Philadelphia University has announced the establishment of its Fashion and Textiles Futures Centre. The Futures Center, which will include a $3 million investment in facilities, will advance the University’s innovative and highly regarded fashion and textiles curricula and enhance partnerships with industry leaders to more closely connect students to current and future jobs in an evolving marketplace, it said in a press release. The Philadelphia University Fashion and Textiles Futures Centre will focus on the University’s unique integration of education, research and practice. It will provide state-of-the-art facilities to support student learning and foster collaboration, facilitate industry-sponsored projects, increase research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students and help attract and retain world-class faculty. Work on the physical space will begin in late spring and will be completed by the start of the fall 2016 semester. “The Fashion and Textiles Futures Centre will expand experience for our students, faculty and partners,” said Ron Kander, executive dean of the Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce. “PhilaU fashion programmes are internationally ranked and our programs in textiles and textile engineering are regarded as among the best in the nation. The new Centre will enable us to continue our leadership in providing the best possible 21st-century professional education for our students and helping to define the industry needs of the future.” The plan includes enhanced collaborative design studios for students, fabrication laboratories, computer-aided design facilities and flexible active-learning classrooms. The educational programming will be further supported by the University’s advanced digital printing facilities, among the best in the world, and the Grundy Materials Evaluation Laboratory, the release said. The Fashion and Textiles Futures Center will include a retail-like space designed to mirror the workings of modern fashion and textile design firms and reflect the industry environments that students will work in after graduation. This area will be used to showcase the creative work of students and the University’s industry partners and give fashion merchandising and management students the opportunity to hone marketing and merchandising skills by working on displays and presentations.
