Rowena Reed Kostellow (July 6, 1900 – September 17, 1988) was an American industrial designer and professor. Alongside her husband, Alexander Kostellow, and other designers and artists, she co-founded the first industrial design education course at

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

Early life and education

Rowena Reed was born in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

, on July 6, 1900, as a child of three born to a physician and housewife. She pursued a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in journalism from the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

and later studied sculpture at the

Kansas City Art Institute The Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) is a private art school in Kansas City, Missouri. The college was founded in 1885 and is an accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and Higher Learning Commission. The institute ...

Career

After marrying Alexander Kostellow, they moved to New York City where she studied sculpting under the direction of

Alexander Archipenko Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko (February 25, 1964) was a Ukrainian-American avant-garde artist, sculpture, sculptor, and graphic designer, graphic artist, active in France and the United States. He was one of the first to apply the principles o ...

. She spent one year in Europe learning sculpting and painting before returning to North America. In 1929, the duo moved to Pittsburgh to teach at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, where they co-founded the institute's first industrial design education course. By 1938, Reed and her husband were invited to the

by designer Donald Dohner to co-found Pratt's first industrial design department. Her husband stated that their teaching approach on industrial design "drew on modern scientific methods that supported self-expression as well as design for industry". As a result of her accomplishments in industrial design, she was named program chair in 1962, a position she held until 1966. Reed Kostellow died on September 17, 1988, at the age of 88.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reed Kostellow, Rowena 1900 births 1988 deaths Artists from Kansas City, Missouri American modern sculptors 20th-century American women sculptors American industrial designers 20th-century American sculptors Pratt Institute faculty University of Missouri alumni Kansas City Art Institute alumni Carnegie Mellon University faculty