CSBS News

100th Anniversary Celebration

“Celebrating the past, creating new futures” is the theme for the 100th anniversary celebration for the Department of Design, Textiles, Gerontology, & Family Studies. 

Founded with course offerings through the Manual Training Department at the Iowa State Normal School, the two year curriculum quickly grew to offer a four-year degree. The department was housed first in Lang Hall, then Sabin Hall. From 1917 to 1989 the department was located in the Vocational Building, now known as Wright Hall. Since 1990 the department of Design, Textiles, Gerontology, & Family Studies has occupied the second floor of the renovated Latham Hall.Today the department offers majors in Family Services, Gerontology, Interior Design and Textiles and Apparel, and minors in Family Studies and Textiles and Apparel.

The anniversary will be celebrated in several ways. Mr. Gary Kelley, renowned Cedar Falls artist and UNI alumnus, was commissioned to create a piece of art to represent the department and the celebration. His art work, a pastel, will be unveiled April 29 at a ceremony in the Seerley Hall Great Reading Room. Posters of the pastel will be for sale through the department office.

Earlier, the Interior Design Program created a display on universal design at work, home and play, for the lobby of the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center before and during the appearance of the AXIS Dance Company. The Textile and Apparel Design Show this spring, “The Look,” also acknowledged the 100th anniversary. Additional celebration events are planned for the fall.