Lessons in boldness
One day last month, a dozen high school students stood before Karina Contreras, M.L.A. ’14, as she gestured to several wires hanging vertically inside the Graduate School of Design (GSD). Contreras explained that the students would use tinfoil, construction paper, spaghetti, and the wires to improvise a freestyle design. “Your design will be inspired by the music I’m going to play,” Contreras said. “The music will influence the design, which will change based on each new track. Make sense?” The out-of-the-box exercise was part of Project Link, a four-week program that immerses 10th- through 12th-grade students from Greater Boston in the world of design. Since Project Link’s inception, program leaders have targeted regional high schools that don’t have art or architecture programs. “Project Link evolved from two GSD alumni in particular — Jonathan Evans ’10 and Andy Lantz ’10 — who wanted to encourage more minority participation in the field,” said Julian Bushman-Copp,...