Each year, we make holiday donations to deserving non-profits by crowd-sourcing our community for nominees. This is one piece of our ongoing efforts to give back and be good global citizens. You can learn more about our values and other organizations we interact with on our Company page.
For our 2023 holiday giveaway, we took nominations in the categories of Arts + Education, DEI, and Sustainability, and each contest winner received a gift of $1,500. Our randomly-selected winner in the area of Arts + Education was Studio School of Design, a space for affordable, community-based design learning for young people, professionals, and educators.
About Studio School of Design
Studio School of Design (SSD) was founded in 2021 as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit community of educators and learners whose primary mission is to provide equitable entry points for affordable, accessible, professional training in lighting design and broadening the pathways to a more diverse and inclusive profession.
Their goals
- To diversify the lighting community.
- To create an inclusive and multicultural learning environment where aspiring designers and working professionals are given access to the most up-to-date education in lighting design.
- To provide an affordable learning environment through free or low-cost classes and scholarship support.
- To design a holistic curriculum that merges art and technology, philosophy, practice, and real-world skills into a deep understanding of the art and craft of design.
- To fulfill their community’s need for lifelong learning that is current with cutting-edge creative skills and technological breakthroughs in an expanding and ever changing profession.
Who are they
- They are an interdependent community of practice where experiential learning is embedded in a curriculum of design and storytelling.
- They celebrate the full range of human cultural expression and identity, and they especially support those who have been marginalized or historically excluded from the design professions.
- They see lighting design as a creative art form and are deeply invested in the potential of telling diverse, inclusive human stories through the medium of light.
- They are a professionally engaged faculty committed to passing on to the next generation their experiential knowledge.
- They explore the potential of light and design as applied within multiple disciplines: theater/dance/opera, architecture, concerts, entertainment, themed and virtual environments for both live audiences and camera.
What they do
- In-Person and Online Education offering dynamic labs and workshops, mentored practical experiences, and immersion into the broad community of designers who are working in lighting today.
- Summer High School Workshops where young, aspiring lighting designers from underserved communities are offered the opportunity to explore light and tell stories through design.
- Educator Training Programs providing workshops and curricular materials for creative, effective teaching about light and design in high school and university levels.
- Community Building attached to networking opportunities for young professionals to expand connections to the larger professional community of theater artists.
- Lifelong Learning with the goal of enhancing and expanding each individual’s capacity to successfully navigate the broad range of expanding career choices in today’s market.
Background
SSD was founded by Mark Stanley and Clifton Taylor who bring to SSD broad backgrounds in theatre, dance, opera, and consulting, as well as many years in higher education at nationally recognized academic lighting design programs and not-for-profit career development foundations. Mark and Clifton are supported by an experienced, broad-based board and advisory group, united in their vision of a more diverse, equitable lighting profession.
Learn more about this organization and consider your own donation on their website. You can also watch our social channels every year for a new holiday contest and a chance to nominate an organization you care about.
[images courtesy of Studio School of Design]
