Art Center College of Design

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Art Center College of Design

Art Center College of Design (aka "Art Center") is a private college

Private college

Private college may refer to:*Private school*Private university...
located in Pasadena, California

Pasadena, California

Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, California, United States. Famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl Game American football game and the Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home of many leading scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ,...
. It is one of the leading art and design college

College

File:Government college for Women Dhoke Kala Khan.JPGCollege is a term most often used today to denote an education institution. More broadly, it can be the name of any group of collegialitys, for example, an electoral college, a College of Arms or the College of Cardinals....
s in the world. The College logo is an orange circle, also known as the Art Center "Dot", which has been a part of the College identity since its beginning. Art Center offers undergraduate and graduate programs in a variety of art and design fields, as well as public programs for children and continuing studies serving the Los Angeles community.

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Encyclopedia

Art Center College of Design (aka "Art Center") is a private college

Private college

Private college may refer to:*Private school*Private university...
located in Pasadena, California

Pasadena, California

College

Automobile

An automobile or motor car is a wheeled motor vehicle for transportation passengers, which also carries its own car engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally f...
) Design and Product Design programs. It also has notable photography

Photography

Photography is the process, activity and art of creating still or moving by recording radiation on a sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or an ....
, graphic design, advertising design, illustration

Illustration

An illustration is a Information graphic such as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that stresses subject more than form. The aim of an illustration is to elucidate or decorate textual information by providing a visual representation....
, fine art

Fine art

Fine art describes any art form developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than utility. This type of art is often expressed in the production of art objects using Visual arts and performing art forms, including painting, sculpture, dance, theatre, architecture, photography and printmaking....
, film, environmental design and entertainment design programs. Art Center offers graduate degrees in Fine Art, Media Design, Broadcast Cinema and Industrial Design. The College maintains two campuses in Pasadena; both are considered architecturally notable.

Art Center built its reputation as a vocational school

Vocational school

A vocational school , providing vocational education, is a school in which students are taught the skills needed to perform a particular job. Traditionally, vocational schools have not existed to further education in the sense of liberal arts, but rather to teach only job-specific skills, and as such have been better considered to be institut...
, essentially, preparing returning GIs for work in the commercial arts fields. It has traditionally maintained a strong "real world" focus, emphasizing craftsmanship, technique, and professionalism while somewhat de-emphasizing theory. Instructors are working professionals, for the most part, and projects are intended to map to real-life assignments with some being sponsored by industry or nonprofit organizations including Nike

Nike, Inc.

Nike, Inc. is a major Public company sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, near the Portland metropolitan area of Oregon....
, Disney, NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the Federal government of the United States, responsible for the nation's public list of space agencies....
, and BMW

BMW

, is an independent German automotive industry founded in 1916. It also produces BMW Motorrad, is the owner of the MINI brand and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars....
. During the past decade, Art Center has developed programs and projects that focus on design's potential to generate positive social change and improve people's lives through the College-wide initiative, Designmatters. In recognition of Art Center's commitment to addressing social and humanitarian issues through design, in 2003 Art Center became the first design college to ever receive NGO (non-governmental organization) status by the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, Social change, human rights and achieving world peace....
.

Art Center offers programs year-round with three terms per year. While undergraduates can obtain a four-year Bachelor degree in about 2 years and 8 months (8 terms total), most students take a term off for independent study, part-time "lite" terms, or to complete industry internships, lengthening their stay to 3+ years. The accelerated learning environment stems from the college's trade school roots. Administrators and faculty want to develop "real world" work scenarios as much as possible, in which there are no summer vacations.

Art Center is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges

Western Association of Schools and Colleges

National Association of Schools of Art and Design

The National Association of Schools of Art and Design , founded in 1944, is an accrediting organization of colleges, schools and universities in the United States....
and is affiliated with the United Nations, being the first design institution designated by the UN as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO).

History

Art Center was founded in 1930 in downtown Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolis area....
as the Art Center School. During and after World War II, the Art Center ran a technical illustration program in conjunction with the California Institute of Technology

California Institute of Technology

The California Institute of Technology is a private university research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech maintains a strong emphasis on the natural sciences and engineering....
. In 1947, the post-war boom in students caused the school to expand to a larger location in building of the former Cumnock School for Girls in the Hancock Park

Hancock Park

Hancock Park is a park in Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California which is the location of the La Brea Tar Pits, the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art ....
neighborhood, while still maintaining a presence at its original downtown location. The school began granting Bachelor's

Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or major that generally lasts for three, four, or in some cases and countries, five or six years....
and Master's degree

Master's degree

A master's degree provides a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of profession. Within the area studied, graduates possess advanced knowledge of a specialized body of theory and applied topics; high order skills in analysis, Critical thinking and/or professional application; and the ability to problem solving a...
s in arts in 1949, and was fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges

Western Association of Schools and Colleges

The Western Association of Schools and Colleges is one of six official academic bodies responsible for the School accreditation of public and private universities, colleges, secondary and elementary schools in the United States and foreign institutions of American origin....
in 1955. In 1965, the school changed its name to Art Center College of Design. The school expanded its programs, including a film program in 1973. The school moved to its trademark Hillside Campus in Pasadena in 1976. The school operated the Art Center Europe in Vevey, Switzerland for ten years starting in 1986. In 2003, the Art Center was granted Non-Governmental Organization

Non-governmental organization

Non-governmental organization is a term that has become widely accepted for referring to a legally constituted, non-business organization created by natural or legal persons with no participation or representation of any government....
status by the UN Department of Public Information. After mulling locations in Pasadena and downtown Los Angeles, Art Center opened the South Campus in Pasadena in 2004.

Facilities

Art Center College of Design maintains two campuses in Pasadena: Hillside Campus and South Campus.

Hillside Campus

Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century....
architect Craig Ellwood

Craig Ellwood

Craig Ellwood was an influential Los Angeles, California-based Modernism architect whose career spanned the early 1950s through the mid-1970s. Although untrained as an architect, Ellwood fashioned a persona and career through equal parts of a talent for good design, self-promotion and ambition....
, the Hillside Campus broke ground in November 1974. The trademark "bridge building" dramatically spanned an arroyo

Arroyo (creek)

An arroyo , also called a wash or draw, is a usually dry stream bed or gulch that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain, or seasonally....
and roadway on wooded in the hills above Pasadena. Opening in 1976, the building was later expanded with the south wing, designed by former Ellwood associate James Tyler, which was constructed between 1989-91. The Hillside Campus houses classrooms and studio space, multiple computer labs, a model shop with traditional tools as well as rapid prototyping technologies (2 axis CNC, laser-cutting, FDM, and plaster printing) and painting facilities, a Color, Material, and Trends Exploration Lab (CMTEL), an (Auto) Interior Simulation Lab, photo and film stages and printing/editing facilities, as well as a student gallery and an external exhibit gallery, both open to the public. The Hillside Campus has been designated as a historic monument by the City of Pasadena.

South Campus

The South Campus opened in 2004 in a former aircraft-testing facility built during World War II. Renovated by the Santa Monica-based firm Daly Genik Architects, it houses the graduate art program and studios, a print shop, a letterpress studio, and a full range of public programs (Art Center at Night, Art Center for Kids, Design-Based Learning Lab), as well as a unique exhibition space known as the Wind Tunnel. The award-winning building received the first LEED

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council , provides a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction....
rating in the city of Pasadena and its sustainable features include a "green" roof and sculptural skylights made of Texlon ETFE

ETFE

Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene, colloquially known by its abbreviation ETFE, is a fluorocarbon-based polymer : a kind of plastic. It was designed to have high corrosion resistance and strength over a wide temperature range....
. The Wind Tunnel has hosted major events including the biannual Art Center Design Conference, like 2008's "Serious Play"; an annual Summit on Sustainable Mobility; large exhibitions such as "Supersonic: 1 Wind Tunnel, 8 Schools, 120 Artists", "Gardenlab", and "Open House: Architecture and Technology for Intelligent Living" (with Vitra Design Museum

Vitra Design Museum

The Vitra Design Museum is an internationally renowned, privately owned museum for design in Weil am Rhein, Germany.Vitra CEO Rolf Fehlbaum founded the museum in 1989 as an independent private Foundation ....
); and various community meetings and events.

Art Center College of Design

History

Facilities

Hillside Campus

South Campus

Notable alumni

Notable Faculty

See also

External links