Interior Designer and Artist Credits Kean with Inspiration for Lifelong Learning

Suzan Globus ’84 created projects at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Newark Public Library, and New York City’s 92nd Street Y using interior design skills she honed in a post-baccalaureate program at Kean University.

Globus, who worked as a writer for newspapers, magazines and radio early in her career, designed several projects that involved books. Her first job, choosing colors for an Ocean County library branch, set her course. 

“I took their floor plans and redesigned the library interiors,” she said, “and I saved them enough money that I ended up designing all the branches in the county.”

Four years after completing her fine arts-studio/interior design certificate program at Kean, she started Globus Design, which conceived a library for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, archives for the 92nd Street Y in New York City, and a lobby for the main branch of the Newark Public Library.

“I feel so fortunate to have designed public libraries,” she said. “Everybody uses them, and they are now wonderfully broad, with spaces for education, food, learning, creating, computer use and performances. I can’t think of a more engaging, challenging project.”

The Kean program helped Globus develop skills as an artist, interior designer and teacher. But Globus said the most impactful lesson she gained at Kean is a deep love of learning.

“I learned so much at Kean that I applied to my design practice, but what stayed with me was the idea of lifelong learning — that I can basically pursue anything I want to, and the outcome probably will be as successful as the effort I put into it,” Globus said.

She graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in journalism and public relations in 1971 and completed her Kean program over eight years while raising her daughter. 

As part of her interior design firm, Globus created ThinkFrame, which focused on strategic planning, a skill she had learned as president of the American Society of Interior Designers. 

A multidisciplinary artist, Globus’ work has been exhibited in museums such as the Katonah Museum of Art, in Katonah, New York; the Monmouth Museum; and the Borrego Art Institute in California. She has also taught a sustainability course at the Robert Busch School of Design in Kean’s Michael Graves College and now mentors design students as they complete their senior projects.

“Suzan has inspired our students by igniting a spark and a commitment to the importance of making sustainable design choices,” said Linda O’Shea, chair of Robert Busch. “In her transition from interior design and strategic planning to becoming an accomplished fine artist, Suzan inspires everyone who has the pleasure of knowing her.”

Ten years ago, Globus returned to multidisciplinary fine art, becoming a mentee of artist Grace Graupe-Pillard and eventually disbanding her company. Recently, she was awarded a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

“My work has a sustainability component and a social aspect that’s about the ephemerality of generative life cycles and the overlooked, and that includes women and the environment,” said the Maryland native who creates in a Red Bank studio near her Fair Haven home. “So, I usually work in discarded materials, including organic tree bark and scraps of things I find in the street.”

Globus says her career has been driven by life’s natural flow and her own curiosity. That doesn’t surprise Robert Wright, a fellow interior designer and friend.

“Suzan is one of the most curious, detail-oriented and intelligent people I know,” he said. “Her perspective on what deserves priority is spot-on and admirable, both in her interior design practice and in her intriguing and provocative artwork.”