A free lecture series featuring award-winning designers who have helped shape and articulate how graphic design defines our culture concludes this week when the Communications Media Department at Fitchburg State University welcomes artist Jerry Beck, who will discuss “The Graphic Nature of Public Art.”

The talk will be held Thursday, May 3 at 3:30 p.m. in the Condike Science Lecture Hall. The Condike Science Building is at 333 North St.

Jerry Beck and The Revolving Museum's "ARTventures," a public art project transforming abandoned and or under-utilized public spaces in downtown Lowell in 2008. The background smokestack projection was created by Beck in collaboration with a team of local filmmakers. The foreground "Water Dragon" is a collaborative public artwork by Jay Hungate and Brush gallery Artists and hundreds of community members.

Beck is a nationally recognized artist, educator, and cultural leader who is currently the director of marketing and community engagement at the Fitchburg Art Museum.

For the past 30 years, Jerry Beck’s art has transformed such unconventional abandoned or under-utilized places as 12 railroad cars, a Civil War fort on an island, baseball field, empty lots, waterways, transportation vehicles, textile mills and smokestacks. Working within a multiple of disciplines including public art, architecture, graphic design, photography, and video, Beck's projects involve the active participation of the public in the creative process. This talk will lead the public on a journey into Beck’s belief that art should play a key role in people’s everyday lives.

The lecture series is supported by the Ruth Butler Grant at Fitchburg State University.

The series opened in March with a talk by Clifford Stoltze, the principal and creative director of Stoltze Design in Boston. His presentation included a survey of over 40 years of high notes in design for music featuring favorites from Stoltze’s own LP, CD and poster collections as well as some of Stoltze Design’s own projects for the music industry. In April, the series presented Richard Doubleday, author of Jan Tschichold, Designer: The Penguin Years and co-author of Jan Tschichold – Master Typographer, who discussed cultural identity in graphic design.

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