AICURI

When Mike Eckhaus 10 SC and Zoe Latta 10 TX first rented a space in Brooklyn together, they didn’t quite realize that what started as an experimental studio practice would quickly mushroom into a fashion industry phenomenon. Among their growing accolades, Eckhaus Latta continues to draw a lot of media attention for their largely androgynous apparel and fabulous, twice annual runway shows.

In 2016 they made Forbes’ list of 30 Under 30 outstanding talents and were invited to edit A Magazine Curated By, creating something of a spoof on the advertisement-filled September issue of a mainstream fashion magazine like Vogue. By that fall, the actual Vogue was applauding “the buzzy brand’s most coherent and accomplished show yet,” referring to the New York Fashion Week debut of their spring/summer 2018 collection.

Now the duo known for confounding definition is pleasantly surprised to be making a cultural impact through its first solo museum exhibition—at none other than the Whitney in NYC. Aptly titled Eckhaus Latta: Possessed, the show—much like their practice—questions the connections between art, design, clothing, consumption and commerce. “They are known for using unexpected materials, emphasizing texture and tactility in their designs, and for incorporating writing, performance and video into their practice,” note the curators.

Possessed melds together “once-distinct disciplines like dance, fashion, art, photography, food and performance,” writes David Colman in The New York Times, offering a show in tune with the growing “blurrealist trend” among the cultural vanguard. “All together, this kit and caboodle is really something else entirely, a kind of conceptual art installation that aims to encapsulate today’s fashion system (if not today’s galloping consumption of all kinds) through a distillation of our experience with shopping and clothes into a three-chambered feast for the eyes.”

As part of the multifarious exhibition, the Whitney agreed to let Eckhaus and Latta install a pop-up shop outside one of the galleries—the first time it has sanctioned sales transactions outside of its own museum shop. Museum goers are invited to try on and buy clothing from a collection made specifically for the event, with tags that read “Special Museum Exhibition Product” and products emblazoned with statements like “I Was On the American Flag’s Website.”

While the crowd at the August 3 opening initially didn’t know what to make of the blatant commingling of art and commerce, by the end of the night they almost bought out the entire inventory. “We didn’t have any expectation in terms of how the clothes would actually sell,” Latta told The Cut, pointing out that the idea was to create “an experience.” But with the exhibition set to continue through October 8, she adds: “It’s a little overwhelming. We might have to make more stuff.”

Connecting through RISD
Since Eckhaus majored in Sculpture at RISD and Latta in Textiles, neither one had any experience in the world of fashion when they started out. “But both of us were really interested in making work for the body,” Latta explains—and both wanted to continue experimenting after graduation.

“For us there has always been this community of people who we graduated with at RISD and who have been integral to the practice,” Eckhaus says. “It’s interesting how the relationships you form at school really do carry forward when you leave and figure out the kind of creative landscape you want to make.”

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Providence College has earned re-accreditation for 10 years by the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.   

The notification, announced in a letter to College President Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P. ’80, follows the recent re-accreditation of the Providence College School of Business by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International through 2022.    

The College’s re-accreditation by CIHE/NEASC culminated an extensive collaborative effort by more than 100 members of the College community, as well as dozens of community members who provided feedback on the initial drafts of the institution’s final self-study. The self-study, submitted to the commission in September 2017, was followed by a four-day campus visit in October 2017 by a CIHE/NEASC team led by Dr. John E. Bassett, former president of Heritage University.   

In its letter, the commission concurred with the visiting team that the College offers a “high-quality, student-centered education.” It also noted that “with an experienced and effective president and senior leadership team, an engaged and committed Board of Trustees, and dedicated faculty and staff, Providence College is poised for continued excellence as it fulfills its commitment to ‘academic excellence in pursuit of the truth, growth in virtue, and service of God and neighbor.’”  

The commission directed the College to submit a fall 2019 progress report on its success in implementing the proposed new strategic plan, PC200. The commission also requested that, in PC’s fifth-year interim report (fall 2022), the College give emphasis to its success in: 

• continuing to assess the core curriculum, with a focus on using the results for improvement, and achieving a wider understanding among students and faculty of the goals and purposes of the core; 
• achieving its goals with respect to diversity and inclusiveness; and 
• implementing its school structure and clarifying the roles and responsibilities of school deans and the provost. 

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PROVIDENCE – Mim L. Runey, who has served as the Johnson & Wales University Providence campus president and chief operating officer since 2011, will step up as the school’s chancellor effective Oct. 1.

“From the strong pool of candidates that emerged, the board unanimously agreed that Mim Runey is the right leader at the right time to take Johnson & Wales to new heights,” said James H. Hance Jr., chairman of the JWU Board of Trustees and chair of the chancellor search committee, in prepared remarks.

Runey will be the school’s third chancellor in its 104-year history. She succeeds John J. Bowen, who announced his retirement in January.

Bowen will assume the role of chancellor emeritus on Oct. 1 until his retirement at the end of the calendar year.

In a statement, Runey said she is “honored to have been chosen to lead” JWU.

A top priority for her will be the implementation of the five-year FOCUS 2022strategic plan.

“Over the next five years, we will expand and design our academic programs to prepare our students for the challenges of the workplace of tomorrow. We also will be known for our pre-eminence in the study of food. I am excited to lead this new chapter in our university’s history,” said Runey in her prepared remarks.

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EAST GREENWICH, R.I. — It seems emblematic of New England Institute of Technology’s expanding student enrollment and health-care curriculum that the school’s first doctoral program, debuting this fall, should be in the field of occupational therapy — itself a burgeoning field as the general population ages and pediatric needs rise.

“When you think about the issues of lifespan, we work with people from womb to tomb,” said Carol A. Doehler, department chair and professor for occupational therapy programs at NEIT, and the driving force behind the new effort.

NEIT already offers associate’s and master’s degrees in occupational therapy, but graduates of those programs have been “literally begging us to start a doctoral program,” Doehler told The Providence Journal. Other universities offer them, Doehler said, and two years ago, she began leading the effort for a homegrown one.

The post-professional occupational therapy doctorate, as NEIT’s new program is formally known, is designed for occupational therapists already employed in the field. That makes it distinct from research-specific doctoral programs, Doehler said, which require a dissertation. Still, in addition to taking such courses as “Wellness, Participation and Health Promotion,” enrollees will be required to complete original work.

These “capstone projects,” as Doehler describes them, will stress innovation and entrepreneurship, with benefit to not only the student but those they serve.

“They will allow these people who are practicing therapists to focus on something uniquely important to them in their field,” Doehler said. “What do they want to change? What do they want to innovate? Maybe they’re in a private practice and they feel they’ve got an idea of something that’s different, that can work with a particular population and really make a change.”

Or, said Doehler, “it could be someone who’s practicing in a hospital and they’d like to see better evidence of how they help people with neurological impairment like a stroke or a head injury. What is current? ‘Are we doing the best care?’”

And depending on the student, the project could be a new approach that would help keep older people living at home, or help children on the autism spectrum lead richer lives.

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