BCE Students Reimagine UnCommon Corner with K-pop, Accessible Design

As part of their of Business of Creative Enterprises (BCE) Senior Experience, a group of students researched, devised, and pitched ideas to the Office of the Arts on how to further activate Emerson’s UnCommon Corner.

Emerson’s Office of the Arts programs the space, located in Boston Common, at the corner of Boylston and Tremont streets, with entertainment from local musicians, WERS broadcasts, organizations, interactive games, and more.

“The work of the students was incredible. Their ideas, their research, their data organization, and their presentation skills were on par with professionals,” said Office of the Arts Special Projects Producer Gina Marie Jamieson. “We appreciated their thoughtfulness, their rigor, and their good humor at a challenge.”

Jamieson said she integrated some of the student’s ideas into the plan for the UnCommon Corner project, which she undertook with the help of Emerson’s central marketing department and design firm Visual Dialogue.

Three BCE groups were advised on the project by Marketing Communication Senior Executive-in-Residence and Graduate Program Director Robert Lyons.

“We began last fall by recapping key BCE lessons, such as aesthetics, marketing, business, human-centric design, data analytics, inclusivity, team building and collaboration,” said Lyons.

Students evaluated the UnCommon Corner site, a partnership with the City of Boston, which includes a Harpoon Beer Garden and food from El Jefe’s Taqueria.

“We made observations and found that the main profile of the current UnCommon Corner audience is middle-aged white men, and the current performances lack Asian representation,” said Weiyi Chen ’25. “We want to make the audience of UnCommon Corner more diverse.”

Chen, the founder of Emerson’s K-pop dance company Ekstone, has K-pop resources in Boston. She said the group pitched an evening of K-pop experiences: performances, a DJ, special food from El Jefe’s for that evening, and a special drink from Harpoon.

The K-pop team partnered with Berklee College of Music for the program, elevating it from a K-pop night to a ProArts Consortium School collaboration. The event, slated for May 10, was rained out, but there’s hope it’ll be rescheduled for the fall when students are back in town.

Another group of students focused on layout of the site.

“Our ideas for the project were for increased signage throughout the venue to reduce the barriers for entry, [to] relay that the venue is welcome to all and not just those 21 and older, and to ultimately bring more visibility to the performance aspect of the venue,” said Tatum Mason ’25.

Mason’s group consulted with Jamieson to better understand the vision for the venue’s signage.

Lyons was impressed that students developed ideas for brand-new programming and expanded inclusivity of the space, and presented ideas for a new physical layout, and new signage.

“I’m immensely proud of the students’ willingness to work through challenges, and confident of the importance of the lessons they will carry into their professional lives,” Lyons said.

Mason said the BCE program’s hands-on experience provided her with valuable insights and knowledge in the creative business industry.

“BCE taught me a lot of valuable lessons in collaboration, knowing how to handle and adjust to constantly changing environments, and to find growth through challenging myself to try things out of my comfort zone,” said Mason. “The Senior Residency project has been a great experience for me, professionally and personally, as it has given me an opportunity to showcase all my strengths and skill sets that have been accumulated over the last four years at Emerson.”