FAA
Wanna get ahead this summer? Take a Gen Ed course in the arts!
We`ve got topics like intro to art, contemporary dance, and theatre arts, as well as urban sustainability and the history of rock music 🎶🎸
Check out more course info ➡️ link in bio!
🎉 Huge congratulations to Professor Akima Brackeen from the Illinois School of Architecture, recipient of the 2025–26 Lily Auchincloss Rome Prize in Architecture! 🏛️
Awarded by the American Academy in Rome, this prestigious fellowship supports visionary artists and scholars through an immersive residency in the heart of Rome. Professor Brackeen is one of 35 recipients selected from nearly 1,000 applicants worldwide.
This fall, she will join an interdisciplinary community on the Academy’s campus in Rome to continue her transformative work in architecture. @amacademyrome
Congrats, Professor Brackeen! @helloakima @archatillinois
Read more with the link in bio 🔗
#RomePrize #AmericanAcademyInRome #IllinoisArchitecture #WeDesign
🎭“Let yourself be the beginner again.” — Gianna Casanova, Lyric Theatre major
Why Gianna chose @lyrictheatreillinois?
✔️ Classical and contemporary training
✔️ Opportunities to perform in operas and musicals
✔️ A tight-knit, supportive cohort and faculty
✔️ World-class practice and performance spaces
Her days are packed with rehearsals, dance classes, studio sessions, and learning from peers and professors who truly care.
Advice to future majors: Come ready to learn, be curious, and soak it all in 🧡
@illinoismusic @krannertcenter
Video by @ad1tik
Today is the last day of our I ❤️ the Arts student philanthropy month of giving. Join us INSIDE the Architecture Building from 11am-1pm for food and FAA swag to celebrate the close of our initiative. Together, we can make a difference and help support a student in need. Show your love for the arts now by making a gift at go.illinois.edu/heart-the-arts!
Happy International Dance Day 🎉
Today we honor the universal language of movement alongside @danceatillinois.
On International Dance Day, we celebrate the power of dance to connect cultures, express emotion, and inspire change.
To our dancers, teachers, alumni, and friends:
Thank you for making our community vibrant, creative, and fearless. Today, we celebrate YOU!
#InternationalDanceDay #danceunitesus
Photo by Natalie Fiol
From "Khazan (Autumn)" by Banafsheh Amiri
🌿 New research led by landscape architecture professors William Sullivan and Bin Jiang reveals a powerful connection between green spaces and public safety. Their study—the first of its kind—shows that communities with more greenery experience significantly fewer fatal police shootings, especially in areas facing social and economic challenges. Read how thoughtful landscape design can shape safer, healthier neighborhoods.
@illinoislandarch
Learn more at the🔗 link in bio!
#LandscapeArchitecture #UrbanGreening #PublicSafety #CommunityDesign
Dance at Illinois alumna Leslie Cuyjet (BFA ’03) has been selected as a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow as part of the Foundation`s 100th year anniversary. This competitive honor was only presented to 198 exceptional individuals across 53 disciplines—selected from nearly 3,500 applicants.
Cuyjet, who is based out of Brooklyn, NY, has been choreographing and dancing in New York since 2004, collaborating and performing with other creators “on rooftops, good and bad floors, and alleyways; on stage, in film, art, on tour, and on the fly.” She is also the recipient of two Bessie Awards for her work, a top honor in the world of dance.
The Fellowship provides support for recipients to pursue independent work under what the Foundation calls “the freest possible conditions.” It empowers choreographers to explore bold ideas, push creative boundaries, and make meaningful contributions to the field of dance—something Cuyjet has been doing already for over a decade —without commercial or institutional constraints.
A huge congratulations to Leslie! We can`t wait to see what comes of this remarkable opportunity!
Read more in the link in bio! @danceatillinois @guggfellows
Are you the recipient of a financial need-based scholarship? Over a third of Illinois students are here because they were provided with some form of need-based aid. Your gift can help make the difference between a student attending FAA at Illinois or having to decline enrollment due to financial constraints. Every gift counts. Will you make a gift today? go.illinois.edu/heart-the-arts
BSSD
🎉 Congratulations to three BSSD student recipients of this year’s Fiddler Innovation Fellowship for their work with Design for America (DFA)!! 🎉
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications awarded Fiddler Innovation Fellowships to 38 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and NCSA graduate students in a ceremony on October 31 honoring their outstanding achievements and interdisciplinary contributions to NCSA programs, including Students Pushing Innovation (SPIN), NCSA’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program titled “The Future of Discovery: Training Students to Build and Apply Open Source Machine Learning Models and Tools” (REU FoDoMMaT), Design for America (DFA) and those who worked with NCSA-affiliated faculty during the 2024-25 academic year and summer of 2025.
The 38 awardees represent students whose outstanding interdisciplinary contributions to their projects showcased a wide range of research interests and domains, including environmental sustainability, music, personalized nutrition, agriculture and astronomy.
🚌 Dale Sink, one of the BSSD student awardees shared more about her winning project:
“I was on the Transportation team for two semesters. In the first semester, my team focused on safety and comfort for MTD riders through improving bus stops in and around UIUC’s campus. At the turn of the semester, we identified a lack of bus etiquette standardization causing much of student dissatisfaction, most pertinently delaying buses and creating on-bus discomfort for other riders. We then focused on: ‘How can we increase MTD student rider satisfaction in Champaign-Urbana while improving system efficiency through education?’ We discerned that users prioritize convenience and clear communication while our primary stakeholders, MTD and F&S, focus on efficiency and passenger education. This project sets the foundation for a bus etiquette education program through visual posters and catchy tag lines to encourage riders to be more mindful and respectful as they ride the bus.”
☀️ Jeremiah Pope, an alum of BSSD, visited Casa Pueblo as part of the Community-Based Sustainable Design in Puerto Rico study abroad program in 2024. Jeremiah’s photos and video are currently on view in BSSD’s first exhibition in our new gallery space. Stop by the 2nd floor of the Architecture Building to take a look!
☀️ Q. BSSD: Tell us a bit about yourself and your experience with Casa Pueblo.
☀️A. JP: “I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2024 where I studied Sustainable Design and minored in Media. Through my experience I was able to visit Casa Pueblo in 2024 as a study abroad trip in Adjuntas to bring a physical space for Casa Pueblo to express their purpose in moving forward in sustainability. In this way, I was able to combine skills learned in Sustainable Design and Media to bring their mission to life.
During my time with Casa Pueblo, I helped create Sol-idaridad, a solar-powered community space in Adjuntas where people can connect, recharge, and thrive during difficult times. I helped to design the cultural space and documented the process through photo and video to capture how we shaped a symbol of resilience, unity, and light.”
☀️ Want to know more about what’s on view?: This exhibition features documentation, reflections, and design interventions conceived by students from the B.S. Sustainable Design Program who participated in a study abroad course to Puerto Rico in spring 2024 and 2025. While there, students met with local academics, artists, activists, and communities working with Casa Pueblo in the Altos de Cuba neighborhood of Adjuntas. They were then tasked with documenting and sharing Casa Pueblo’s achievements as well as actively contributing to the improvement of Altos de Cuba through sustainable design interventions. We invite you to visit the Sustainable Design Corridor on the second floor of the Architecture building to learn about their experiences engaging with Casa Pueblo’s energy independence and economic development work, as well as the designs students conceived for a meaningful, sustainable, community gathering space.
We love seeing what our students have been learning during the semester! Did you catch the great work from ARTD 225 Design Drawing and ARTD 326 Sustainability & Manufacturing classes? Both were taught by Savio Mukachirayil, Assistant Professor in the School of Art & Design. Swipe to check out student sketches from ARTD 225 and examples of mycelium projects by students in ARTD 326. Many students in these classes are BSSD majors
Have you seen the most recent issue of Dimension, FAA’s Magazine? Check out page 4 for a great feature on BSSD’s accelerated grad programs and how these degrees have helped two students build the advanced skills they need to succeed in a competitive, impact-driven career!
Link in bio or visit https://issuu.com/artsatillinois/docs/dimension_2025 to read more
Dec 5th & 12th- BSSD Portfolio Reviews ⭐️Advanced registration required⭐️
Getting ready for career fairs? Thinking about graduate school? Sign-up for a 20-minute, one-on-one meeting with Director Karin Hodgin Jones or Program Coordinator Tali Weinberg to receive personalized feedback and support in preparing your portfolio. Students at any stage of portfolio development are welcome! Please plan to arrive a few minutes before your appointment with materials ready to review, either on your computer or printed.
When: Fridays, December 5th and 12th, 9:30am-2:00pm.
Link in bio or visit https://go.illinois.edu/PortfolioReviews
Dec 10- Last Day of Instruction
Dec 11- Reading Day (No classes) Take advantage of Reading Day resources all over campus!! ☕📖
Dec 12-18- Finals Week - Good Luck!! 📘✏️
The BSSD offices are closed this week for fall break. We look forward to seeing you back here in December!
Getting ready for career fairs? Thinking about graduate school? Sign-up for a 20-minute, one-on-one meeting with Director Karin Hodgin Jones or Program Coordinator Tali Weinberg to receive personalized feedback and support in preparing your portfolio.
Students at any stage of portfolio development are welcome! Please plan to arrive a few minutes before your appointment with materials ready to review, either on your computer or printed.
When: Fridays, December 5th and 12th, 9:30am-2:00pm.
⭐️Advanced registration is required.⭐️
Link in bio or visit https://go.illinois.edu/PortfolioReviews
👀 Our first exhibition in the new sustainable design gallery space is now on view! Have you seen it?
🌎 The show features documentation, reflections, and design interventions conceived by BSSD students who participated in a community-based sustainable design study abroad course to Puerto Rico. While there, students met with local academics, artists, activists, and communities working with Casa Pueblo in the Altos de Cuba neighborhood of Adjuntas. They were then tasked with documenting and sharing Casa Pueblo’s achievements as well as actively contributing to the improvement of Altos de Cuba through sustainable design interventions. We invite you to learn about their experiences engaging with Casa Pueblo’s energy independence and economic development work, as well as the designs students conceived for a meaningful, sustainable, community gathering space. ✏️
📍Now on view in the Sustainable Design Corridor on the 2nd floor of the Architecture Building. Stop by anytime!
