit based research awards and grants since joining The New School in 2008. Staszowski teaches courses in the areas of Design Strategies, Participatory Design and Social Innovation. Working with external partners the courses provide opportunities for students to address real-world challenges and allow them the room to navigate and cultivate their work in areas of public policy and social innovation today. He co-coordinates the Graduate Minor in Civic Service Design.  Staszowski is founding editor of Designing in Dark Times. Published by Bloomsbury, this book series investigates design’s capacity to offer critical and transformative perspectives on our contemporary condition. Exploring the interaction of design with social research and presenting both modes of thought and courses of action, books in this series engage polemically with the opportunities now presented to rethink what acting and designing can be.

For questions about this series or the graduate minor, please email maame@newschool.edu.