Mark Robbins, director of design at the National Endowment for the Arts, will discuss contemporary design practice within the context of design initiatives at the Arts Endowment as part of the Klai::Juba lecture series at 7 p.m. March 4 inside the Paul B. Sogg architecture building on the UNLV campus.

The event will be preceded by a reception in the building's lobby at 6 p.m. Both the lecture and reception are free and open to the public.

Robbins has undertaken an aggressive program to strengthen the presence of design in the public realm. In addition to expanding grant opportunities and collaborative work with other federal agencies, he has instituted new Leadership Initiatives including New Public Works, which annually supports a series of ten national design competitions. Collectively, these activities have doubled the funding available to the various design disciplines through the Arts Endowment.

Robbins also maintains a practice that encompasses installations, curatorial projects and teaching. He was trained in anthropology and film before studying architecture and worked in several New York offices before starting his own practice in 1986. His work over the past fifteen years has taken the form of constructions that explore the architectural frame and use design as a critical medium. These projects have been exhibited in numerous venues in the United States and abroad, including the Adelaide Festival in Australia, the Museum of Modern Art in Saitama, Japan, the Queens Museum, Clock tower Gallery of the ICA in New York, and the Wexner Center for the Arts. His work is represented in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and numerous private collections.

For more information on this lecture or the Klai::Juba lecture series,call 895-3031.