‘MTSU On the Record’ goes ‘inside’ to learn cultural awareness in interior design

What happens when interior design majors perform a cultural bias awareness exercise will be the subject of the next “MTSU On the Record” radio program.

Host Gina Logue’s interview with Dr. Janis Brickey, an associate professor of interior design, will air from 9:30 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 30, and from 6 to 6:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 4, on WMOT-FM Roots Radio 89.5 and www.wmot.org.

Dr. Janis Brickey, professor, Department of Human Sciences — Dr. Janis Brickey

Gina K. Logue, MTSU News and Media Relations specialist — Gina K. Logue

In a project made even more compelling by the COVID-19 pandemic’s emphasis on social distancing, MTSU sophomores in an interior design process class and juniors in a corporate design class collaborated with students from other North American universities in February to consider the impact of cultural bias on interior design projects.

As well as MTSU, participating institutions included Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois; Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York; Algonquin College in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Kean University in Union, New Jersey; and Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

The students came up with innovative ideas that included a coloring book, a cafe, dolls, face masks, a cookbook, a hair salon, interactive games and an interactive table suitable for libraries.

Brickey said collaboration and communication are important when designing for a variety of people, which means ethnic heritage, disabilities, generational differences and environmental conservation are important factors to consider.

“The interior environment becomes more and more important as we relocate people over the next 50 years,” Brickey said. “The issue for interior designers is that, with all of this, we’ve gotten into the situation where we have materiality and material selections that 20 years ago we didn’t have.”