Jerry Allan's Last Lecture and Retirement Reception

After forty years of teaching at MCAD, Professor Jerry Allan retired at the end of the Spring 2017 semester.

On Monday, September 18, he will return to give his post-sabbatical lecture, “My Only Regret in Forty years at MCAD.” Please join us for Allan’s presentation at noon, followed by a 12:45 p.m. reception to celebrate him and his many contributions to MCAD. We look forward to seeing you there!

An architect by training with an active architecture practice, Allan has also been a builder at MCAD.

Starting in 1977 and for the next fourteen years as chair, he and his faculty co-created an integrated art, design, media, and 3D curriculum, with end-of-year student shows and celebratory gravity races. During this time, he brought the MN Scholastic Arts’ Awards to MCAD, while organizing collaborative workshops between high school and MCAD art educators.

During the next twelve years, he developed and taught Creative and Critical Thinking, Furniture Systems, and Futures and Society for the Design Department. He also created an MCAD student sculpture park on one of his client’s site. For the last fourteen years, Allan has had a foundational role in the formation of the bachelor of science degree in visualization. He was later appointed chair, guiding its transition with advertising into the current entrepreneurial studies program. A passionate and engaging mentor, he returned to his teaching role, guiding students through classes such as Aesthetics of Sustainability, Human Factors, and Client Studio. For many years, every student’s first introduction to the college was Allan’s orientation week presentation, “Time, Creativity, and Discipline.”

In 2009, Allan was invited to give a keynote presentation at the World Future Society in Washington, DC, on his sustainability project, “Preemptive Peace: finding peace with each other by making peace with the planet.” The presentation was followed by additional invitations from India Today Conclave in New Delhi (2009) and the International Educators Conference in Copenhagen (2010). Allan applied those concepts through his five-year Global Citizens Project where students worked in collaboration with seven different global partners. He developed many external partnerships for these classes, each one handing off to the next class for the continuation of complex, local and international projects. Partners included Logan Park, Belwin Conservatory, Books for Africa, Senegal & Gambia’s Women’s Resource Center, Play Time in Ghana, International Health Services of Honduras, and Edermit Turkey Wetland, among many others. Allan holds an MA in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and is the founder of Criteria Architects and Criteria Foundation.