UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The College of Arts and Architecture’s Arts Entrepreneurship program will host three public events as part of Penn State Startup Week, which kicks off March 26.
Penn State alumnus and Brooklyn-based artist Jonathan Cramer will speak from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Monday, March 26, in the Arts and Design Research Incubator, located in 16 Borland Building at University Park. Cramer won a national competition for the commission to design the “We Are” sculpture, located at the corner of Curtin Road and University Drive. He will speak on “Applying Art Techniques to Business Creation Development.”
A panel discussion on “Design and Design Thinking in Innovation and Entrepreneurship” will be held from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m. on Tuesday, March 27, in the Palmer Lipcon Auditorium, Palmer Museum of Art. Panelists include Frank Baseman, creative director and principal of Baseman Design Associates; Maggie Hansen, visiting assistant professor of landscape architecture at Penn State; and Dan Rowland, director and owner of Rowland Creative. The discussion will be moderated by Kelleann Foster, director of the Stuckeman School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.
Also on March 27 is the final round of the Arts Business Idea Competition. The competition was open to any Penn State student as long as the student’s business idea or concept was arts-based. Finalists Andrew Marshall, Elizabeth Andrzejewski, Stevie Fealtman, and Joonyeon Kim will present their ideas to a team of judges from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Arts and Design Research Incubator (16 Borland). This year’s judges are Steven Wasser, former owner and CEO of Powell Flutes; School of Theatre alumnus Mike Karns, founder and CEO of Marathon Live Entertainment; Peter Whalen, Penn State clinical associate professor of entrepreneurship; and College of Arts and Architecture faculty members Lonnie Graham and Ryan Russell.
Wasser also will speak from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 28, in the Arts and Design Research Incubator (16 Borland).
Penn State Startup Week, now in its seventh year, brings some of the leading minds in entrepreneurship and innovation to the University Park campus. By connecting students with innovative alumni and pioneers who are achieving success in a variety of disciplines — through startup initiatives of their own or with new ventures in already-established organizations — the event inspires students to go beyond what is expected of them and expand their minds to think more broadly in whatever career path they choose. For more information and a complete schedule of events, visit startupweek.psu.edu.