Joliet, Ill. – Art & Design Professor, Chester Alamo-Costello, is working in China for eight weeks during the summer of 2025. During this time, Chester will teach three classes and complete a second Visual Arts Fellowship focused on China. The classes include an International Arts Symposium, Book Design, and Film/Photo Visual Culture class. Chester has directed the SUSE/USF international partnership since 2019. This partnership is now wrapping up its sixth year, and this semester, five USF faculty are teaching at SUSE in Zigong, Sichuan, China. The classes range from AI graphic design to bookmaking to UI/UX and 3D Modeling.

The Visual Arts Fellowship is supporting research for a series of documentary-based books that Chester is currently working upon. The book topics focus upon distinct cultural differences, the transformation of the Sichuan region, a comparative analysis of learning systems in China versus that found in the USA and western China portraiture. This fellowship is being supported by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.

Also, Chester will be photographing in Beijing, Shanghai, and Tokyo, Japan.

Further, four additional USF faculty, Ya Lu Lin, Saman Moyer, David Oei, and Josh Wilson, are teaching design and new media classes at SUSE. As the program continues to flourish, in the fall 2025, the program will expand to include faculty teaching from England, Portugal and Italy.

Pictured: Chester Alamo-Costello’s International Art & Design Symposium class at Sichuan University of Science & Engineering, Zigong, Sichuan, China, May 2025.

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