ServeDesign Center

The Indiana University ServeDesign Center works in partnership with campus and community to advance engaged scholarship and prepare students for lifelong civic and social responsibility in an increasingly diverse and complex global society.

Working with stakeholders on the local, regional, national and international levels, with a particular focus on regional and international stakeholders, ServeDesign facilitates collaboration within the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design by offering faculty grants, service-learning training through CITL, and match-making through pairing faculty and community partners.

Leadership

Jon Racek, Co-Director

ServeDesign Projects

Pocket Park | Salem, Indiana

Heritage Park, a new pocket park designed by LAA Office, a Columbus, Indiana-based multi-disciplinary design studio, is activated by public art and placemaking. The project stems from Indiana University’s Center for Rural Engagement and ServeDesign Center, who funded the initial study for the park and implementation funding was provided through a significant grant from Regional Opportunity Initiatives.

A large geometric mural painted in bright green, blue and white on asphalt, next to a mural of portraits of pioneering women from Salem, Indiana in similar colors. — Tony Vasquez

6th Street Arts Alley | Columbus, Indiana

LAA Office, a Columbus, Indiana-based multi-disciplinary design studio, has transformed 6th Street in downtown Columbus into a burgeoning arts district that provides a flexible space for relaxation, social gathering, and events.

A geometric asphalt mural in bold shades of blue, yellow, white, and grey in an alley next to a large white building. — Hadley Fruits

Middle Way House | Bloomington, Indiana

Students in the Fashion Design area partnered with Middle Way House in the Fall of 2021. Artwork was created by children staying at the Middle Way House, then digitally printed on fabric, where Fashion Design students made superman capes, totes, and pillowcases based on the interests of twenty-three individual children.

A children's cape and pillow case made out of Pokémon fabric, with a small patch on the back of the cape with a child's illustration of a Pokémon.

Owen Valley Middle School Makerspace | Spencer, Indiana

Student members of the ServeDesigner center, lead by Interior Design faculty member Miyoung Hong, presented proposals for redesigning an area inside Owen Vallery Middle School to serve as a makerspace. Owen Valley school staff and students, Regional Opportunity Initiatives, Inc., Owen County community members, Owen County Community Foundation, and IU are joining together to make this idea a reality.

Riley Children's Health | Bloomington, Indiana

Bo Choi, Deb Christiansen, and Lori Frye worked with their students to complete a service-learning project last semester that benefits Riley patients and families. They delivered hand-made, colorful, embroidered blankets and tote bags that will be placed on the shelves of the toy room for distribution by child life specialists, therapists and nurses, who can give them to families to be taken home as a comfort item.

Two people transfer clear plastic bins with blankets and tote bags in them from the trunk of a car to a wheeled blue basket. — Mike Dickbernd

ServeDesign Center