HXOUSE, pronounced “house,” held its first workshop with creative direction students and presented results from the first part of the workshop in the George Rowland White Theater on Friday.
Point Park’s collaboration with HXOUSE, a Toronto-based creative incubator co-founded by music artist The Weeknd and his creative director La Mar Taylor, hopes to give opportunities to underrepresented creatives trying to break through in the industry. The workshop ran from April 3 to April 4.
The first workshop’s session on Friday was open to the public and hosted by Charm La’Donna, a creative director, dancer and choreographer who is known for her work with Bad Bunny, The Weeknd and various Super Bowl shows.
In the workshop, students worked in groups and were given various different fictional music artists. From there, participants were tasked with making a hypothetical performance to go along with the artist given.
Students were asked to factor in the type of music each artist made, what their other performances were like and what their fans may be able to interact with the best.
To present these, students created mood boards, mockups of potential social media posts advertising the performances and mockups of the performance stage for each artist, which were referred to as a “creative brief.” Each group had five people in it.
The HXOUSE x Point Park collaboration had 50 students in its first run – 20 students, 20 adult learners and 10 K-12 teachers hoping to either expand their creative knowledge or move into a creative directing role.
Whitney Pearson, the creative director of her own podcast which focuses on the fashion of women’s basketball players and sneakerhead culture, was one of the adult learners present at the workshop. She said it was valuable to talk with people of varying perspectives and experience in the industry.
“The conversations, the energy, and the willingness to think beyond what already exists is what makes this experience real,” Pearson said. “I’m really excited to see what this project has to offer for the next year.”
Pearson also made note of the fashion choices of everyone in the workshop. “The fits mattered,” Pearson said. She was wearing all green.
Originally, the HXOUSE program was recommended to start in Los Angeles, according to a previous statement from the university. But Taylor chose Pittsburgh instead because of what he saw as a treasure trove of creatives waiting to be found.
“Pittsburgh’s energy reminds me of Toronto when HXOUSE first started — hungry, innovative and ready to disrupt,” Taylor said. “Point Park understands how creativity fuels community, and together we’re building something that transcends traditional education.”
And Taylor kept that same energy during the workshop, too.
“HXOUSE is a way for creatives to come together to network, collaborate and aspire to be great,” Taylor said. “We’re trying to create new pathways to success, so we had to build HXOUSE.”
Getting into the program requires an application which includes how a potential creative director would handle crafting a performance around a musician’s aesthetic, music style and a portfolio to go along with it. The program is free and voluntary.
The HXOUSE program cannot be taken for class credit at any university and is not required for any courses.
