Author Archives: Lorne M. Buchman

A Message Regarding DACA from President Lorne Buchman

artcenter campus life-2Dear ArtCenter Community,

As we welcome with excitement the arrival of our new students for the Fall term, 2017, we simultaneously witness with alarm the Trump administration’s formal announcement that it plans to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) for roughly 800,000 “DREAMers.” This deeply troubling and heartless decision goes against the fundamental values of this institution, and we stand in solidarity with all those who are impacted at ArtCenter and throughout the country.

In light of today’s developments, I want to reiterate my position on DACA from my message to you last January and to provide the following reassurances:

  • Should DACA be revoked, and should it result in a negative effect on a DACA student’s financial resources, the College is prepared to work closely with the student to find supplementary aid to support completion of the ArtCenter degree.
  • We have prepared, as comprehensively as possible, pertinent legal information for undocumented students (and their families) regarding their educational needs and will refer them to trusted legal counsel as necessary. This is available through CSE.
  • Admission to ArtCenter will continue to be “blind” to immigration status (we never ask people to disclose that status in their application) and will not have any influence on admission.
  • We have identified specific staff members trained to assist (with absolute confidentiality) undocumented students (in CSE, Admissions, and Financial Aid) who can serve as resources for them or direct them appropriately to individuals off campus for help.

In addition, I have contacted our congressional and senate representatives expressing my indignation about today’s announcement and will continue to do whatever I can to fight the injustice of the decision.  I also plan to sign a letter of protest with my colleagues from our fellow AICAD schools.

I urge all of you, in your own ways, to speak up about this development.

1. Call your Representatives and Senators. Dial the Capitol switchboard, ask for your Rep., and tell them to make DACA permanent: 202-224-3121

2. Tweet your elected officials. There’s a list of every member of Congress’ handle here – tag them and use the hashtag #DefendDACA: https://twitter.com/cspan/lists/members-of-congress/members

At the very least, today’s decision could deny talented young people access to their education and to the future opportunities which that education represents; at worst, they could face losing the only home they have ever known.

We cannot remain silent while the vulnerable among us face the possibility of a fate so cruel and frightening.

Thank you,

Lorne M. Buchman
President

View from the Bridge: Reflecting on #ADA25, inclusive design and Ed Roberts’ pivotal role as a pioneer for independent living

Ed Roberts being sworn in by California Governor Jerry Brown as the State Director of Rehabilitation in 1975. Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Transportation Committee

Ed Roberts in 1976 being sworn in by California Governor Jerry Brown as the State Director of Rehabilitation. Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Transportation Committee

Last month marked the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a groundbreaking piece of civil rights legislation that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities and guarantees that those individuals are afforded the same opportunities as everyone else. Or, as the Justice Department puts it, the Act guarantees that people with disabilities can “participate in the mainstream of American life.”

This anniversary means a great deal to me. Prior to coming to ArtCenter, I spent five years deeply involved in the development and building of the Ed Roberts Campus. This stunning and groundbreaking facility, situated atop the Ashby BART Station in Berkeley, was created by a number of disability organizations to serve as the global resource for the disability community.

The man whose name graces the campus, Ed Roberts, inspired the independent living movement and is widely considered the father of the Americans with Disabilities Act. His story is both thought provoking and exhilarating.

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View from the Bridge: The President’s attitude of gratitude for the Fall term’s vast riches

Incoming students during Fall 2014 Orientation Week.

Incoming students during Fall 2014 Orientation Week.

Thanksgiving, that wonderful holiday in which we as a nation give thanks for all our blessings, is just around the corner. In the spirit of that tradition, I’d like to take a moment to pause and reflect on what I have to be thankful for here at Art Center.

First of all, I’m thankful for all the newest members of the Art Center family. This Fall term we welcomed a record-breaking entering class of 432 new students, a number which reflects the continuing strength and enormous appeal of both our undergraduate and graduate programs. These students come to us from a total of 37 states across the nation and 31 countries around the globe, for a total of 47 countries represented across our truly international student body.

You may also be interested to know that the average age of the entering class is 21 and that, of our incoming undergraduates, 52% are female. As always, all of our incoming students demonstrated their considerable merit through their portfolios, academic records and personal statements, and each underwent a rigorous review to gain admission.

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In Memoriam: Art Center faculty member Leah Hoffmitz Milken

Leah Hoffmitz Milken | Copyright Steven A. Heller / Art Center College of Design.

Leah Hoffmitz Milken | Copyright Steven A. Heller / Art Center College of Design.

It is with much sadness that I write to inform you of the passing of Professor Leah Hoffmitz Milken. She died on Saturday morning after an extended illness.

A renowned letterform expert, Leah taught at Art Center for more than 20 years and was a beloved member of our community. Throughout her career, she specialized in the creation of unique logotypes and typefaces for multiple industries and media. Corporate brands benefiting from her first-rate typographic eye include FedEx, Nokia, United Airlines and Disney, among many others.

As a faculty member, Leah helped shape and influence scores of graduates, many of whom have become internationally recognized experts in graphic design and typography. In 2013, she received the Distinguished Achievement Award in Recognition of Excellence in Teaching, Professional Accomplishment and Institutional Service. The tribute hailed her extraordinary devotion to students and to the College that she loved.

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View from the Bridge: Student work is Art Center’s greatest attribute

President Lorne M. Buchman admires student work by Tammy Chang (BFA 12) in his office.

President Lorne M. Buchman admires student work by Tammy Chang (BFA 12) in his office.

Art Center’s Hillside Campus is extraordinary for so many reasons—its internationally recognized modernist steel-and-glass structure; its iconic bridge; its idyllic placement in the hills above the Rose Bowl—but for all its wonders, its single greatest attribute is its front-and-center placement of the student gallery. Walk into the building and the message is clear from the start: student work is what this college is all about. It was truly an inspired choice by architecture firm Craig Ellwood Associates.

And what work our visitors discover! Repeatedly, they are dazzled by the ideas on display—the cleverness, the innovation, the beauty—and compelled by their fine execution. They immediately know our school is filled with talented, dedicated and professional students, and they get a palpable sense of the capabilities of our graduates. We’re known for that, and the gallery has done an incredible job of presenting our brand to the larger world.

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View from the Bridge: Grounded in reality and ready for professional liftoff

Students present work to Honda Research and Development executives.

In a Sponsored Project, Graphic Design student Sungmoon Chung, center, presents work to alumnus and Honda R&D Americas Division Director Dave Marek (BS 87 Industrial), far right.

Summertime is traditionally set aside for leisurely activities—poolside lounging, pleasure reading and, at least through June, watching the Stanley Cup Final.

But here at Art Center, our students are as busy as ever. Many students continue their studies through the Summer term, while others, thanks to our dedicated staff in the Office of Career + Professional Development, scatter across the globe working as interns at an impressive array of organizations. It’s amazing, really, when you stop to look at where our students have landed internships:

  • Illustration student Adriana Crespo is at design firm IDEO in San Francisco;
  • Film student Juliana Rowlands is at director Roman Coppola’s production company The Director’s Bureau in Los Angeles;
  • Transportation Design student Harrison Scott Yen is at Chrysler’s Street and Racing Technology division in Michigan;
  • Graphic Design student Siyun Oh is at the Museum of Modern Art in New York;
  • Transportation Design student Yang Fu is at vehicle manufacturer Renault in France;
  • Product Design student Benji Kurada is at Google in Switzerland; and
  • Transportation Design student Sean Peterson is at Suzuki Motor Corporation in Japan.

I could go on, but I think you get the picture. These are not your everyday assignments; our students are working with some of today’s most prestigious companies.

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In Memoriam: Beloved Film faculty member, Michael Gottlieb

Michael Gottlieb

Michael Gottlieb

It is with great sadness that I write to inform you of the passing of our colleague and member of the film faculty, Michael Gottlieb.  Michael was in a tragic motorcycle accident late last week, and we are deeply pained by his loss. He was 69 years old.

Writer/Producer/Director/Photographer Michael Gottlieb was raised in New York.  The man whom he thought of as a father, Dr. Francisco Marino, was a prominent psychiatrist who mentored Michael through his teen years and beyond. Michael began his professional career working as an assistant on film and photo shoots and found great success as a fashion photographer. This, in turn, led to his becoming a Clio Award-winning commercial director and cinematographer, making many national spots for such clients as Xerox, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.

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View from the Bridge: A renovation designed for creation, innovation and collaboration

The 870 building at sunrise. Photo: Darin Johnstone Architects

The 870 building at sunrise. Photo: ©Lawrence Anderson/Esto

As a teacher, I understand well the difference a space can make in the quality of the educational experience. Space affects learning. It makes a difference in how people teach. It makes a difference in how people create.

Which is why when you embark on creating a new space, you want to get it right. You need to talk to the right people and to ask the right questions if you wish to build that place where students can thrive and where faculty will love teaching. You want the space to elevate the whole.

A lot of careful thought went into making sure the new Fine Art and Illustration building at South Campus, 870 S. Raymond Ave. would engender the highest quality teaching and learning possible. I have no doubt that the building will do exactly that. Move through the new space, and you can feel it. It’s buoyant. It’s alive. You feel open to experience, to learning, to discovery—all thanks to the environment itself.

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View from the Bridge: Saluting graduating students and Art Center’s social impact on healthy drinking water and food

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A Balde Movil prototype is put to the test in Altos del Pino, Bogota, Colombia.

The Fall 2013 term culminated last weekend with our Grad Show—an unqualified success attracting hundreds of industry representatives—and the arrival of our students’ families on campus for graduation. It was my great pleasure to meet many of them and share in their excitement and pride.

I began this weekend’s ceremonies by reading Everything is Waiting for You by David Whyte. An ode to the creative power of community, this poem was born surprisingly out of a moment of deep grief for the author, which makes its vibrant call to action all the more remarkable. The work begins with a warning of isolation—“Your great mistake is to act the drama as if you were alone”—moves to an acknowledged tension of individual identity in the crowd—“Surely, even you, at times, have felt … the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding out your solo voice”—and concludes with an exultant celebration of discovery and the power of entering the “conversation”—“The kettle is singing even as it pours you a drink” and, ultimately, “Everything is waiting for you.”

I shared this poem because I want our graduating students to find the strength to face what is calling them and recognize that they are surrounded by an astonishing depth and plethora of life. I want them to celebrate where the new edges meet and, as the poem suggests, believe they can change the world by their attentive presence.

Our students’ work offers ample evidence that this is all very much underway.

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View from the Bridge: The future of humanities, a rising star at Microsoft, and a multigenerational Car Classic

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President Lorne M. Buchman moderating at “The Future of Knowledge” event. Photo: John Dlugolecki

Last week I had the pleasure of moderating an evening panel on “The Future of Knowledge” with the co-authors of Digital_Humanities, a recent publication from MIT Press. Introducing the Art Center Dialogues event in the Ahmanson Auditorium was one of the book’s co-authors: our very own Anne Burdick, Chair of Art Center’s Media Design Practices. In her remarks, she mused that “our bombastic title is actually a serious proposition,” and the presentations and discussion that followed were certainly provocative and opened several important questions about teaching and research in the humanities.

Digital Humanities replaces “the paper” with “the project,” looking to the multi-modal and project-based orientation that is at the heart of creative studio practice. The authors argue that our current ideas about knowledge, interpretation and the cultural record developed in tandem with our long history with print. The digital information age upends old ideas about author, archive, memory and knowledge itself. The book positions designers (and by implication what we teach here at Art Center) as having a major contribution to make as these notions reconfigure along with the technology.

The question of how best to integrate the humanities into Art Center’s curriculum is one I care about very much, and I thank the co-authors—who, in addition to Burdick, included Johanna Drucker, a professor in UCLA’s Department of Information Studies; Peter Lunenfeld, former Art Center instructor and professor at UCLA’s Design Media Arts; Todd Presner, chair of UCLA’s Digital Humanities program; and Jeffrey Schnapp, faculty director of metaLAB at Harvard—for a wonderfully engaging evening.

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