Case Study: MICA and JHU Design Collective
Eight years ago, administrators at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) were approached by a team from Johns Hopkins University’s Urban Health Institute. Located in one of Baltimore’s roughest communities, Johns Hopkins wanted to develop tools to communicate public health information and access to residents of the surrounding neighborhoods. “The medical school had clear ideas about what needed to be conveyed, but they lacked the right medium for their message,” says Ray Allen, Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Provost, Maryland Institute College of Art.
Together, Johns Hopkins and the College of Art assembled a team of graphic design students who would mediate between physicians, public health experts, and the community. Eventually, the design team created a suite of outreach tools, including print advertisements for buses and t-shirts that touted low-salt diets, exercise, and treatments for high blood pressure.
“The impact of this project has been pretty profound,” Allen says. Since then, the schools have formalized their partnership as the MICA/JHU Design Collective, which continues to develop effective ways to put the results of Hopkins’s public health research to work for the benefit of urban populations. “This has implications beyond the city,” Allen continues. “We’re on the cutting edge of looking at how education and the arts can change people’s behavior.”
About Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University is a private research university located in Baltimore, Maryland. The undergraduate studies program at JHU is ranked 15th among National Universities by U.S. News and World Report, and is a world leader in research and education in medicine, public health, the arts, sciences, and engineering.
About the Maryland Institute College of Art
Founded in 1826, MICA is the oldest fully accredited, degree-granting college of art in the country. MICA’s undergraduate and graduate programs have consistently been ranked among the nation’s top programs in visual arts and design.
