This month brought back to me one of the great joys of serving in the Cumulus Executive Board: the opportunity to “break bread” and hold intensive working sessions in person again with my fellow board members, a group of academic leaders from around the world deeply committed to the stewardship of our association.

After eighteen months of the uneventful surroundings of our digital square grids, we could not have convened in a more inspiring environment, both literally and figuratively. Most of our board traveled to Salzburg, where we were hosted by Cumulus partner, the Salzburg Global Seminar, in their storied 18th-century site and seminar facilities, Schloss Leopoldskron. Once the lovingly restored home of the theater impresario and Salzburg Music Festival founder Max Reinhardt, the magnificent property and grounds became part of the Salzburg Global Seminar in 1947 – a time deeply scarred by the ravages and horrors of World War Two. As an independent non-profit institution, Salzburg Global Seminar started with the courage and “dare to dream” audacity of three university students: two Americans and an Austrian. Determined not to see the atrocities of the war ever occur again, they came together. They raised a seed fund to acquire a dilapidated palace in the outskirts of Salzburg, turning the place into an academic summer camp of sorts, one to gather beyond disparate ideologies to seek common ground and pursue a “Marshall Plan for the Mind.” All of these years later, their vision has evolved into a globally connected organization with a legacy of programs, coalitions, and a network of Global Fellows committed to bridging cultures and shifting the terms of debate to incite action for a better future.

As a Fellow, it was a privilege to facilitate the introduction of this institution to colleagues. I am grateful to the Salzburg Global Seminar leadership team for their warm welcome and for engaging in dialogue to activate our formal partnership. Stay tuned. The Secretariat will share more about opportunities ahead that we are looking to shape across many of our initiatives.

On my plane ride home to New York after the board meeting and great visits with members and Cumulus partners in Barcelona, I had some time to pour over a few of the publications from the Salzburg Global Seminar library. I leave you with a quote on leadership, a subject I teach to my graduate students at Parsons, from the 2017 Inaugural Salzburg Lecture delivered by Thulisile Nomkhosi Madonsela, Professor Law Faculty Trust Chair in Social Justice, University of Stellenbosch, and former Public Protector of South Africa:

“Progress at all levels requires the kind of leadership behind the Salzburg story. We need leadership that focuses on the glimmers of light amidst darkness. We need leadership that leverages those sparks of light and turns despair into hope, and light into darkness.”

Here’s to leveraging those sparks of light around us!

Mariana Amatullo, PhD
President, Cumulus
Associate Professor, Strategic Design and Management, Parsons
Vice Provost for Global Executive Education and Online Strategic Initiatives,
The New School

Downloadable Cumulus President’s message October 2021

Cumulus Executive Board, Salzburg Global Seminar grounds, October 2021, courtesy of Katrin Kerschbaumer Photography

The conference Arts Imagining Communities to Come will be focused on seeking ways of working with local communities through academic engagement. Learn more about them and the four tracks of the conference below and stay tuned for registration information on the conference website coming soon!

Track 1: Crisis, Criticism, and Creation
Jon McKenzie (USA) is a performance theorist, media creator, researcher and transdisciplinary professor at Cornell University. He is the founder of the Studio Lab Pedagogy which is a Model for Collaboration, Innovation, and Space Design. You can learn more about Jon here.

Track 2: Production Design in the Arts
Delma Rodríguez (Uruguay) is a visual artist, specialized in Education and Technology. She is the Director of Anilla Cultural, an organization that promotes multidisciplinary projects at the intersection of the Arts, Education and Society. Learn more about Delma here.

Track 3: Art, Nature, Biology and Technology
José-Carlos Mariátegui (Perú) is a scientist and theorist in New Media. He is the founder of Alta Tecnología Andina, a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of projects in the Arts, Science and Technology in Latin America. Learn more about José-Carlos here.

Track 4: Urban art and redesigning cities
Susan Hansen (UK) is Convenor of the Visual Methods Group at Middlesex University, London. Her research combines the study of Graffiti and Street Art’s existence within an ever-changing field of social interactions. Learn more about Susan here.

In the face of current challenges, those already here, and those yet to come, we know that we can turn to the arts to open up new avenues for inquiry and imagination.

For the next virtual Cumulus Conference: Arts Imagining Communities to Come, the concept of imagination and its agency vis-a-vis the interplay between artistic and educational practices and communities provides a critical thematic anchor. It is also foundational to the multi-disciplinary practices of the conference tracks and of the inspiring artists and academic experts that make the keynote line-up just announced: Jon McKenzie from Cornell’s Studio Lab Pedagogy; Delma Rodríguez from Anilla Cultural; José-Carlos Mariátegui, Alta Tecnología Andina and Susan Hansen, Visual Methods Group at Middlesex University.

As I look forward to participating in this conference, I am reflecting on this concept of imagination- it has, as we know, so many contested definitions and a plurality of meanings. I came across this articulation by the Irish philosopher Richard Kearney: “imagination is about the capacity we all have as human beings to connote absence into presence, actuality into possibility, what is into something—other—than-it-is.”* As an educator deeply committed to community work, I am often moved to reflect on my trajectory of project engagements in the field of design for social innovation. Like many other colleagues, I wrestle with the ethical dimensions of “what it is that we leave behind” in our communities when engaging in art and design projects that aspire to provoke social change. So Kearney’s definition of imagination resonates because it is generative and hopeful at its core. It reminds us that imagination unleashes a process of seeing, sensing, seeking, making, and creating conditions for reframing and dreaming new possibilities. In these times of profound social reckoning worldwide, I am grateful for the many imaginative acts that we see every day in the many diverse communities in our midst.

I invite you to join me virtually with our hosts at UArtes in Guayaquil next November!

Mariana Amatullo, PhD
President, Cumulus
Associate Professor, Strategic Design and Management, Parsons
Vice Provost for Global Executive Education and Online Strategic Initiatives,
The New School

Downloadable Cumulus President’s message September 2021

*Kearney R. The Wake of Imagination: Ideas of Creativity in Western Culture. London: Hutchinson; 1988

On the anniversary of the Edgar Valter’s birth, the Valter Illustration Award, which was awarded to Anne Pikkov, was presented at the Estonian Children’s Literature Center. The award is monetary and includes the opportunity to organize a solo exhibition in the illustration gallery of the Estonian Children’s Literature Center in the autumn of 2022.
A jury of children’s literature and illustration experts selected the winner and nominees from 28 book artists, taking into account books published over the past five years. Anne Pikkov’s co-nominees included illustrators Katrin Ehrlich, Piret Raud, Urmas Viik and Catherine Zarip.
According to the chairman of the jury Triin Soone, the laureate Anne Pikkov is a playful and surprising illustrator who feels masterful and homely in many techniques. According to him, Pikkov is like an artist in a mask, whose work he does not immediately recognize exactly who is behind the mask. “Anne Pikkov uses both freely manual and computer-based techniques and creates both juicy and colorful graphic solutions. In her pictures, it is not the detailed object and space that matters, but the emotion hidden in the colors and characters,” added Soone.

The nominees and the winner were selected by a seven-member jury consisting of Eva Laantee Reintamm (art historian), Ilona Martson (children’s magazine Täheke), Mare Müürsepp (IBBY Estonian department), Juss Piho (Estonian Association of Graphic Designers), Kersti Tiik (Estonian Art Museum), Asta Trummel Ministry of Culture) and Triin Soone (Estonian Children’s Literature Center).

The illustration prize was established in 2019, when Regina Lukk-Toompere was chosen as the laureate. The aim of the award is to value and recognize the work of Estonian book artists, to promote and support the development of Estonian children’s literature and to commemorate Edgar Valter. The award is supported by the Ministry of Culture.

Read more about the award here.
Read about Pikkov’s award in Estonian here.

Photo: Property of the Edgar Valter Illustration Award

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Get to know Unknown Origins closer here.

Earlier this month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) convened by the United Nations released a major new report about climate change’s devastating “widespread, rapid and intensifying” impacts. Ahead of the upcoming Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, this sobering report represents a renewed wake-up call for our design education and research community to take bold action.Let’s make no qualms about it; the verdict is out: in the age of the Anthropocene, we humans have been the most powerful—and destructive—influence on global ecology. We are responsible for the “great acceleration” we have witnessed since the mid-twentieth century in which our energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and rate of growth have thrust our planet into the beyond repair state we find ourselves in. We have now crossed a perilous threshold where every climate future scenario modeled by scientists has us living in a warming world that even our most resolute collective actions have an increasingly slim chance to alter for the better.

While the future isn’t perfectly knowable and never has been, the responsibility we have as a global community of artists and design educators to come to grips with the urgency to mitigate some of the catastrophic consequences of climate change ahead has never been greater. We know the shifts that are needed, and we can activate them: embrace a circular economy in the products we create, design and build to net-zero carbon standards, integrate new clean technologies that reduce our reliance on fossil fuels in the urban and transportation systems we design, translate the science into advocacy and memorable communication that will turn heads, change minds and lead to policy change, and more.

Our choice is now between in-action or bold participation. The data is clear and the scenarios sufficiently alarming: we have just been handed the ultimate design brief. Closing to urge us all in the Cumulus community to take the participation route.

My best wishes for a safe “rentrée” in the Global North for those returning to campus and a new academic year that undoubtedly continues to feel different with the ongoing pandemic transitions and uncertainties. To our Cumulus members in the Global South may you have a productive and healthy semester to conclude the year!

Mariana Amatullo, PhD
President, Cumulus
Associate Professor, Strategic Design and Management, Parsons
Vice Provost for Global Executive Education and Online Strategic Initiatives,
The New School

Downloadable Cumulus President’s Message August 2021

For more information on the shortlist, see WDO’s website.wdo.org/wdo-announces-shortlist-for-world-design-capital-2024
“In today’s socio-economic climate, the WDC designation represents a far more significant opportunity for us to highlight how cities around the world are leveraging design to reimagine and revitalize their urban spaces post-pandemic,” stated WDO President Srini Srinivasan. “While presenting their own unique design narratives, informed by diverse geographic and cultural contexts, both bids have successfully demonstrated a commitment to design as a means to improve quality of life.”

The shortlist was established by the WDC 2024 Selection Committee, comprised of seven international experts in design, architecture, smart cities and urban development. Following this announcement, further exchanges with the design communities supporting each bid will be sought to enable the committee to announce the final selection in October 2021.

2024 will mark the ninth cycle for the World Design Capital programme – a biennial designation that recognizes cities for their effective use of design to drive economic, social, cultural, and environmental development.

We wish both bids and the Selection Committee the best of luck!

This June issue of our newsletter highlights several key stories that correspond to the momentous accomplishments our Executive Board and Secretariat team have been engaged in for the past twelve months and that we have reported on to our members during the recent General Assembly on June 10, in the context of the Cumulus Roma Design Culture (s) conference at Sapienza University.

I had the great good fortune to travel to Rome to attend Cumulus Roma in person and support the organizing conference team. It was a privilege to witness firsthand the immense ingenuity and creativity that fueled the delivery of the conference—one which had to evolve its format as we know over several unexpected iterations that had the team planning this conference repeated times: from an original on-site modality when they first proposed it to our association several years ago, to a planned hybrid mode early this year as the enduring reality of the pandemic continued to impact us all globally, and finally to the full virtual model that was executed as public health constraints about large group gatherings continued to dominate so many countries, including Italy.

I want to congratulate conference co-chairs Loredana DiLucchio and Lorenzo Imbesi and their team for their repeated pivots: many sudden changes of direction they mastered with generosity and care. They have modeled not only hard work, but also tenacity against adverse circumstances. They are to be commended for their vision in striving to deliver an immersive and multi-layered cultural experience for all participants. On the ground in Rome, it was inspiring to watch them work in a constant “liquid” state, iterating on the fly and as needed as they embraced the live production demands of the conference, juggling multiple camera angles of live proceedings as well as various locations; and choreographing with care technology and logistics to translate physical, cultural experiences to the virtual conference platform so as to engage remote delegates who were received these sessions via live streaming worldwide. I know that the proceedings of the conference are now being assembled. All of us are looking forward to learning from the Cumulus Roma experience and are inspired to collect lessons for future iterations of Cumulus conferences. A priority of ours is to continue working on new inclusive models of access and more sustainable ways to gather within our association’s global network, the potential for innovation that hybrid components of conferences represent is one we are keenly interested in continuing to explore and champion as we go forward in the post-pandemic world order.

We also held our General Assembly (GA) during Cumulus Roma. Our key governance occasion is always an opportunity for our Secretariat to report on its key activities and for our Executive Board to share milestones reached. The GA is also a forum for celebration about major accomplishments. In a year of incredible challenges to global mobility for the academic enterprise, we are particularly proud of our work in sustaining a robust membership worldwide and welcoming a new set of inspiring and diverse institutions and partners to the Cumulus family. On this front, I want to extend my sincere gratitude to SG Eija Salmi and the full Secretariat team, whose tireless efforts have made this happen. In terms of the work we are doing as a stewardship team with the Executive Board, it has been “all-hands-on-deck” for us as a leadership team as we have continued to hold board meetings virtually and align our work together and in our sub-committees to advance the seven strategic objectives of our Strategic Plan. As we mark two-thirds of our service on our progress, please read the Implementation Progress Report. The document attempts to quantify our work and gives an honest account of our efforts to date. It has been incredibly gratifying to witness how much we are accomplishing as a distributed global team.

On a personal level, I do believe the future of Cumulus was in full view this GA not only via the vision and work of my colleagues in our Board who are a phenomenal team that I consider myself fortunate to work alongside, but via the voices and perspectives of many members in our community who participated in the Cumulus 30 Years Anniversary Film that we rolled out during the GA. The diverse and inclusive sentiments that are expressed in this piece represent a true “North Star” for me as I contemplate the last year of our work in this board serving you all, our members. If you missed this poetic film directed by New Zealand filmmaker Niamh Peren, do watch it here.

We have lots to look forward to ahead. I am wishing those of you in the Global North along with the team at the Secretariat, the rejuvenation that comes from lazy summer days and a bit of a pause. For those of us working on different rhythms and hemispheres, may these be productive times. We will be in touch early August with a new newsletter and updates for a momentous last quarter of 2021 which will see the launch of the Cumulus Green 2022 student competition focused on SDG 2, the unveiling of our new website, and the kick-off August 19 of a new initiative and global conversation under the recent Cumulus New Bauhaus Partnership. Stay tuned for more on all of these fronts!

With gratitude,

Mariana Amatullo, PhD
President, Cumulus
Associate Professor, Strategic Design and Management, Parsons
Vice Provost for Global Executive Education and Online Strategic Initiatives,
The New School

Downloadable Cumulus Presidents Message June 2021

As Cumulus celebrates its 30th anniversary and continues to grow as a global association with increasing demands to operate effectively in the digital ecosystem that characterizes our work serving you all- our 360 member institutions across 63 countries around the world- our board determined that it was time to refresh the organization’s visual identity.

The new identity replaces the esteemed and highly celebrated design of Ranko Novak, Professor Emeritus at the University of Ljubljana who created the original visual identity and honors its legacy. Designed by California based award-winning designer Karen Davison, an alumna of ArtCenter College of Design specializing in non-profit international work and a contributor to Cumulus for the past two years, the project was led by our Cumulus Vice President, Professor Rachel Troye with the strategic support of Cumulus VP Philipp Heidkamp and the rest of the board.

As Rachel articulated in her GA presentation, the new identity has been conceived with the goals of ease of application. We trust you will appreciate the dynamic and inclusive nature, global versatility, and contemporary aesthetic of the refreshed institutional identity of Cumulus. The aim was to acknowledge the legacy and heritage of Cumulus, align the revised identity with our overall strategic plan, and position Cumulus as a forward-thinking contemporary association – we believe that the task was fulfilled with flying colors!

Along with the new logo, we have simplified the naming reference for Cumulus. The following reference protocol and tag can be used: Cumulus Association; tag: “The leading global association to serve art and design education and research.”

Learn more about the rebranding process as introduced by Prof. Rachel Troye.

As a reminder you may also follow us via our social media channels at Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram @cumulusassociation.