by Luke Glaser

In a change of pace, the teachers have a project due.

As part of the College of Design’s Open House Week, eleven recently hired members of the faculty will exhibit their work at the Land of Tomorrow Gallery on Friday evening.

“The general goal is each of us showing our work” said design and engineering professor Nick Puckett. “We will be showing the breadth of the projects going on in the College of Design”.

There is no specific theme to the exhibits, and gallery co-owner Drura Parrish sees that as an opportunity.

“Whatever innovation, whatever design is allowed to flourish,” Parrish said.

Projects range from Gary Rohrbacher and Ann Filson’s furniture line to Angie Co’s mirrored balloon exhibit. The gallery itself, a converted warehouse, embodies the spirit that these instructors are imbuing.

“Take a warehouse in the east end and allow people to do with it whatever they choose” Parrish, who owns the gallery along with fellow UK professor Dimitry Strakovksy and manager Angela Torchio, said. “We’re hoping it trickles out and populates into the bigger world.”

Puckett’s project involves what he calls “looking at how to build highly specific fabrication methods.” He built a lawnmower that can mow a pattern into the grass based on what is put into a computer, incorporating both mechanics and art, function and form.

“We’re studying something and developing new forms of fabrication, using the very relatable tool of a lawn mower,” Puckett said.

Kentucky means “Land of Tomorrow” in the language of the Shawnee, and that is exactly the spirit that these instructors want to portray in their work.

“We’re devoted to Kentucky taking over the world,” Parrish said. “We can march outwardly and change it.”

The instructors in the College of Design hope to be on the cutting edge of modern architecture whether they use balloons, furniture, or lawn mowers.

The exhibit at the Land of Tomorrow Gallery, on 527 E. 3rd Street, begins Friday at 7 p.m..