How do designers best understand and meet the needs of underserved communities? What practices foster deeper insight and promote new creative thinking?

In conjunction with the exhibition By the People: Designing a Better America, Cooper Hewitt and Pratt Institute, with additional support from CaringKind, host a presentation and discussion of these questions and more with National Design Award winner Constantin Boym, Chair of Pratt Institute’s Industrial Design program, graduate students of the program, and prosthetic designer Garrett Hurley.

Pratt Institute collaborated with the nonprofit organizations CaringKind, dedicated to Altzheimer’s caregiving, and CHiPS, a soup kitchen and shelter, to develop multi-disciplinary designs to meet the needs of these communities with empathy and care. Hurley is the designer of the Infinite Socket, a breakthrough prosthetic socket design, which was developed in the community-based prototyping and fabrication studio TechShop, now on view in the exhibition.

Curator of Socially Responsible Design Cynthia E. Smith moderates the program.