Category Archives: Events

Take Action: Volunteer

Next week Art Center students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends will come together for Art Center Takes Action: A Day of Service in Pasadena, a volunteer initiative launched in celebration of Art Center’s 80th anniversary. The event will be held Saturday, June 12.

Among the local organizations that Art Center volunteers will assist include AIDS Service Center, Boys and Girls Club of Pasadena, Pasadena Senior Center, Rose Bowl Stadium and Villa-Parke Community Center.

The day of service will kick off at 8 am on Saturday, June 12. Participants will begin the day at Pasadena’s Memorial Park for breakfast with College President Buchman, representatives from participating organizations and patrons of the Pasadena Senior Center. From there, teams of Art Center volunteers will be dispatched to locations around the city to take on such tasks as picking up garbage, serving food and moving boxes.

We’ll bring you more information on the event and the participating organizations next week.

It’s not too late to join us. To sign up or for more information, contact Betsy Edmunds in the Center for the Student Experience at cse@artcenter.edu or stop by the CSE.

Exploring the Past and Future of Objects at the Williamson

Art Center’s Williamson Gallery is continuing its series of explorations into the intersecting domains of art, science, technology and design with side-by-side exhibitions exploring the interplay between the technologies used to fabricate objects and the thought-processes used to conceive them. The Curious World of Patent Models and The Future of Objects open Thursday, June 3, will be on display through August 15.

The relationship between technology and its influence over the process of conceptualizing objects, inventions and innovations is referenced overtly in The Curious World of Patent Models, an exhibit of more than 50 scale models representing ideas submitted for United States Patent protection between 1800 and 1880. A concurrent exhibit, The Future of Objects, displays new digital-age fabrication and prototyping techniques in which complex forms are created by 3D printers. As the exhibit reveals, technologies related to those used daily in households and offices to print 2D information on flat pieces of paper are now being used to create freestanding 3D objects using a variety of solid materials.

“As we celebrate Art Center’s 80th anniversary, it’s fitting to showcase advanced computer modeling and 3D printing techniques that will very soon become such a big part of the planet’s visual culture,” says Gallery Director Stephen Nowlin. “Exhibiting 19th-century fabrication alongside 21st-century technology opens an entirely new conversation about what is coming in the future, and where it came from.”

The Curious World of Patent Models and The Future of Objects On Exhibit
Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery
Hillside Campus
June 4—August 15
Opening Reception: June 3, 7- 9 pm

Business Dialogue Series June 1

Art Center’s Business Dialogue Series brings industry professionals to campus to share their personal career paths, showcase their studios and projects and, most importantly, answer student questions. The series is presented by the College’s Office of Career Development. All majors and term levels are invited to attend and join the dialogue.

Turner Duckworth, an award-winning design consultancy with studios in San Francisco and London, will come to campus as part of the series next Tuesday, June 1. Turner Duckworth maintain a constant collaboration between both of their studios, and designers swap places for month-long exchanges. This unique collaboration provides clients with a broader design perspective than they would find with other design agencies.

Business Dialogue Series: Turner Duckworth
Tuesday, June 1, 1 pm
Hillside Campus, Boardroom

Big Picture Lecture Series Kicks Off June 7

It’s the start of a new term, which means the start of a new Big Picture Lecture Series. The Toyota Motor Corporation Endowed Lecture Series brings visionary thinkers from around the world to campus to discuss the cultural and political currents shaping art and design.

The series kicks off Monday, June 7, at 1 pm in the Los Angeles Times Media Center at Hillside Campus. All lectures are free and open to the public. Coming up for Spring Term:

June 7: Jack Rakove, Revolutionaries: Big Thoughts on Founders’ Chic
Jack Rakove is a history and political science professor at Stanford University. The recipient of the 1997 Pulitzer Prize in history, his research revolves around the American Revolution and the adoption of the Constitution.

June 14: Steve Glenn, High Design, Low Impact: Creating LivingHomes
Steve Glenn develops modern, prefabricated homes that combine world-class architecture with a commitment to healthy and sustainable construction. He is founder and CEO of LivingHomes, a company that creates homes with a small ecological footprint.

July 5: Jonathan Gold, Authenticity, Culture and the Kimchi Taco
Jonathan Gold is the LA Weekly’s renowned restaurant critic and the author of Counter Intelligence: Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles. In 2007, he became the first food writer to win the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

July 12: Sandra Ball-Rokeach, The Seeds of Civic Engagement in Contemporary Urban Communities
Sandra Ball-Rokeach is a communication and sociology professor at USC and principal investigator of the decade-long research program, Metamorphosis: Transforming the Ties that Bind.

July 19: Jean-Pierre Hebert, Art and Science
Jean-Pierre Hebert is artist-in-residence at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His 40-year interest in mathematics, physics, music and computer science has resulted in the production of a large body of work at the intersection of art and science.

July 26: Paul Vangelisti, The Art of Being Elsewhere: A Writer’s Life
Paul Vangelisti is a poet and broadcaster who has written more than 20 books of poetry, and is also a noted Italian translator. He helped create the graduate writing program at Otis College of Art and Design.

4 Hours Solid: Intimidating Title, Illuminating Event

Dubbed “the event with the intimidating title” by its organizers, the first annual 4 Hours Solid took place on April 21 at Art Center’s South Campus and marked the first time the College  specifically showcased work and ideas from its four graduate programs—Graduate Art, Broadcast Cinema, Industrial Design (GradID) and Media Design (MDP).

Over 300 people attended the evening event, which included a panel discussion, exhibitions of recent student theses and work, student film screenings and a reception.

For the students showing their work, the evening provided a welcome opportunity to get feedback on their projects.

MDP student Haemi Yoon, who presented her thesis project that explores the down-time of everyday electronic objects, said she was surprised by the questions visitors asked her. “I thought people wouldn’t understand the project, but they totally got it,” said Yoon. “People asked me, ‘What do you think a future object will look like?’ and ‘Do you think these objects should have personalities?’ It was a great dialogue.” Continue reading →

Graduation Ceremony Webcast Tomorrow

Tomorrow is Spring Term 2010 Graduation! Join us as we welcome the newest graduates into the Art Center family, and hear our honorary degree recipient Katherine Hayles issue the graduation address. Can’t join us at Hillside Campus tomorrow? Watch our live online webcast.

Spring Term 2010 Graduation
Saturday, April 24, 4 pm PST
Hillside Campus

What a Week!

Happy Monday, Art Center! It’s going to be a busy week, hope you’re rested and ready for:

  • Wednesday, April 21, 6 pm: 4 Hours Solid (South Campus)
  • Thursday, April 22, 5 pm: Graduation Show Preview (invitation only)
  • Thursday, April 22, 8 pm: Inauguration of Art Center President Lorne Buchman (Hillside Campus)
  • Thursday, April 22, 9 pm: Alumni Welcome Reception (invitation only)
  • Saturday, April 24, 2:30 pm: Faculty Reception (faculty, special guests and College leadership)
  • Saturday, April 24, 4 pm: Spring Term Graduation (webcast details announced soon)
  • Saturday, April 24, 4 pm: 2010 MFA Open Studios (South Campus)
  • Saturday, April 24, 6 pm: Graduation Show

It’s going to be a jam-packed week. Don’t worry—there’s still time to sneak in a nap before the fun begins!

Open Market Sunday

Don’t miss Sunday’s Pasadena Art & Design Open Market at One Colorado. This bi-annual outdoor art market is devoted to selling work by emerging and established artists from Art Center and Pasadena City College. This great event features work by Art Center students, faculty and staff, and is sponsored by Center for the Student Experience, One Colorado and Pasadena City College. Don’t miss it!

Open Market
Sunday, April 11, 10 am-5 pm
One Colorado, Old Town Pasadena

Cinematographer John Toll on Campus Today

Film Department instructor Allen Daviau will host a screening of The Thin Red Line, followed by a Q&A with cinematographer John Toll. Toll’s credits include Almost Famous, Gone Baby Gone, The Last Samurai, Tropic Thunder, It’s Complicated and many others. Toll one of just three cinematographers to win consecutive Oscars for Best Cinematography, for Legends of the Fall (1994) and Braveheart (1995).

The event starts promptly at 1 pm and is open to all Art Center students, faculty, alumni and staff.

John Toll
Thursday, April 8, 1 pm
Ahmanson Auditorium