Artists in Residence Reimagine Staller Steps as a Space for Connection

What does community look like when students are asked to redesign the spaces they share? That's the question Caribbean artists Dean Arlen and Adele Todd brought to Stony Brook in their collaborative project, The Room.

Their artist talk on October 9 capped the 12-day residency, part of the Visiting Artist Series, presented by the College of Arts and Sciences' Center for Changing Systems of Power (CCSP) and Department of Sociology. Over the almost two-week span, the artists worked with students to explore what the Staller Steps - the sloped area between the Staller Center and the academic mall - mean to campus life, and what they could become.

The Steps have long been considered a central gathering point at Stony Brook, a landmark that serves as both a footpath and a social, political, and academic meeting ground. During the residency, Arlen and Todd transformed Staller Theater One into a living studio, where students, staff, faculty and other members of the community joined in drawing, reflecting, and redesigning the space as part of a broader conversation about creativity, justice, and inclusion.

For Manisha Desai,executive director of the CCSP, a professor in the Departments of Sociology and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studiesand one of the residency's coordinators, the project is as much about process as product.

"This is a kind of aesthetic justice," Desai said. "All of us have creativity within us, but we tend to think about aesthetics only in terms of what's in a gallery. If we think about our own creativity, that can actually enable and enhance social justice."

That spirit of creativity translated into a design that reimagined the Steps as a space of sound, comfort, and accessibility. The proposal included architectural arches that echoed native forms, clear pathways to improve movement across the slope, and reclined seating designed to invite rest and conversation. Together, these elements aimed to make the Steps not just a passageway, but a place to pause and connect.

Desai explained that the artists' work centered on inclusivity as a methodology. Students were invited to imagine the future of the Steps by sketching and writing, connecting art to issues of land use, history, and belonging. "We believe a methodology has to be inclusive," she said. "It tries to think about the spaces we inhabit in relation to their history."

The residency culminated in a proposal: a physical document compiled by the artists and student participants. It was delivered to the university president, provost, and the campus library for archival preservation. The document serves as both a record of the collaboration and a call to action for future planning.

During the artist talk, Todd, a visual artist and graphic designer, reflected on what might come next for the project. While she said university leaders have responded positively to the proposal, she emphasized that true transformation will depend on continued engagement.

"People like the idea," Todd said. "But what we need is a bigger conversation, one that doesn't end when we leave campus."

Todd noted that she and Arlen, an installation artist, hope to continue the dialogue through social media and other platforms that allow students to share updates and ideas. "We could poke them and activate them to do something good," she said.

Both Arlen and Todd view art not as decoration, but as a catalyst for connection. In their work across the Caribbean and internationally, they have focused on projects that engage local communities in shaping the spaces they inhabit.

At Stony Brook, that approach resonated with students who joined their workshops and shared their visions for the Steps. "It's about companionship and creativity," Arlen said at the talk. The pair hope that the project can allow for meaningful conversation on campus.

The residency was supported by the Arts, Humanities and Lettered Social Sciences (AHLSS) Committee as part of its commitment to amplifying socially engaged art and fostering inclusive spaces across campus. As it came to a close, the artists left behind sketches, models, and ideas, but also a framework for thinking about campus space as something participatory and alive.

For Desai, that's what makes the project significant both academically and socially. "It releases our ability to think about solutions for social justice and the big problems," she said. "That's why it matters, because it connects creativity to community."

-Lily Miller