On Tuesday, December 13, the Doneger Group and the Accessories Council unveiled the new Doneger Group/Accessories Council Classroom at FIT.
Located in the Feldman Center in Room 615, the state-of-the-art classroom features movable desks and chairs that allow the room to be set up in any style—lecture hall, quad/group-work setup, or model-drawing studio. MacBook Air laptops stored in a charging cart are available for students to use in class; desk tops prop up to become drafting/drawing boards for traditional art classes; a printing and scanning station allows students to draw, scan, digitize, and print their work; and there are four Wacom Cintiq 24HD interactive creative pen display monitors with Macbook Pro computers, as well as a projector, LED HD TV, and a sound system for presentations.
“It’s raised the bar for all the rest of our renovations,” FIT President Joyce F. Brown said of the new lab. “It’s the model that every department points to when talking about renovating and trying to improve their spaces.”
Funds for the classroom, used by FIT Accessories Design students, were raised both by proceeds from the Accessories Council Hall of Fame, which honored Abbey Doneger, as well as the 2015 ACE Awards Tribute Edition Journal.
“All of you know that Abbey has been at FIT’s side for years,” Dr. Brown said. “He mentors, he advises, he supports, and he actively participates in the work of our foundation. We are so grateful for his endless generosity and we are extremely proud to be able to call this facility the Doneger Group Accessories Studio.”
“I happen to be a second-generation member of the foundation board at FIT and I think my father would be pretty proud to see what we’ve accomplished here,” Doneger said. “When we all work together, this is the result.”