Author Archives: Mike Winder
Looking Back on a Year of Change
Art Center President Lorne M. Buchman.
Earlier this year, Art Center College of Design launched Create Change, our strategic plan for becoming the preeminent college of art and design in the 21st century.
With Fall graduation events set for tomorrow and the winter break nearly upon us, we felt it was the perfect time to sit down with Art Center College of Design President Lorne M. Buchman to hear his thoughts on the past year, get an update on the strategic plan and find out what’s in store for the coming year.
Dotted Line: Looking back at the past year, what are your first thoughts?
Lorne M. Buchman: I’d like to begin by expressing how deeply gratified I am by all that we’ve accomplished. This has been a banner year for Art Center. We’ve seen record enrollment of talented and gifted students, we launched our strategic plan and we are set to begin new degree programs in Fall 2012. We’re closing in on the purchase of the post office property adjacent to South Campus, a facility for which we’ve raised significant funds to purchase. We’ve built the Board and we’ve recruited some dynamic new faculty. We are connecting with alumni the world over. We’ve offered some fabulous new courses and we’ve made significant strides in acquiring new technology and equipment for our students. I could go on and on. It’s been remarkable. And all of this doesn’t happen by accident. The driving force of our success is the focused and diligent work of our trustees, faculty and staff. We should recognize with much gratitude the quality of this extraordinary community.
More questions with President Lorne M. Buchman after the jump.
Two Days of Peace, Love and Music (Part 2 of 2)
Feeling groovy at Woodstock, a recreation of the West Canyon Concert of 1976. Photo: ACSG.
As mentioned last week, Art Center Student Government (ACSG) recently organized a half-day music festival that recreated the West Canyon Concert, a Woodstock-inspired event that took place on Art Center’s Hillside Campus 35 years ago.
For the recreation, dubbed “Woodstock,” students in the Sculpture Garden grooved to tunes by six musical acts, all featuring at least one Art Center student per lineup. Performers included: bossa nova headliner Sister Rogers, featuring Environmental Design student Carlos Vides on keyboard; The Big Bidnis Experience, aka Advertising student Andrew Kapamajian; Baba Ghanoush, featuring Graphic Design students Michelle Cho and Danny Park; EJ and the Fooldogs, featuring Advertising students Agustin Sanchez and Sean Thomas; and Marmamen, featuring students Alex Nassour (Advertising), Jom Rivers (Fine Art), Graphic Design alumnus and faculty member Ryan D’Orazi and one of the event’s main organizers, ACSG President Erik Molano (Graphic Design).
“This year Student Government really wanted to bring new experiences to campus,” said Molano, who pointed out that busy Art Center students might not always have the time or resources to go to a music festival. “Bringing a festival on campus was both a good way to utilize a space that often goes unused and a great opportunity to bring the community together.”
Given the success of the event, can students expect another concert? Before 2046?
“Well, I’m graduating next term, so I’ll be gone,” said Molano. “But it would be nice if they did a music festival once a year. Maybe based around different themes. I’m hoping the legacy continues.”
Additional pictures after the jump.
Last Week for “No Teachers! No Grades!”
Edward A. "Tink" Adams working on a drawing in class, circa 1936. Photo: Irene Vermeers PHOT '37.
The posters around campus announcing No Teachers! No Grades! may seem like a cruel joke, wishful thinking or both during finals week. But in reality what they’re advertising is an exhibition titled No Teachers! No Grades!: Art Center on Seventh Street, 1936-1946, curated by Art Center Archives‘ Robert Dirig and on view in the Library until December 17.
Students able to pull themselves away from their final projects for a few minutes will be rewarded with a rare look at items from the first chapter of Art Center’s history, when it was located on Seventh Street in Los Angeles’ Westlake District. Objects on view include: a 1941 catalogue for Art Center Center School, as it was then called; a number of photographs taken at the Seventh Street campus (including the image above); founder Edward A. “Tink” Adams’ business card, circa 1936; and a Caltech flyer announcing aircraft production illustration courses, which were offered at Art Center during World War II when the College ceased normal operations to assist in the war effort.
As for the exhibition title, the text on display in the Library explains, “The early catalogs boast, ‘No teachers! No grades!’ signifying that Art Center is not a typical school. That proclamation was not to say that it was effortless for students. From many accounts students were thrown out of the school if their work did not meet the Art Center standard.”
So much for the “good ole days,” right?
Taschen Publishes Mark Ryden Retrospective
A spread from Taschen's limited edition Mark Ryden "Pinxit" Retrospective.
Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the Mark Ryden fan in your life?
Venerable art book publisher Taschen has worked closely with the pop surrealist pioneer and Illustration alumnus to create a limited edition retrospective of his work titled Pinxit, which is available for pre-order now.
Taschen promises that Pinxit, whose title refers to the Latin word meaning “painted by,” is the ultimate retrospective of Ryden’s fine art career. And it’s easy to see why. The 366-page Collector’s Edition volume is limited to 1,000 signed and numbered copies, and includes more than 100 paintings, dozens of drawings, a new essay by culture critic Kristine McKenna and collected essays by artist Yoshitomo Nara and curator Carlo McCormick, among others.
In its review of Ryden’s show The Gay 90′s: Old Tyme Art Show, The New York Times wrote that the artist’s “zany pictures hint at what creepy psychic stuff might pullulate beneath the sentimental, nostalgic and naïve surface of modern kitsch.”
Two Days of Peace, Love and Music (Part 1 of 2)
Art Center's West Canyon Concert, December 1976.
Next week is the last week of the Fall 2011 term, which means the current stress level on campus is higher than usual. But if you’re “freaking out,” just remember, man, to take it easy. You know, like The Beatles said, ”turn off your mind, relax and float downstream?”
Okay, perhaps that’s not the best academic advice, but a similar thought did fuel two Art Center student-led events held nearly 35 years apart.
Earlier this term, Art Center Student Government (ACSG) organized a Woodstock-inspired concert featuring musical performances by Art Center students. During the event, students lounged in the Sculpture Garden atop orange blankets, enjoyed cotton candy and grooved to music by bands like Sister Rogers. But what they may have not realized is that they were also participating in a recreation.
In December of 1976, Art Center students organized the West Canyon Concert, a Woodstock-inspired event that allowed students to take a break from their rigorous studies. When Fine Art student John Dewey saw a photo from that event in the Art Center Archives, he shared the idea with ACSG President Erik Molano and the seed to bring back the spirit of that collaborative event was planted.
“We have a lot of musical creative talent here at school,” said Erik Molano on why recreating the West Canyon Concert made sense. “And ‘mellowing out’ is definitely something that Art Center students are looking for.”
We’ll share some more thoughts and pictures on the 2011 event next week, but for now, enjoy a selection of images from the original West Canyon Concert.
Additional images, courtesy of Robert Dirig in the Art Center Archives, after the jump.
Meet Art Center at Night Student Roberto Galicia
ACN student Roberto Galicia. Photo: Mike Winder
Nobody walks in L.A.?
Don’t tell that to Roberto Galicia.
After taking Introduction to Product and Transportation Design at Art Center at Night (ACN), Galicia decided to pursue design as a career.
The only problem? He lived in Ontario, the courses he needed were in Pasadena and he had no car.
We sat down recently with Galicia to get his full story; here’s what he told us:
“Where I went to high school in Rancho Cucamonga, everybody seemed to get a brand new car as soon as they turned 16. But not me. Ever since I was a little boy I loved cars and dreamed of one day designing cars. But I never had the means to own a car, so I took the bus everywhere.
“After high school and some community college classes, I signed up for Art Center at Night’s Introduction to Product and Transportation Design with Rimon Ghobrial. Rimon was a great instructor, and when he learned what I wanted to do with my life, he suggested I also enroll at Pasadena City College (PCC) to take classes with Stan Kong and Albert Yu, both Art Center alumni. I knew I had to take those classes, but I was worried about transportation. I didn’t have a car, so how was I going to get there? I enrolled at PCC and eventually figured it out, but the solution was ridiculous.
Don’t Miss Design Runway This Friday
Environmental Design student Belle Shang will present her BeWild winter accessories at Design Runway.
This Friday, Art Center College of Design will hold its annual Design Runway show at the College’s Hillside Campus. The show, which is free and open to the public, focuses on how industrial design and visual art students are expressing themselves through apparel design.
“This is a runway show unlike any other,” said Design Runway instructor Justine Parish of the event which marks the culmination of the course of the same name. “Apparel design at Art Center is less about fashion than it is an outlet for students from all departments to explore a new medium for their creativity. As a result, we have Product Design students creating performance sportswear for space travel, Illustration students creating jewelry, Transportation Design students creating high fashion shoes and everything in between.”
Continued after the jump.
Jodie Foster Visits Art Center as Part of Film Department’s Distinguished Filmmakers Series
Dan Perri talks with Jodie Foster in the Ahmanson Auditorium. Photo: Chuck Spangler.
Actor-director-producer Jodie Foster visited a packed Ahmanson Auditorium earlier this afternoon for a discussion and Q&A with Film instructor Dan Perri as part of the Film Department’s Distinquished Filmmakers Series. Foster, who’s next starring in director Roman Polanski’s Carnage (trailer embedded below), shared with Art Center students her experiences as a director on the sets of Little Man Tate, Home for the Holidays and The Beaver, as well as her thoughts on filmmaking in general and a few of the great directors that she’s worked with.
Here are a few highlights from the event:
Foster on when she first became interested in directing: “When I was six years old I did a television show called The Courtship of Eddie’s Father. One day, the director showed up and it was the other actor, Bill Bixby, and my mouth just hung open. That’s when I realized actors could be directors and I remember thinking that someday that’s what I wanted to do.”
On the importance of words: “I don’t write, but I love writing. I was a literature major and I’m all about words. That’s my connection. And that’s even my connection as an actor, strangely. I’m one of the few actors I know that connects with words first and images later. I don’t make action films, I make personal films, so I have to download my psyche onto the script before I even start shooting so that the film reflects my personal psychological evolution. If it doesn’t, then I’m not engaged.”
On working with producers: “I love the creative partnership between the producer and the director. In the world of studio movies, everybody has this idea that a producer is an antagonist. In the best of all possible worlds, the producer is your brother or sister. They’re your right hand person that goes through the entire process with you and that loves your child as much as you do. You’re there to create this thing together.”
On juggling producing and acting: “I prefer to direct and produce at the same time. Producing and acting is a bad idea. It makes for a very difficult relationship with the director. The director should never have to have a budget schedule conversation with another actor. The director should never have to have conversations about the costars with another actor. There are many conversations that shouldn’t happen between a director and an actor, and unfortunately when you’re producing a movie, you have to have those conversations.”
Continued after the jump.
Students Preparing for “Idea to Pitch” this Sunday [UPDATE]
A group of Art Center students have spent the past 13 weeks preparing and rehearsing for this Sunday’s Idea to Pitch, a red carpet Hollywood-style event that marks the culmination of the Entertainment Design Department’s first course to integrate written story development with concept art.
Hosted by Idea to Pitch instructor Nick Pugh, the event will feature 11 upper-term students–eight from Entertainment Design, two from Illustration and one from Film–pitching original intellectual property created during the course to an invited audience of Hollywood studio heads, producers, talent agents and development executives, including individuals from Dreamworks, Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures and Creative Artists Agency.
The concept behind the experimental Idea to Pitch course is to empower Entertainment Design students by showing them they can shift from being a work-for-hire concept artist to a content owner. How is this accomplished? By teaching them how to wed their original film treatments with dramatic concept art to effectively sell their ideas.
And what better way to teach this concept than to have the students actually pitch to real decision-makers in Hollywood?
“These students have been practicing their pitches every week since week one of this term,” said Pugh, who says the course eschewed traditional critiques and instead had each student revise and refine their pitch each week. “As an instructor, I’ve tried my very best to cultivate ideas that are original, unique and very sellable. I want the students to understand what it means to make something that has real value.”
“The goal of the course is to teach students how to own their intellectual property, how to pitch it and how to become an overall conceptualist,” added Tim Flattery, Chair of the Entertainment Design Department, while emphasizing that the real-world element at play at the event will make the proceeding all the more dramatic. “If somebody at this event is interested in optioning their story? Well, that’s all the better.”
Idea to Pitch takes place this Sunday, December 11 at noon. Creative individuals in the entertainment industry interested in attending can RSVP to maritza.herrera@artcenter.edu or 626.396.2464.
UPDATE 12/16/11:
Hollywood producers, writers, development executives and other invited individuals filled the LA Times Auditorium this past weekend for the inaugural Idea to Pitch, where they were treated to 11 full-length motion picture pitches that ranged from a sci-fi thriller to a children’s fantasy to to an absurdist action comedy. Feedback from the audience–which included individuals from RGH Entertainment, Bad Robot, Ziskin Productions, Digital Ranch, Paramount Pictures and Blacklight–was both positive and constructive, with one producer commenting that the pitches were substantially better than what more than 90% of professional writers come into his office to pitch. That comment drew both a laugh from the audience and a feigned outrage of one nearby writer who cried, “Hey, I’m sitting right here!”
Students received tips on everything from how to adjust their pitches to match specific budgets to how to keep their cool during a high-pressure presentation. One producer in the audience asked the students, “Out of curiosity, how many of you are so passionate and excited about your project that you want to turn it into a script?” To which every student in the class raised their hands.
“I’ve always pitched this class as a pipeline to real projects,” said instructor Nick Pugh, responding to the question. “This not a theoretical class. This class, with its focus on property creation and property ownership, is not just about getting a good job. It’s about heading out into the industry with a property that’s worth something.”
Turns out the student’s properties may already be worth something. According to Pugh, individuals invited to the event expressed interest in three of the projects, with one receiving multiple inquiries.