Author Archives: Jered Gold

On Your Mark, Get Set…

Don’t miss one of our favorite events tomorrow, Super Thursday—the GradID Formula E Race! The race is the culmination of a GradID class in which students team up to develop high-performance scale racing vehicle prototypes, and then put them to the test on the track.

The vehicles will be on display from 11 am until 2 pm, during which time faculty, corporate sponsors and guests will judge the projects. Don’t miss the main event—three races will take place at 1, 2 and 3 pm. More than just a race, this fun event showcases design ingenuity and continues a new tradition at the College. Everyone is invited to take part in cheering on their favorite Formula E racers!

Get a sneak peek into tomorrow’s event from these student-made videos from last year’s class:

Can Good Design Truly Change a Community?

Last year, Emily Pilloton of Project H packed up and left San Francisco for Bertie Country, N.C., with a single mission: to improve life in one of the poorest places in the U.S. through better design.

With her partner Matthew Miller, Pilloton has already established a design-oriented vocational high school program, crafted graphics for an ad campaign promoting free broadband, and built a computer lab and four playgrounds that teach kids math, based on a version done in Uganda. Not bad for just one year.

Find out how what her next plans in Bertie County are in this new Forbes interview: Emily Pilloton on How Design Can Change The World

In Case You Missed It

As you know, there’s always something going on when it comes to Art Center alumni, students and faculty. Some of the latest:

Chip Foose, left, with castmates Lou Santiago and ACP

Documentary Highlights High School Musical Theater

Most Valuable Players is a documentary that follows three high school theater troupes and their creative journeys to the “Freddy Awards”—the Tony Awards of high school musical theater.

Matthew Kallis is director and co-producer and Christopher Lockhart is writer and co-producer of this documentary, which aims to demonstrate the importance of the arts education in our high schools.

It runs next week at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood–click on the image to the right to see the dates and visit the website for more information.

Reflecting Back at 80: Looking at Our Campuses

It’s a special year for us here at Art Center—2010 marks our 80th anniversary.

It was in 1930 that the Art Center School opened its doors at Seventh Street, in the Westlake Park area of Los Angeles. In the decades since, we have moved two additional times (to Third Street and then to our present Pasadena campus), maintained a European campus for a decade, and opened a second Pasadena campus.

In the latest issue of Outer Circle, we look back at the past 80 years of Art Center through the memories of our alums.

Travel back in time with us for this fun feature: In Their Words: 80 Years of Art Center

Acclaimed Cinematographer to Speak Thursday

Art Center is honored to welcome to campus world-renowned Australian cinematographer Peter James this afternoon to discuss his craft and more. Film Department instructor Allen Daviau will host the discussion with the highly acclaimed cinematographer and director of photography.

James’ credits include Driving Miss Daisy, Black Robe, Alive, This Thing Called Love, Silent Fall, Diabolique, Paradise Road, The Newton Boys, Double Jeopardy, Meet the Parents, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, 27 Dresses and many more.

The event starts at 2 pm at the Ahmanson Auditorium and is open to all Art Center students, faculty, alumni and staff.

Peter James
Thursday, August 5, 2 pm
Hillside Campus, Ahmanson Auditorium

Tad Beck Weighs in on Current Work

It’s always interesting to hear about an installation directly from the artist. As we recently reported, contemporary artist and Art Center alum Tad Beck’s current exhibition, Palimpsest, is part of LACMA’s Manly Pursuits: The Sporting Images of Thomas Eakins. His work is a response to Eakins’ Grafly Album, also on view in the exhibition.

Beck weighs in on his installation in a guest post on LACMA’s blog, Unframed:

“During the installation of my exhibition Palimpsest, I was able to have my own private exploration of Manly Pursuits. I had never seen many of these works in person, though Eakins has been one of my primary influences since parallels emerged with my own practice. … Both Eakins’s and my own work focus on nude models. The locations look very much the same, and both Eakins and I are treading water. There was even similar passion for creating axis. While none of these parallels were intentional in Roll, they became definitive and almost seemed beyond coincidence.”

Read more: Tad Beck on his Installation, Palimpsest

Roll from CellPhoneStories @LACMA on Vimeo.

Meet Steve Gavenas

Steve Gavenas had already earned numerous degrees, and enjoyed a successful career, before coming to Art Center to pursue his master’s in Graduate Art.

“I was looking for a world-class fine art graduate program that would challenge me and help me grow in my technical capability as well as the theoretical underpinning of my work, expand my artistic vision, and allow me to join the vibrant Los Angeles art scene,” explains Gavenas. “I also wanted a school that takes education seriously, with intensive faculty involvement and great classes—not just a residency program like some schools.”

Read more about Steve and his Art Center experience at in this great interview.

Looking Back at the Old Wind Tunnel

We all know that Art Center’s South Campus was originally a supersonic wind tunnel. But did you know that the tunnel was made of thick, reinforced steel, and could operate from below atmospheric pressure to four times that pressure?

From a 1945 Pasadena Star-News article: “Jet propulsion has raised new problems. This tunnel built for high speed pressurized research has been completed none too quickly as what we thought were problems of the future are with us now.”

Read more in today’s Pasadena Star-News: Southern California Cooperative Wind Tunnel and check out some interesting photos and floor plans of the old Wind Tunnel at the gardenLAb experiment.