Title
Director of the Prague InstituteEducation
Master of Product Design in Visual Design, NC State UniversityBachelor of Environmental Design in Landscape Architecture, NC State University
Biography
Dana Bartelt, Director of the Prague Institute (2005-present) and Adjunct Associate Professor of Design, received her bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture (BEDLA 1980) and her master’s degree in Graphic Design (MPDVD 1988) from North Carolina State University’s College of Design. For 14 years (1991 to 2004), she directed the Summer Study in Prague Program for NC State’s College of Design drawing students from all over the U.S. and Europe. Prior to accepting the position at the Prague Institute, Professor Bartelt was a tenured Associate Professor of Graphic Design at Loyola University in New Orleans (1996-2005).While a resident of Raleigh, North Carolina, her professional activities included being a principal of her graphic design firm Synergraphics (1988-1996), State Cartographer for the N.C. Geological Survey, and Landscape Architect’s Assistant for Geoffrey McLean, Landscape Architect. She also worked in London for the internationally renowned Landscape Architect, Dame Sylvia Crowe.
While in the U.S., Professor Bartelt was active in the graphic designer’s professional organization, AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) serving as president of the Raleigh Chapter, and founded and was president of the New Orleans Chapter, organizing many events and community-based projects for each. Some of the projects include helping raise funds for Interact, a home for abused women, and the N.C. Food Bank-in Raleigh; and in New Orleans, the Treme Street Academy, a school for troubled teens, and the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic, a non-profit healthcare agency. She also served on the Board of the Arab-American Anti-discrimination Committee of the New Orleans Chapter.
Dana Bartelt has curated several major poster exhibitions which traveled extensively throughout the United States including Contemporary Czechoslovak Posters (for the City Gallery of Contemporary Art, now the Contemporary Art Museum-CAM, Raleigh), Art as Activist: Revolutionary Posters from Central and Eastern Europe, with Dr. Marta Sylvestrova (for the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service, Washington D.C.), and Both Sides of Peace: Palestinian and Israeli Political Poster Art (for CAM). She writes for major graphic design journals such as Print, Communication Arts, and Eye magazines.
She lectures nationally including such venues as Princeton University, Boston Art Institute, Weisman Museum, Minneapolis, the Alternative Museum, New York and internationally including the Royal College of Art, London, the Moravian Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic, Iranian Academy of Art, Tehran, and in Palestine-Birzeit University and the Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah. She has appeared on Stateline, UNC-TV and was interviewed on radio and television-on the talk show, On Common Ground, UNO-TV. The two books she produced are Art as Activist for the Smithsonian (Universe and Thames and Hudson Publishers) and Both Sides of Peace for CAM (University of Washington Press). She is currently working on the publication A Vision for My Father: the work of Palestian-American artist and designer Rajie Cook.
She has received several design awards for her professional graphic design work including the Award of Excellence in the 2005 New Orleans AIGA Design Show, as well as recognition for her work at the Prague Institute, receiving an NC State College of Design EPA Award of Excellence in April 2007.
At the Prague Institute, a College of Design initiative, Dana Bartelt is working to expand its offerings of design studios to include courses for any NC State student. Several general education courses are being offered all year, with new ones being constantly considered and added. In the summers, other colleges/departments such as Agriculture and Life Sciences, Accounting, Film Studies and International Studies are offering programming.
