Alison Miller drew on memories of gardening with her grandfather and her love of stars to design the 2024 honey label for the UD Apiary.

Artists for community

Article by Megan M.F. Everhart Photos courtesy of Aaron Terry and the Delaware Transportation Corporation November 07, 2024

Associate Professor Aaron Terry seeks opportunities for students to connect with community while gaining real-world experience

During her first few years on campus, Alison Miller never thought about the more than 3 million honey bees housed by the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources on the University of Delaware’s south campus. That changed in spring 2024 when Miller visited the UD Apiary for an art project, meeting research apiary technician Dan Borkoski, sampling UD honey and even tasting pollen.

The visit was research for students in Aaron Terry’s printmaking class, who were invited by the apiary to create and submit designs for the 2024 honey jar label. Terry designed the 2023 label himself, but this was the first year students submitted ideas.

“It’s cool that we’re able to connect with the agricultural side of UD, and I got to do something I never thought I would do,” said Miller, a senior fine arts major, whose design was chosen and can currently be seen on honey jars stocked at UDairy Creamery.

Terry, an associate professor of art and design, coordinated the honey label competition as part of his ongoing efforts to find opportunities for his students to connect with the world around them.

“I think community is really important for artists,” he said. Partnering with the apiary allowed students to learn about the science of how bees make honey and convert that knowledge into a creative project.

Flowering creativity

Miller initially wasn’t interested in the competition, as it wasn’t a class requirement. But she remembered that her professors often encourage students to work on multiple projects at once.

For Miller (left), visiting the apiary, meeting technician Dan Borkoski (right) and tasting honey and pollen were highlights of the project.

“They talk about switching gears on projects, or working on multiple things, to help inspire your creativity,” she said. “One day I was working on my thesis, and I was like, ‘I need to do something else.’”

She began sketching a design with flowers, stars and bees.

“I spent a lot of my childhood gardening with my grandpa,” she said. “Flowers have a special place in my heart.”

In addition to creating the design, Miller spent time working on the technical side of the project, preparing her digital illustration to be the correct size, resolution and template for printing. She said that a lot of people don’t think about all that goes into making a label or product tag.

“I work at Trader Joe’s, and I see illustrated signs everywhere. It’s definitely a different facet of the industry, but someone put time and effort into designing that to catch your eye,” she said.

The power of public art

From family bonds to neighborhood murals, Terry shows his students that community can be created anywhere, and he has created partnerships to bring students’ art to public parks and even public transportation. It’s part of his belief that interacting with print media in real time and in a real place has immediate impact, even in our digital world.

Jake Cohen used his Spanish skills to design a public health poster that reached across language barriers.

Inspired by the public posters created by the Works Progress Administration from 1935-1943 that publicized national parks, theatrical production, community activities and health and safety programs, Terry takes students in his printmaking classes through the medium’s history and the role that graphic design and poster art has played in shaping public opinion.

“We study how the poster, how public art works and how it functions — whether it's politics, propaganda or graphic design,” he said.

In 2020, Terry launched the Inform, Inspire, Empower! initiative to enable students to experience that impact firsthand. He worked with Tracy Shickel, associate vice president of corporate engagement, to partner with the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) and DART First State to create public health and wellness posters that were placed at bus stops and on city buses in 2021.

Real experience

Two years later, the Delaware Transit Corporation (DTC), which runs DelDOT, received a federal grant to study methods of mitigating airborne illnesses on public buses, and DelDOT returned to Terry to ask students to design an information campaign, targeting both bus drivers and their passengers.

Bruce Demeter, chief performance office for DTC and a UD alumnus, met with Terry’s class to explain the goals and discuss DelDOT’s demographics. Students submitted about 60 design ideas, and the DTC team selected eight. While students began working on their designs in 2023, the project didn’t go into full production until 2024, after several of them had graduated.

Jake Cohen, a 2024 graduate in visual communications with a minor in Spanish, focused on the impact of language barriers in his designs.

“I specifically focused on Spanish, as it is a very commonly spoken language in the state of Delaware,” he said. “While simplistic, my graphics communicate in both Spanish and English that we should not be letting a language barrier interfere with our access to equal health.”

Spring 2024 graduate Mikaela Cohen chose the theme “better together” to emphasize the importance of everyone contributing to keeping communities safe.

Mikaela Cohen, a 2024 graduate in visual communications with a minor in advertising, highlighted the importance of working together in her design, which targets bus operators and encourages them to use barriers that help reduce transmission of airborne illnesses.

It was important to Demeter that every student who participated received feedback on their design.

“We wanted to make sure that if they didn’t hit the mark, the comments would give them an idea of what to look for the next time they engage in something like this,” he said.

This interaction helped students understand what it is like to work with clients and respond to their needs.

“We had a wonderful experience,” Demeter said. “The product was excellent.”

Creative connections

Terry’s class is just one example of how UD’s art students make connections between art and the issues facing society today.

“Our mission is to educate socially and culturally engaged artists and designers who also are conscientious and compassionate thinkers,” said Natalija Mijatović, department chair and an award-winning artist. “They comprehend and challenge definitions and assumptions through a wide spectrum of creative practices.”

Terry continues to look for opportunities to get students out of the classroom and art studios.

“It allows them to think outside of what they are used to and explore other possibilities,” he said. Regardless of what they do after they graduate, the experience allows them to apply creativity in different ways.