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Caroline Warner Hightower, executive director of AIGA from 1977
until 1995, transformed AIGA from a New York club to a vibrant
nationally networked design force. Under her vigorous leadership,
an organization in danger of financial collapse was resuscitated
and many new initiatives and structures—many of which continue to
give shape to AIGA today—were put in place. The AIGA journal, the
annual and conferences were among the forums introduced by
Hightower, who valued the importance of content and meaning. In
leading the effort to acquire the 11,500 square-foot national
headquarters building at 164 Fifth Avenue, she provided the
organization with a permanent home.
Hightower was raised in the community of the University of
Chicago, where her father, Lloyd Warner, was a prominent
anthropologist. She began her career as the advertising manager and
graphic designer for the University of California Press. In 1968,
after a further two jobs in editing, she became Grant Officer at
the Carnegie Corporation accruing valuable experience in
fundraising that she then applied as a consultant to a large number
of cultural and philanthropic initiatives. She was the content
consultant for Art Is, a documentary produced by Sears
Roebuck Foundation that was nominated for an Academy Award in l972.
In 1975 she authored Private Philanthropy and Public Need: The
Arts for The Filer Commission, which was presented to U.S.
Congress.
Hightower was hired as the executive director of AIGA in 1977.
For the better part of two decades she worked tirelessly to create
a vital and dynamic organization that could effectively represent
the needs of the design community. During her tenure the membership
increased from 1,200 to 11,300 and chapters were established in 38
cities. Programming, that was virtually non-existent upon her
arrival, flourished. In addition to initiating the annual, the
quarterly journal, the national biennial design conference and the
national business conference, the AIGA library, the AIGA Education
Committee, Hightower was also the architect of some significant
stand-alone programs and publications. These include a national
symposium titled “Why is Graphic Design 93% White?” and the
publications United States Department of Transportation Symbol
Signs, Graphic Design for Nonprofit Organizations,
and AIGA Standard Contracts for Graphic Designers.
Since leaving AIGA, Hightower has continued to work in New York
as a program development and fundraising consultant. Among the
institutions she has worked with are the American Numismatic
Society; American Society of Media Photographers; New York
University Arts Administration Program; United Way; and The Clio
Awards.
—
“In her seventeen years, Caroline did a lot of very good work
for the AIGA, as an organization of sometimes all-too-real people
and as the ongoing embodiment of a set of closely held but
ultimately abstract professional ideals. Both for the organization
and its people, she had to play several roles. Many of them fit her
well; others were more difficult but were performed equally well
nonetheless. Yes, she was an advocate of graphic design and, yes,
she had a great deal of affection and respect for graphic
designers. But there was another piece of it, and that was simply
that there was work to be done and Caroline did it extremely well
because, for her, there was no other way. I count myself lucky to
have been given, on behalf of the AIGA, this very public, very
permanent forum in which to say to Caroline, thank you.”
—David Brown, former AIGA president
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