Category Archives: Development

Faculty Member Sean Adams Donates Proceeds of MOO.COM Collaboration to Art Center Scholarship Fund

Art Center faculty member Sean Adams.

Sean Adams

Art Center faculty member Sean Adams, partner and co-founder of the branding and strategic design firm AdamsMorioka, recently collaborated with MOO.COM to create their newest collection of high-end business cards for The Luxe Project.

When deciding which charity would receive 100% of the net proceeds from the sale of the business cards, Sean selected the Art Center Scholarship Fund and the purchase of any cards in Adams’ three collections—totaling 42 different designs—between now and the end of August will benefit Art Center students.

You can purchase any of Adams’ designs — Pattern and Colour, Sad Places or Ships Ahoy! — from MOO.COM.

Commenting on his choice to support the Art Center Scholarship Fund, Adams said, “As a teacher I’ve seen too many remarkable people leave school because they couldn’t afford to continue. When I see a student who is brilliant, passionate and who works like a dog, lose the resources to finish school, it is a loss not just to his or her own experience. It’s a loss of an incredible resource and voice to the world.

“None of us would have become successful without the help of the generation ahead of us. I myself wouldn’t have finished school without scholarship help,” he continued. “It feels great to know that I can give back and be a small part in making Art Center students the most incredible and successful designers graduating in the world today.”

As part of MOO’s efforts to make quality products and top-level design available for anyone to create their own unique identity, Luxe Business Cards are high-quality, super-thick, customizable cards that feature limited edition designs.

Adams said, “I was thrilled to have the opportunity to design cards for anyone to use and that MOO has given me the ability to support our future designers in this way. So thrilled that I couldn’t stop with just one collection, so I designed three.”

Images and more information about the designs follow. Continue reading →

San Marino League Docents Invest in Art Center

Did you happen to notice a large group of women listening carefully, taking notes and following Williamson Gallery Director Stephen Nowlin around the student gallery? If you ever wondered who these women are who turn up the first Tuesday of every term, they are volunteers and members of the San Marino League on campus for a half-day of docent training.

Student Gallery. Photo © Crystal Jean Photography/Art Center College of Design

The San Marino League in California is a nonprofit organization of women committed to philanthropic work in the community as well as furthering their own knowledge of fine arts. Its purpose is exclusively charitable, educational and all volunteer.

According to its website, “The League’s association with Art Center College of Design began in 1976 when the League funded the opening of the student gallery and began conducting tours. The association continues to this day, enhancing knowledge of and interest in one of the most renowned art and design education centers in the world.”

Today, docents from the San Marino League conduct tours for community groups interested in visiting Art Center. They also volunteer in the library and help staff the registration desk for Grad Show Preview. In addition to the many volunteer hours they invest in the college, they fund a Fine Art Scholarship helping countless students attend Art Center.

More information about the San Marino League can be found here.

For more information on scholarship giving opportunities, and joining Art Center support groups, contact Director of Annual Giving Amy Swain at amy.swain@artcenter.edu or 626.396.2427.

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.

Continue reading →

Emerging Ambitions: Scholarships Support Tomorrow’s Artists and Designers


A bulletproof lemonade stand, a tender childhood moment captured in the Southern California sun, a futuristic car that stores energy in chemical bonds, and a sneak peek at the future of the written word—all of these were made possible due to the generosity of Art Center scholarship donors.

This past February, Art Center President Lorne Buchman and Student Government President Erik Molano addressed the student body at an event titled “Meet the Presidents.” There, Buchman offered a preview of the College’s new strategic plan and discussed one of its most important elements: easing the financial burden to students.

While pointing out that Art Center delivers an expensive form of education—equipment, labor and team teaching all add to a per-student cost that actually exceeds tuition—Buchman said easing students’ financial commitment is critical to maintaining a diverse student body and a robust learning environment.

“A huge part of my job is to find the philanthropy and scholarships that are going to help,” said Buchman. “I think about this every day.”

He’s done more than think about it. In the last year, thanks to targeted budgetary reallocations and fundraising projects like the “80 for 80” initiative, Art Center made an additional $3 million available for student scholarships. And with a full 80 percent of current Art Center students receiving financial aid, you can be sure that every additional dollar counts.

Annually, Art Center allocates $9.6 million for scholarships; of that amount, 18 percent comes from donors. And for many students who come to Art Center seeking a bachelor’s degree, but who already have a prior degree—as is true for three of the students profiled here—those scholarships are fundamental, as they’re ineligible for either federal or California state grants.

Increasing scholarship support is a key priority for Art Center, as laid out in Create Change, the College’s new strategic plan. Here are three current students and one recent alumnus whose visions we can all delight in thanks to Art Center scholarships.

Read more in Dot magazine.

80 for 80 Initiative A Success!

Art Center is proud to announces the successful completion of its “80 for 80” scholarship initiative, raising more than $3 million to support students in the College’s undergraduate, graduate and Public Programs. At the conclusion of the 18-month initiative, the College raised a total of $3,121,730 for annual and endowed scholarships, exceeding its $2 million goal by 56 percent.

As part of the College’s 80th anniversary in 2010, the College launched the “80 for 80” fundraising initiative to secure the equivalent of 80 $25,000 scholarships. By its completion, the initiative had raised the equivalent of 124 $25,000 scholarships. The College’s commitment to ensure access to students through scholarships and other forms of financial aid continues to be a priority and is outlined in Art Center’s strategic plan, Create Change.

“I am delighted with the level of support generated by the ‘80 for 80’ initiative,” says Art Center President Lorne Buchman. “We launched 80 for 80 in direct response to the pressing financial needs of our students and we are grateful to the broader Art Center community for helping us exceed our goals. It’s an important step as we strive to make Art Center accessible and affordable to talented artists and designers regardless of their background.”

An important part of Art Center’s “80 for 80” fundraising efforts was an anniversary gala, Art Center at 80: Celebrating the Creative Spirit, the proceeds of which supported scholarships for undergraduate, graduate and public program students.

All money raised for scholarships between January 2010 and June 2011 was counted toward the final total. For more information about ways to donate to Art Center, visit artcenter.edu/giving or call 626.396.4216.

You Can Create Change

Last year, the Art Center community came together to envision the College’s future and to design a plan to achieve it. Create Change, Art Center’s five-year strategic plan, came out of that process.

Create Change contains a bold educational agenda for the next five years built on three major themes:

The Conservatory Spirit reflects the intense, specialized and practical career preparation that is the hallmark of an Art Center education.

Convening Diverse Communities & Disciplines centers on broad access and the growth of intercultural and cross-disciplinary dialogues and programs.

New Spaces for Learning calls for providing our students with a superior educational environment by renovating and expanding our physical facilities and developing online learning opportunities.

We are already starting to implement the plan, and we invite you to join us. Your support—for scholarship, the Art Center Fund or seed funding for initiatives—strengthens our programs, creates opportunities for our students and ensures the College’s continuing leadership.

Together we created this plan, and together we’ll make it a reality. Help us create change today.

Legacy Circle: Giving Back to Future Alumni

Legacy Circle is an alumni-led group of volunteers committed to supporting Art Center students through financial contributions. All money raised—100 percent—is distributed to students through Art Center scholarships.

Thom Meredith GRPH ’04 with incoming students at Legacy Circle breakfast

Established in 2006 to engage alumni and friends in making gifts to the College, Legacy Circle raises funds to ensure that the next generation of leading designers and artists can attend Art Center regardless of their financial need.

To date, members have contributed more than $400,000 and pledged $1,300,000 in planned gifts. Additionally, Legacy Circle members have created and supported special scholarship initiatives such as the Joe and Rosa Farrer Endowed Scholarship and the Ted Youngkin Memorial Scholarship.

At the heart of the College’s recently unveiled strategic plan, Create Change, is the increasing need for scholarship support to make Art Center available to students regardless of their financial resources. This has always been at the core of Legacy Circle’s mission of “alumni giving back to future alumni.”

The group is committed to engaging a broader constituency and growing the number of alumni participating in Legacy Circle.

Legacy Circle Co-Chairs Gail Howland PHOT ’04 and Dan Ashcraft PROD ‘73

They are reaching out to a wider range of alumni with events in major cities around the world with the intention of connecting with alumni who are dedicated to helping our cause and who want to stay personally involved with the College.

In addition to supporting talented students, Legacy Circle provides opportunities for alumni to come together and reconnect.

The group holds exclusive gatherings each year, including events in members’ homes and studios. Last summer, John Clark hosted the group in his beautiful office and art glass studio in El Segundo. This May, Legacy Circle will hold a special thank you event at the home of Katie Sprague GRPH ’91. For the past year, Legacy Circle has also hosted a breakfast for incoming students and their families at each new student orientation.

If you are interested in joining Legacy Circle, or would like more information, contact Amy Swain in the Office of Development at 626.396.2427 or amy.swain@artcenter.edu.

AutoPacific Enhances Transportation Design Education at Art Center

The most successful transportation designers are not simply adept at creating exciting new vehicle concepts, they are able to participate in and understand market research, brand development and user scenarios.

© Steven A. Heller/Art Center College of Design

But how do Art Center’s Transportation Design students gain these skills?

For a decade, AutoPacific has partnered with the College to enhance the educational experience of transportation design students through its annual donation of consumer and market research and forecasting data for the transportation industry. This highly valuable data is the same information used by major automotive manufacturers, suppliers and agencies around the world to understand market and consumer trends and sales projections for a range of vehicles.

Faculty member Robert Blum forged the relationship with AutoPacific in 2001 and the data the company makes available is central to his class, Introduction to Product Planning for Transportation Design. “The students are able to dig into this massive amount of information and learn how to interpret it for the purposes of product planning and development,” he says. “It helps them understand how to make choices about what to develop for whom, and why.”

Adds Stewart Reed, Art Center Transportation Design Chair, “It’s exciting for us to see students learn the broader language of product strategy and business and be able to talk about how their concepts address real market opportunities.”

The licenses that AutoPacific donates provide access to Competitive Battleground data for North America, Asia and Europe with consumer insights for every segment, make and model the company tracks; five-year Sales Forecasting information that is updated quarterly; and the company’s exclusive Research Suite database which is made accessible through PAI survey analysis software. “PAI’s mTABTM software allows for the easy statistical analysis of large amounts of data from AutoPacific’s database,” says Blum.

“Art Center’s partnership with AutoPacific has been incredibly valuable in elevating the educational experience for our students. The data they provide is also used by many of our eighth term students on their thesis projects. It increases the sophistication of our graduates, without a doubt.”