Category Archives: Development

Donor scholarship enables South African student to realize her artistic dreams

Therese Swanepoel's final envisions a electrifying vision of Coachella

Therese Swanepoel’s final envisioned a electrifying vision of Coachella

Therese Swanepoel understands better than most people how a scholarship can change a life. The second-term Environmental Design major was on the brink of dropping out of Art Center due to unexpected financial hardship when she learned that she had been selected as the first recipient of the Joseph and Rebecca Lacko Annual Scholarship.

She was visiting her parents in her home country of South Africa when she got the news via email.  “I simply started crying,” Swanepoel recalls. “My family assumed something bad had happened and soon found out that my tears were tears of joy.”

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Art Center friends and alums get creative with gifts-in-kind

Monotype's donation of fonts expands student designers' toolbox

Monotype’s donation of fonts expands student designers’ toolbox

Not every act of philanthropy to Art Center involves writing a check. It should come as no surprise that friends and alumni of this artistic mecca are naturally predisposed to get creative with their giving. Sometimes gifts come in the form of goods and services. Computer software, fonts and even lighting are some of the in-kind commitments made to the College that are powerfully shaping the Art Center experience.

A recent sizeable gift of 3D design software and training services from Autodesk is providing Art Center students with hands-on experience using the same technology preferred by professionals in industry. The software is currently installed on Art Center’s 500 Macintosh and Windows personal computers and accessible to all undergraduate and graduate students. The donation benefits designers in every program, particularly those in the departments of Environmental Design, Film, Product Design and Transportation Design.

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‘Insights’ highlights: 108 high-intensity doses of creative inspiration in 130 characters or less

Alum Lynne Aldrich leads a tour of her sculpture exhibit in the Williamson Gallery

Alum Lynne Aldrich leads a tour of her sculpture exhibit in the Williamson Gallery

While Car Classic dominated last weekend’s headlines, with its lineup of head-turning, high-revving art-imitates-life works of automotive aesthetics and ingenuity. Sunday’s auto design showcase wasn’t even the only audacious display of Art Center’s creative assets on view last weekend. On Saturday, the College hosted a curated selection of seminars and workshops known as Art Center Insights. The invitation-only event offers donors and trustees an opportunity to experience what it’s like to be Art Center student for an afternoon (minus the mountain of pressure to complete competing creative projects). 

After a lunch in the student dining room with President Lorne M. Buchman, participants chose from the following Session 1 presentations: 3D Printing: A Revolution in 3D, Environmental Design: The Safe Aqua Project and Interaction Design: Evolving User Experience. Then came the second and final round of workshops: Transportation Design/Sustainability: Nature, The Mobility Innovator, Photography: Portraiture Unplugged and Fine Art: Lynn Aldrich: Un/Common Objects.

Because Insights reaches only a small slice of the population who might benefit from it; we embedded reporters in each of the workshops and live-tweeted the entire event. Taken together, these concise dispatches offer a cohesive (if not comprehensive) narrative of what it was like to experience Insights and the inspiring ideas and tools exchanged over the course of all six workshops.

Some people dream of being king for a day. But Insights makes a good case for the rewards that go along with being a student, for a day or a lifetime. Hopefully the chronicle below will conjure some of that mind-expanding thrill vicariously.

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Social impact bat mitzvah: Alum’s daughter raises funds for Art Center scholarships

Hannah Megery creates a painting for each bat mitzvah scholarship donor

Hannah Megery creates a painting for each bat mitzvah scholarship donor

This is a story about how even a 13-year-old can, with a little creativity, make a big difference in the lives of others.

Eighth-grader Hannah Megery had yet to choose her mitzvah (Hebrew for worthy deed) project for her upcoming bat mitzvah when her mother decided to take her and her sister Madeline on a tour of Art Center. The girls’ father, John Megery (ADVT ’95), had recently and unexpectedly passed away, and mother, Laurie, wanted them to see the school their father had attended and loved so much.

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Redefining future of professional photography for the digital age

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The Annenberg Foundation has awarded a grant of $75,000 to Art Center College of Design’s Photography and Imaging Department for an ambitious examination of the current state of the medium, the profession, emerging cultural and technical issues and opportunities for innovation in photography education.

“We are honored that the Annenberg Foundation, a leading advocate for and supporter of the field of photography, has recognized the timeliness of our investigation into the future of photography education,” says Lorne M. Buchman, president of Art Center. “We share a deep commitment to the profession and the art form. We are grateful for the Foundation’s invaluable support.”

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Art Center Receives NEH Grant to Preserve Industrial Design History

From computers to sports cars to space capsules, America’s infatuation with invention has fueled industrial design. Now a prestigious grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is invigorating Art Center’s efforts to preserve the College’s rich history of industrial design images and materials.

Art Center students in 1937

Students working on an architectural model of a future Art Center campus in a project taught by Kem Weber. Gift of Irene Vermeers (PHOT 1937). Photography by Irene Vermeers.

According to College Archivist Robert Dirig, the grant will support a pilot project to digitize, preserve and make accessible a portion of Art Center’s collection of photographs, film and print materials documenting American industrial design education over an 80-year period.

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Sustainable solutions: by bike, on a plane or by hand

Pop quiz:

What do the following design concepts have in common: a streamlined re-design of in-flight meal preparation and service that reduces air-travel waste; a bicycle for tourists that collects environmental data as cyclists explore the city; and a human-powered washing machine and spin dryer for families living on $4 to $10 per day?

a. They were all designed by Art Center students.
b. They reflect the growing awareness of sustainability within art and design.
c. They are the winning concepts of the 2012 Denhart Family Sustainability Scholarship Prize.
d. All of the above

Too easy? The answer (d) shouldn’t surprise anyone who is familiar with the cutting-edge role Art Center students are playing in environmentally and socially responsible art and design. This year’s Denhart Prize winners, chosen from a highly competitive pool of undergraduates from Fine Art, Film, Photography, Illustration, and Industrial and Environmental Design, represent some of the year’s top design ideas in sustainability at Art Center.

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Special Forces: Sisters memorialize father’s legacy with Public Programs scholarship

The scholarship allows Art Center at Night to provide financial support to adult students.

When Nancy Player Legler suggested to her three sisters that they join forces to endow a scholarship at Art Center, her idea was met with immediate enthusiasm. “We all agreed that this was a way to make a real difference in people’s lives and honor the memory of our parents,” she says.

Established in 2012, the Ross Dimond Player and Madelyn Maberly Player Endowed Memorial Scholarship provides financial support for adult students enrolled in the College’s Public Programs, with a preference for veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces.

According to Dana L. Walker, Managing Director, Public Programs, and Director, Art Center at Night, “Thanks to the Player family’s generosity, Art Center at Night will be better able to assist recent vets who want to take our continuing studies classes–especially those who are seeking to build their portfolios for admissions to Art Center’s full-time degree programs.”

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In Conversation: Richard Law, raising the profile of a great college

Art Center President Lorne Buchman, left, and alum Richard Law (Industrial Design ’58)

Art Center alumni are playing a growing role in helping to implement the College’s community-generated strategic plan, Create Change, with philanthropic support across a broad range of areas. Among the most talked about during the past year were gifts totaling $5 million to enable Art Center to acquire a former U.S. Postal Service property in Pasadena. The new property will effectively double the size of South Campus, transforming it from a “satellite” location to a fully-realized campus, with extensive benefits for students and faculty and for local residents.

Richard Law (Industrial Design ’58) is one of the visionary alumni donors who made the purchase possible. He generously offered his thoughts about investing in Art Center at what many are calling a pivotal moment in the College’s history.

Art Center: Can you lead us through your process of making your gift to Art Center? Was it a difficult decision?

Richard Law: It was always important to me to do something with my resources that made a difference in other people’s lives. When I saw the building for purchase, adjacent to the existing South Campus, I thought: This is fabulous. This is what Art Center should be doing. The property, in an urban environment on the edge of Old Pasadena where all the action is, as well as public transit, is a great example of renewing older areas, creating a vital, energetic place.

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Spring appeal springs ahead: Total giving jumps 330%

Karen Hofmann, chair of the Product Design department.

The results are in from the Art Center 2012 Annual Fund spring fundraising appeal, and the numbers are impressive indeed. The Fund, which provides critical support for the College’s most immediate needs and initiatives, saw a surge in support from alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and other friends.

Total giving jumped a whopping 330 percent over last year, and overall participation was up 42 percent.

Why the sudden (and deeply appreciated) increase? Kristine Bowne, Art Center alumni relations director, and Karen Hofmann, chair of the Product Design department, offered their thoughts.

Art Center: Kristine, what are alumni telling you about their increased interest in supporting their alma mater?

Kristine Bowne: Many alumni are telling me they feel good about the direction of the College. They also feel more connected. We’ve made an effort to rebuild lines of communication between them and the president, and I think they are excited about the thoughtful way they’ve been involved in planning Art Center’s future.

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