Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design Founding Dean Peg Faimon gave the following remarks to graduates at the school's degree recognition ceremony at the Musical Arts Center on the Indiana University Bloomington campus on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
Welcome friends, partners, birth families and chosen families. Thank you for joining us this wonderful Bloomington spring afternoon to celebrate some of the most important people in your lives, the individuals of the Eskenazi School graduating class of 2025!
I’m Peg Faimon, the Founding Dean of the Eskenazi School and I’d like to start today by thanking everyone in the room who has individually and collectively supported our graduating class. Students, can we please give your families, friends, and supporters a round of applause?
In giving thanks, we also wish to acknowledge and honor the Indigenous communities native to this region, and recognize that Indiana University Bloomington is built on Indigenous homelands and resources. We recognize the Miami, Delaware, Potawatomi, and Shawnee people as past, present, and future caretakers of this land.
At this time of year, with all of you heading off into the world, your professors, staff, and school leadership like to provide nuggets of wisdom and optimistic wishes for your future.
It is easy to find hope and optimism in times of certainty, consistency, and stability. In such times, we have a good sense of where we are heading and we are pretty sure we can get there, at least with enough hard work. In such times there is a sense of control over our own destiny.
At least, that’s how I tend to think. I’ve been called an eternal optimist, but even I have to question what that really means in today’s context when each day meets us with new challenges and uncertain paths.
Unfortunately, this sense of uncertainty is not new for you, our graduating class. Your lives have been filled with the word “unprecedented.” We are now at a point where this word has been said so much that it has lost its meaning and intensity.
And we need to recognize that the uncertainty in each of your day-to-day lives is different. Each of you experiences the world as unique. Some of you encounter greater targeting, anxiety, and challenges because of who you are, who you love, your background, what you believe or support, or where you are from. These unique challenges, together with all that is going on in our state, nation, and world, can make it difficult to find your footing – to find hope in the future.
But I’d argue that hope and optimism can indeed be found in such times of uncertainty and instability. I find hope by moving from the macro to the micro – from the big, overwhelming, and incomprehensible world we live in today to the day-to-day interactions, observations, and experiences. I find hope in all of you, our Eskenazi School faculty, staff, undergraduate and graduate students.
And there are countless examples from just the last several months…
- From the selfless and dedicated work of our student ambassadors who are graduating today. They help us share the excitement of our school with our future students and their families.
- To the MFA and BFA Studio graduating cohorts who mounted thought-provoking gallery exhibitions with the help of our dedicated gallery staff. The MFA thesis presentations I witnessed were courageous, insightful, and inspiring. These students channeled the mastery they had gained in their medium of choice toward expressing their ideas with authenticity and honesty.
- To the many officers of the Retail Studies Organization, who organize professional development opportunities for our merchandising and fashion design students, and students across the campus, including panels, speakers, and events.
- And there was such creativity, innovation, and diversity on full display at our annual Bachelor of Arts in Fashion Design Fashion Show just a few weeks ago.
And to our faculty who create an environment where students feel safe to explore, experiment, and evolve such as:
- Senior Lecturer Lucas Brown and his architecture students in the Design-Build Studio who engaged with Columbus residents to identify the community’s needs, before designing, fabricating, and installing a bus shelter for the City of Columbus, which may be a prototype for more shelters to come.
- To Associate Professor Malcolm Smith and Grunwald Gallery Director Linda Tien, together with IU Collections, who encouraged our MFA students to create new artwork inspired by exploring IU’s many collections. The resulting show, at the McCalla School demonstrated the synergy possible when undertaking creative research in the resource-rich environment of a large research one university.
- And then there was Assistant Professor Spencer Steenblik and his students who produced a conference which convened innovators, practitioners, and theorists around radical sustainability in building materials.
- Or consider Assistant Professor Hoa Vo and her students who collaborated in a design charrette to reimagine a clinic for neurodiverse youth in Kenya, as commissioned by a client from the IU School of Medicine.
- Or, in the Design of Systems, Associate Professor Kennon Smith’s students spent the semester prototyping and playtesting board games, to learn how to design with unexpected interactions and outcomes in mind.
And our students have earned many other distinctions, including:
- Six Eskenazi students who received honors for their groundbreaking case studies for the Fashion Scholarship Fund -- including two Virgil Abloh Postmodern scholars. Recognized for their ideas at the intersection of fashion and technology, these students were introduced to a robust professional network on their recent trip to New York.
- And congratulations, as well, to our four 2025 National Society of Arts and Letters winners, whose work across media was selected to represent the future of visual arts, in Indiana and the nation.
- There are so many more examples I could mention.
I’ve also witnessed not just the achievements and accomplishments, but also the kindnesses and care…
- Our Director of Community and Student Success, Tianrui Ma developed a series of programming focused on CARE — from Finals Fuel to Friendsgiving to Canvas of Care to celebrating Grad Student Appreciation Week to Staff Appreciation Day.
- And there’s our Guest Artist Coordinator Spencer Schaffer who made extra efforts to make our visiting artists feel at home, including spending days of his weekends assisting international guests with moving in and out of university housing.
- And then last fall our community came together for the Hoosiers Outrun Cancer fundraiser supporting several of us who have been impacted by cancer, and we also gathered to celebrate our architecture programs’ initial accreditation, or to participate in town halls and community check-ins.
- And every day I witness our staff’s support and care of our faculty and students who could not do their work without that dedication and commitment.
We also think about the inspiring lives that touched us in such impactful ways along our journey but are no longer with us. I’m sure everyone in the auditorium has experienced the loss of someone you wish were here today. For our community this includes our dear colleague Associate Professor Margaret Dolinsky, who recently passed away far too early in her life.
As you depart from the Eskenazi School and Bloomington, please remember that this will always be home, and a place where you learned about yourself, you gave to others, and you became part of our community.
All of those memories go with you and will fortify you in difficult days and will increase your joy in happy days. Remember that the faculty and staff of the Eskenazi School are here for you and look forward to accompanying you as you continue on your journey.
Go forth to shape the future of creativity with the hope and confidence that your time here has instilled in you.