ArtEDGE, a collaborative program involving the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, OU Libraries and the College of Architecture’s Interior Design Division, brought fifty 7th and 8th grade Norman Public School students to the OU campus for an engaging, interdisciplinary experience. The program led the students through three different stages of analysis and creation. In the first stage, students learned about the history, purpose and inspiration behind the architectural designs of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art and analyzed and interpreted a museum piece as inspiration for their design project. This Fall, the focal piece was Two Figures, a bronze abstract sculpture by Barbara Hepworth. Students used observation skills, descriptive language and sketching exercises to develop a story and place inspired by the piece. The students then visited The EDGE in Bizzell Memorial library, where they created and manipulated a virtual model of the place they were designing. Students received 3D-printed models of Two Figures from The Edge that would be later used in an architectural model. Once they arrived at the College of Architecture, the students united their individually developed designs and constructed their models.
A model created by one of the participants.
Models and sketches from the ArtEDGE experience will be on display in the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art’s Education Gallery during Spring 2017. For more information about the ArtEDGE program, contact Elizabeth Pober (epober@ou.edu).
Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture professor and Institute for Quality Communities Director Dr. Amber N. Wiley’s book, Model Schools in the Model City: Race, Planning, and Education in the Nation’s Capital, has received two major honors from the Urban History Association.
Research initiated by Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture alumna Naila Hasan during her master’s studies at the University of Oklahoma has continued through faculty collaboration and resulted in a peer-reviewed publication in HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal.
Gibbs College of Architecture is pleased to announce Esther Thorp, Tyler Boydstun and Chukwuma Nwokoye as the winners of the 2026 Construction Innovation Translation Hub (CIThub) Student Ideas Competition.
