Dictionary
New Bauhaus

The Hungarian László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) was working at the Bauhaus in both Weimar and Dessau from 1923 to 1928. He went to Amsterdam in 1934, one year later to London where he stayed for some time before he finally decided to go to Chicago in 1937, where founded the "Association of Arts and Industries" a school of design, the very same year. Walter Gropius was supposed to become the first director. However, Gropius, who had already a post in Harvard, suggested Moholy-Nagy to take the director's post, the school was then named "New Bauhaus" following his proposal. The "New Bauhaus" had to close in 1938 because of financial problems, but it was re-opened in 1939 under the name "School of Design" (followed by "Institute of Design" as of 1944). Moholy-Nagy lead the school up until his death.
Both the theoretic and practical concept of the "New Bauhaus" were in line with the ideas of the Weimar and Dessau Bauhaus: The mandatory training in prep courses as well as the training in workshops were continued in Chicago. Photography was a new item on the curriculum, becoming one of the school's focal points over the time. As more and more American teachers taught at the "New Bauhaus", a certain change in didactic approaches began, before the school finally turned away from the principles of Bauhaus in 1955 in the course of a complete reorganization. Today the Institute of Design is a department of the Illinois Institute of Technology.