UMD Course Brings Art and Urban Planning Together

DULUTH, Minn. —

Not every school project leads to real changes in your home town, but one class at University of Minnesota Duluth has students thinking about their city’s future.

The assignment is called “City as a Work of Art,” and students have been tasked with imagining Duluth ten years in the future.

Some students have designed a gondola system to connect the top and bottom of Duluth’s hillside.

Others are redesigning Michigan Street.

“Their projects are very in the early stages,” said Dr. Jennifer Webb, Associate Professor of Art History at UMD. “We leave it up to them to decide what they can and cannot use. It’s a wonderful way for us also to share and think about the future in Duluth.”

Students have teamed up into groups and present their projects to classmates.

Even some officials from the city of Duluth sat in on the class to listen to the presentations.

“What you also figure out is how to work together with a team of very different strengths, which helps and will be pretty applicable when they go on to whatever they’re going to do for the rest of their lives,” Dr. Webb said.

This is the fifth year she has assigned “City as a Work of Art” in her class.