(Photo by Julie Levin - KJZZ)

Downtown Phoenix.

It’s envisioned as a kind of Works Progress Administration, version 2.0 — sending students into Phoenix to try to organize an arts and design corps.

Steven Tepper, dean of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University, is behind the idea. The institute’s graduate program in the School of Art has been in the warehouse district south of downtown for about a year.

Tepper wants to see what would happen if 1,000 students were sent into the world to use their artistic ability and creativity to make things happen for the city and region.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article has been modified to reflect the vision is for an arts and design corps.

Updated 4/21/2015 at 10:08 a.m.