Exhibitions
The Ballay Center provides space for temporary exhibitions that raise the visibility of the School of Design, its partnerships, collaborations, and innovative work happening across the School and within the Ballay Center.
Dan Boyarski: Collages
TBA in 2025
Dan Boyarski is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Design who has built an impressive visual collage practice over the past 20 years. His unique and captivating approach integrates underlying gridded structures with artful imposition to create ethereal imagery.
TBA in 2025
Dan Boyarski is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Design who has built an impressive visual collage practice over the past 20 years. His unique and captivating approach integrates underlying gridded structures with artful imposition to create ethereal imagery.
IDSA Student Merit Award Exhibition 2024
April 8 - May 10, 2024
Each year, IDSA student chapters across the US nominate one undergraduate senior who exemplifies excellence within the industrial design field. Jiyeon Chun, a senior in the Product Design track, won the 2024 IDSA Student Merit Award at CMU and was featured in the Ballay Center.
April 8 - May 10, 2024
Each year, IDSA student chapters across the US nominate one undergraduate senior who exemplifies excellence within the industrial design field. Jiyeon Chun, a senior in the Product Design track, won the 2024 IDSA Student Merit Award at CMU and was featured in the Ballay Center.
Experimental Form Show Spring 2024
April 29, 2024
The Experimental Form course (51-434/834) operates at the intersection of industrial design and interaction design with an emphasis on exploring new forms for designed objects – encouraging an exploratory study of artifacts and provides a creative and intellectual forum to re-imagine our relationship with products through a distinctly material approach. Students from the Spring 2024 course hosted table top demos in a one day exhibition in the Ballay Center on April 29.
April 29, 2024
The Experimental Form course (51-434/834) operates at the intersection of industrial design and interaction design with an emphasis on exploring new forms for designed objects – encouraging an exploratory study of artifacts and provides a creative and intellectual forum to re-imagine our relationship with products through a distinctly material approach. Students from the Spring 2024 course hosted table top demos in a one day exhibition in the Ballay Center on April 29.
The Landscapes of J. Craig Thorpe
October 25, 2023
J. Craig Thorpe (BFA ‘70) is a nationally recognized artist specializing in conceptual renderings and landscape paintings. The imagery of his experiences growing up in Pittsburgh shaped the foundation of a career that combines a technical accuracy with a painterly style evoking an emotional response from the viewer. His paintings have appeared on calendars, posters, cards, menus, timetables and a host of other items and has been published in various papers and journals such as the Arizona Republic, Denver Post, and USA Today, National Parks Magazine, Audubon and books such as Alfred Runte’s Allies of the Earth: Railroads and the Soul of Preservation and Trains of Discovery: Railroads and the Legacy of Our National Parks.
October 25, 2023
J. Craig Thorpe (BFA ‘70) is a nationally recognized artist specializing in conceptual renderings and landscape paintings. The imagery of his experiences growing up in Pittsburgh shaped the foundation of a career that combines a technical accuracy with a painterly style evoking an emotional response from the viewer. His paintings have appeared on calendars, posters, cards, menus, timetables and a host of other items and has been published in various papers and journals such as the Arizona Republic, Denver Post, and USA Today, National Parks Magazine, Audubon and books such as Alfred Runte’s Allies of the Earth: Railroads and the Soul of Preservation and Trains of Discovery: Railroads and the Legacy of Our National Parks.
No Longer Human, Still Fully Human
October 5-October 16, 2023
Communication Design Fall Junior Studio
Kristin Hughes / School of Design
Junior communication design students exhibited compelling, interactive visual narratives that delve into the evolving role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the realms of the arts, society, and culture while advocating for, substantiating, and challenging its implications. Students used the classic House of Cards structure designed by Charles and Ray Eames to enrich diverse perspectives—unveiling the intricate tapestry woven by the convergence of AI and everyday life.
October 5-October 16, 2023
Communication Design Fall Junior Studio
Kristin Hughes / School of Design
Junior communication design students exhibited compelling, interactive visual narratives that delve into the evolving role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the realms of the arts, society, and culture while advocating for, substantiating, and challenging its implications. Students used the classic House of Cards structure designed by Charles and Ray Eames to enrich diverse perspectives—unveiling the intricate tapestry woven by the convergence of AI and everyday life.
Borderlines: Containment, Care + Community
September 5-September 10, 2023
Center for the Arts in Society
Nida Rehman / School of Architecture
“Borderlines –> Hospitality: a migratory CAS event” was an exhibition of projects from the Center for the Arts in Society Borderlines Initiative as well as the official launch of the Hospitality Initiative. Containment, Care + Community showcases work from earlier and more recent periods of pandemic life exploring social and spatial prospects for preventing contagion, providing care, and building community.
CAS is a faculty research center dedicated to the exploration of the arts as they relate to and involve the larger society. A collaborative effort of artists and scholars affiliated with CMU’s College of Fine Arts and Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, CAS explores and aims to have impact on the workings of social power and in processes of social change.
September 5-September 10, 2023
Center for the Arts in Society
Nida Rehman / School of Architecture
“Borderlines –> Hospitality: a migratory CAS event” was an exhibition of projects from the Center for the Arts in Society Borderlines Initiative as well as the official launch of the Hospitality Initiative. Containment, Care + Community showcases work from earlier and more recent periods of pandemic life exploring social and spatial prospects for preventing contagion, providing care, and building community.
CAS is a faculty research center dedicated to the exploration of the arts as they relate to and involve the larger society. A collaborative effort of artists and scholars affiliated with CMU’s College of Fine Arts and Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, CAS explores and aims to have impact on the workings of social power and in processes of social change.
MoonArk
May, July-August, September, 2023
The Carnegie Mellon MoonArk is periodically on display in the Ballay Center in advance of the ULA/Astrobotic launch in December 2023.
October 4, 2023
A one-day exhibition of MoonArk design process and artifacts prepared for hosting Dava Newman, director of the MIT Media Lab and former deputy director of NASA.
May, July-August, September, 2023
The Carnegie Mellon MoonArk is periodically on display in the Ballay Center in advance of the ULA/Astrobotic launch in December 2023.
October 4, 2023
A one-day exhibition of MoonArk design process and artifacts prepared for hosting Dava Newman, director of the MIT Media Lab and former deputy director of NASA.
Panograph
June 1-30, 2023
Tate Johnson
Inspired by the central artifacts that have defined living spaces throughout human history (fireplaces, radios, slide projectors, and televisions), the Panograph applies concepts of slow tech and ritual-driven design to embed rich value into the group photography and review process. Images of family, friends, or spaces are captured in 360 and can then be accessed in the future and projected onto wall surfaces or a hemispheric projection surface that swings in front of the projector. Using a pair of rotary encoders, a Raspberry Pi computer, a projector, and a camera, it captures and re-projects panoramic media, progressively seeking images as the user rotates the machine, re-projecting an immersive ‘memory’ within a space.
June 1-30, 2023
Tate Johnson
Inspired by the central artifacts that have defined living spaces throughout human history (fireplaces, radios, slide projectors, and televisions), the Panograph applies concepts of slow tech and ritual-driven design to embed rich value into the group photography and review process. Images of family, friends, or spaces are captured in 360 and can then be accessed in the future and projected onto wall surfaces or a hemispheric projection surface that swings in front of the projector. Using a pair of rotary encoders, a Raspberry Pi computer, a projector, and a camera, it captures and re-projects panoramic media, progressively seeking images as the user rotates the machine, re-projecting an immersive ‘memory’ within a space.
