For the past three years, Columbia students have turned the roar of NASCAR\u2019s Chicago Street Race into a runway, developed a mobile app and activity book and helped bring the sounds of the race to local fans. But with NASCAR pulling the Chicago race from its 2026 schedule, the future of these student collaborations is now uncertain.<\/p>\n
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NASCAR announced t<\/a>his week that the race will move to Naval Base Coronado in San Diego next summer. Just days earlier, NASCAR said it would \u201chit pause\u201d on the Chicago race in 2026, with plans to work with the city to \u201cexplore a new potential date,\u201d aiming for a possible return in 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis event was designed to not only bring our sport to new places for the first time, but to also support the city by celebrating the best of Chicago on a global stage.\u201d Julie Giese, the Chicago Street Race president, said in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019re proud to have done just that in our first three years and look forward to the next chapter of racing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The race, which transformed Grant Park into a high-speed circuit each July for the past three years, has served as a learning lab for Columbia\u2019s fashion, user experience, graphic design, programming, audio arts and journalism students.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This year, School of Fashion students hosted<\/a> a post-race pop-up runway show. Students used recycled materials supplied by NASCAR to create their runway looks. Judges awarded prizes from $500 to $1500 to the winning students.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Alum Aaron Nelson, who graduated in 2012 with bachelor\u2019s in arts management, sang the National Anthem at the NASCAR street race this year.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n With a front row seat, the college also hosted a viewing party each year to watch the cars race by on South Michigan Avenue, which was part of the 2.2 mile, 12-turn course primarily around Grant Park.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In the past, students also created family-friendly interactive digital activities and a print publication, as the Chronicle previously reported<\/a>. Journalism and photojournalism students had the chance to build portfolios<\/a> with live event coverage of a unique sporting event in the city, opportunities that will now move out of reach unless the race returns.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Areanna Whittington, who graduated in May 2025 with a bachelor\u2019s in interaction design, worked on the audio played during the 2023 Chicago Street Race with other students, faculty and alumni. Whittington said the opportunity gave her insights she wouldn\u2019t have learned in the classroom.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat experience made me feel genuinely prepared for the professional world and gave me a major confidence boost,\u201d Whittington said. \u201cIt also gave my teammate and me a clear advantage, both in skill development and portfolio strength.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Jo-Nell Sieren, assistant professor of instruction in the School of Design, was part of NASCAR collaborations for two years, first through two classes she taught in the former Interactive Arts and Media department, and this year as Agency Columbia director.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an exciting time,\u201d Sieren told the Chronicle in an email. \u201cI\u2019ve seen other programs like fashion and advertising, where faculty are actively building strong relationships and creating unique opportunities for students to collaborate with clients.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Columbia\u2019s relationship with NASCAR Chicago was mutually beneficial as NASCAR opened many opportunities for students in the UX\/UI Design program, which held \u201cseveral meetings with the NASCAR Chicago team for review and feedback at every stage. The students pitched concepts aimed at creating interactive, family-friendly activities,\u201d Sieren said\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The collaboration between the School of Fashion and NASCAR began after Colbey Reid, director of the School of Fashion, met Giese at the college\u2019s annual GALA in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Giese shared her vision of connecting NASCAR with fashion, and students in the spring \u201cFashion Lab Practicum\u201d helped shape the concept and explore how the two industries could intersect.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Reid said working with NASCAR as a client brought excitement to students.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cStudents kept saying, \u2018we\u2019re having such a good time,\u2019\u201d she said in an email to the Chronicle. \u201cThat is what stood out \u2014 students happy to be working on their creative practices in the middle of the summer, just for the thrill of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The project not only allowed students to think outside the box about fashion\u2019s connection to sports, but also offered hands-on collaboration with photography students, who gave the pop-up show a \u201cpaparazzi\u201d energy, she added.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEverywhere the models and designers went, they had a paparazzi! This was everything for creating a hip, buzzy, slightly kitschy vibe at a structurally low-fi pop-up fashion show,\u201d Reid said.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Additional reporting from Kate Larroder.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Copy edited by Vanessa Orozco<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the past three years, Columbia students have turned the roar of NASCAR\u2019s Chicago Street Race into a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":92151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-92150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114915496681963099","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}