Craftsmanship & Creativity Abound at the Bauhaus Ball

On October 23, the New York School of Interior Design hosted a costume ball that engaged the entire community in a fun, immersive lesson in the principles of the Bauhaus movement. At a faculty meeting months before, instructors Stefanie Werner and Francisco De Leon raised the idea of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus with a party in the tradition of the movement’s famous costume balls. Barbara Weinreich, director of undergraduate programs, took the helm of the project, envisioning a collaborative effort between faculty, students, and staff. Says Weinreich, “We challenged participants to make a wearable creation of repurposed materials that expressed Bauhaus design principles. Francisco had the idea that students could also redesign the NYSID logo in the Bauhaus style, so we planned to award prizes for best costume and best logo to students.” The faculty created a course in Canvas, the College’s web-based learning management program, where students could find images and inspiration guides for the costumes and the logo design. A team of faculty and staff that included MPS in Interior Lighting Design director Shaun Fillion, archivist and librarian Julie Sandy, MPS in Sustainable Interior Environments director David Bergman, and instructor Brian Lee met weekly to plan and create the lighting, banners, installations, and projections that would utterly transform the auditorium. Craig Young ’19 (MPS-L) provided a lighting installation of silhouettes. Students Shane Curnutt and Julissa Altmonte decorated the tables, making them look like Bauhaus paintings and Albers textiles.

Ultimately, the students’ costumes stole the show. Says Weinreich, “When the parade of costumes began, we were blown away by the creativity!” BFA student Shane Curnutt won the costume contest and MFA-1 student Praveena Aleti won the logo design contest. Says Weinreich, “Most of all, I loved the collegial collaboration between people of different ages and disciplines that resulted in a memorable design event.”