Hannah Smotrich

Associate Professor, School of Art & Design

Contact

Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Office: 1017 AA
Phone: (734) 763-4820

Curriculum Vitae

M.F.A., Yale School of Art, 1991
B.A. (History), Harvard University, 1987

Biography

Hannah Smotrich is a visual communication designer whose research explores how design can make the possibilities for change visible, accessible, and actionable.

She collaborates with other experts across a broad range of fields — public policy, history, law, cultural anthropology, medicine, business — as well as with creative colleagues on projects designed to improve outcomes for individuals and communities.

Creative Campus Voting Project, an initiative she co-leads with Stephanie Rowden, investigates how creative interventions — online, on campus and in the classroom — can catalyze peer-to-peer interactions that increase college-age voting. Toward Thriving, a project she co-leads with Stephanie Tharp, is designing and testing the efficacy of a positive psychology intervention for chronic pain patients.

Past work centered on communities, identity, and cultural history includes: narrative exhibitions (on the impact of immigration policy, the contributions of Chicana women in Michigan, the lives of textile workers in Lewiston, Maine), a bilingual, participatory public-art installation at the Jewish Cultural Festival held in Krakow, Poland; and a system of Neighborhood Heritage Trails in Washington, DC, developed and implemented over the course of a decade.

At Stamps, Smotrich teaches across the design curriculum, and has a particular interest in developing  courses where students collaborate — with each other, with peers in other UM units, and outside partners. Smotrich co-founded the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project with U-M colleagues at Ross, Law, and Public Policy.  The initiative gives students the opportunity to work in interdisciplinary teams and apply their design skills to challenges faced by community business owners in Detroit. Together with Stamps colleague Joe Trumpey, Smotrich worked with students on a design/build project to assess needs, design, and train a local, village-based team to build improved cookstoves in the Maasai village of Lesoit, Tanzania.

Over the course of her career, Smotrich has  worked with a range of communities, academic and cultural institutions and government agencies, including the National Gallery of Art, Cultural Tourism DC, Smithsonian Institution, Michigan Secretary of State’s Office, and the US Postal Service.

Gallery

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In the News

• Stamps Community Honored in North Campus Deans’ MLK Spirit Awards
• Stephanie Rowden and Hannah Smotrich Launch SparkVotes Parties
• Hannah Smotrich and Stephanie Rowden Design Ann Arbor City Clerk’s Satellite Office @ UMMA
• SparkVotes Initiative Clarifies and Celebrates the Voting Process
• Melanie Manos Named 2020 Kresge Artist Fellow
• Designing Decisions: 2019 MDes Public Talks
• Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project Featured by Michigan News Service
• Hannah Smotrich Creates Interpretive Exhibition for Deported: An American Division
• An Irresistible Civic Duty: Voting is Sexy 2018
• Bridge Magazine Features Voting is Sexy Course
• Voting is Sexy: New Course Featured
• Stamps Classes Featured in All About Ann Arbor
• Voting is Sexy: Fall 2018 Course Featured
• Lunch Brake with Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project
• Being Well and Staying Well: Stamps Design Charrette Focus on Geriatric Care
• Design@Michigan Convening
• Chicana Fotos Exhibition Featured in CultureSource
• Stamps Students Design for U-M Bicentennial Exhibition
• 4/25: Sign Painting Demo and Reception at Signal Return
• “Lettering in Public” Exhibition at Signal-Return, Detroit