Category Archives: General Interest

Art Matters: Julie Deamer Speaks Tuesday

Julie Deamer will be on campus Tuesday to discuss how artists meaningfully contribute to communities and cultures in a global context as well as how they create civic artwork as sites for public discourse and expression. She’ll also share her thoughts on the role of art in response to social and environmental urgency.

Deamer has a history of creating and guiding successful art venues supporting contemporary artists. In 1995, she founded an exhibition space in San Francisco called Four Walls. Serving as director for five years, she presented enterprising projects by many successful artists exhibiting today. In 2004, Julie founded Outpost for Contemporary Art, a nonprofit residency and exchange program in Los Angeles that promotes cross-cultural exchange by developing international artistic projects that stimulate social interaction between people. She is also executive director of Harpo Foundation, established in 2006 to support under-recognized artists.

The event is free and open to the public.

Art Center’s Office of Career Development and Fine Art Department present:
ART MATTERS: Reconsidering Art’s Purpose, Spaces and Practices
Julie Deamer
Tuesday, March 15, 7-9 p.m.
Hillside Campus Boardroom

Learn to Create. Influence Change.

Art Center President Lorne Buchman unveiled Art Center’s new strategic plan last night to the College community. (Read our live tweets for the event on Twitter.)

The five-year strategic plan represents the culmination of more than a year of deep conversations, brainstorms and working group sessions with the entire Art Center community—students, faculty, staff, alumni, trustees and friends—that explored the intrinsic qualities of the great art and design college of the future. A website has been created as well that will explain the plan and track progress.

Also revealed was the College’s new mission statement: Learn to create. Influence change.

The strategic planning process coincided with the first full year of Buchman’s tenure, as well as the College’s 80th anniversary and related celebrations. The timing of this process gave the community opportunities to consider the College’s distinguished past while embracing the future.

Art Center’s five-year strategic plan offers a roadmap for getting there. The plan is organized into three broad pillars that align with Art Center’s mission: “The Conservatory Spirit,” “Convening Diverse Communities & Disciplines” and “New Spaces for Learning.”

The Conservatory Spirit
The first pillar, “The Conservatory Spirit,” reflects Art Center’s longstanding commitment to serve as the foremost college of higher learning for ambitious artists and designers to master their craft and learn from experts in their respective fields. To ensure Art Center’s programs remain on the leading edge and that students are prepared for leadership in a pluralistic society, the strategic plan calls for the expansion of transdisciplinary learning among students from different disciplines, as well as the creation of new undergraduate, graduate and public programs that will address emerging fields and provide students with additional opportunities for growth.

Convening Diverse Communities & Disciplines
The second pillar, “Convening Diverse Communities & Disciplines,” centers on the need to nurture a diverse and robust College com-munity of students, faculty and staff (in terms of culture, identity and socio-economic status.) Increasing the number of student scholarships is but one vital aspect of creating a more diverse community on campus. In addition, Art Center plans to offer a broader range of disciplines and partnership opportunities with industry and nonprofits that will aid in students’ creative development.

New Spaces for Learning
Equally important, students must have access to the types of learning environments—both physical and online—that will foster collaborations among the various art and design disciplines. The plan’s third pillar, “New Spaces for Learning,” calls for the improvement and development of Art Center’s South Campus in downtown Pasadena as well as a thorough renovation of the College’s Ellwood Building at Hillside Campus to replace outmoded and inefficient systems and materials. The plan also calls for the creation of online education programs and tools to expand and support curriculum and encourage new modes of learning.

Through these various initiatives and resolutions, the strategic plan will position Art Center to shape and define culture, to encourage relevance and social responsibility in art and design, to prepare graduates for leadership roles in society, and to advance learning, research and making. Our collective efforts, together with support from our partners and advocates, will make Art Center the leading college of art and design for the 21st century.

The full text of Art Center’s 2011–16 strategic plan is available online at artcenter.edu/createchange. Also, check out our live tweets from the event.

Tonight: Art Center’s Strategic Plan Unveiled

Join us this evening for a presentation and celebration of the College’s new five-year strategic plan, hosted by Art Center President Lorne Buchman. Can’t attend in person? You’re in luck—the event will be webcast live. You can also follow along on Twitter, via our live Tweets and with #createchange.

Also, the Pasadena Star-News has an article today about the plan: Art Center to unveil new five-year plan, major boost to downtown campus

Create Change: Art Center’s Strategic Plan
Tuesday, March 8, 7:30 p.m.
Hillside Campus
Ahmanson Auditorium
artcenter.edu/webcast

Hollywood Greats Stopping By Campus

It’s shaping up to be an incredible week in the Film Department, as they welcome some amazing guests to campus this week as part of their Distinguished Filmmakers Series.

Tomorrow, March 8, Film Department instructor David Kellogg will host a Q&A with writer/director John Lee Hancock at 1:30 p.m. in the L.A. Times Media Center. Hancock’s credits include The Blind Side, The Alamo and The Rookie. He also wrote the screenplays for Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and A Perfect World.

On Wednesday, March 9, Film Department instructor Lee Rosenbaum will host a Q&A with Oscar-nominated producer Lawrence Turman, whose credits include The Graduate, American History X, Pretty Poison, The Great White Hope, The Thing, Mass Appeal, Short Circuit, The River Wild and many others. Turman is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors, and is a member of the Producers Guild Hall of Fame. The talk will be held at 12:30 p.m. at the L.A. Times Media Center.

And on Thursday, March 10, Film Department instructor Allen Daviau will hosting five-time Oscar nominated cinematographer Owen Roizman, whose credits include The French Connection, The Exorcist, The Stepford Wives, Three Dys of the Condor, Network, Absence of Malice, Tootsie, Grand Canyon, Wyatt Earp and many others. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Govenors, Roizman has directed and photographed hundreds of television commercials. In 1997, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Cinematographers. The talk will be at 1 p.m. at Ahmanson Auditorium.

All three events are open to all Art Center students, alumni, faculty and staff.

Always Carry Your Reel: The Journey from Poland to an Oscar-Winning Career

The path to becoming an Academy Award-winning cinematographer sounds so easy when he talks about it before a packed auditorium of Art Center students, faculty and staff.

Kamiński

Yesterday, award-winning cinematographer Janusz Kamiński was on campus to speak as part of the Film Department’s Distinguished Filmmakers Series. Faculty member Allen Daviau hosted the Q&A with the two-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer and director. Some of the most fascinating people in film come to campus as part of the series, and Kamiński was no exception.

Kamiński grew up in Poland, with his love of movies beginning as a boy. After immigrating to Chicago, Kaminski had a choice: becoming a laborer, or pursue an education. He chose film school.

After attending Columbia College (not associated with Columbia University) he moved to Los Angeles and completed his MFA at the American Film Institute. Kamiński had a friend who worked as an assistant to Diane Keaton, and after the actress viewed his reel, she hired Kamiński to film Wildflower, a made-for-TV movie.

Famed director Steven Spielberg saw Wildflower, and was interested in how quickly it was shot. He went on to hire Kaminski to film the award-winning Schindler’s List, and Kamiński has filmed every Spielberg movie since. And a few others, too.

The talk began with a viewing of the first and last ten minutes of Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. The beginning of the film is shot entirely from the viewpoint of Bauby, waking from a three-week coma. The end of the film again retreats into his world, depicting his reality as his brain begins misfiring and starts to shut down. The scenes used selective focus, skewed framing and hand cranking to portray the world as seen through Bauby’s one eye.

Kamiński noted that the film was much more linear between the opening and closing scenes. While the images were powerful and the story allowed for such unconventional techniques, he advised against going in this direction for too long or you lose the audience: “I was not interested in making an art film.”

Kamiński said he was grateful to work with Schnabel, who was not interested in conventional story telling and who had a sophisticated visual sense. “Most directors would have made a soppy, sentimental movie, Kamiński said. “I know I would have. I love sentimentality.”

Kamiński’s advice to students:

  • “You have to be very proactive with how you get jobs. I always had my demo reel with me. I didn’t always have a car but I had my reel.”
  • “Don’t be careful; just do it now. Be careful later.”
  • “Watch the world around you. Notice how the light changes during the day. How are you going to create that world on a screen?”

And on working with Spielberg:

  • “I have spent more time with him than with my previous two wives.”

Doyald Young, 1926-2011

Young

It is with deep sadness that we report of the passing of Doyald Young, beloved teacher, lettering and logotype designer, friend and mentor. Young passed away yesterday due to complications following a recent heart operation. He graduated from Art Center with a degree in Advertising in 1955.

“Doyald was a gifted artist, an astonishingly powerful teacher and well-deserving of the many accolades he received during his illustrious career,” said Art Center President Lorne Buchman. “We honored Doyald at Art Center last December with a Lifetime Achievement Award, and we bestowed upon him an honorary doctorate of humane letters. The double entendre was not lost on the Art Center community.

“Indeed, Doyald, the great human being and the brilliant artist,  infused in every exquisite font and letterform he created his immense and passionate humanity. We deeply mourn the passing of our dear and wonderful friend.”

There is a memorial planned for April 10 — Young Love, a Day of Drawing Beautiful Curves in Memory of Doyald Young. Details forthcoming.

Meanwhile, check out this tribute blog created by Graphic Design student and ACSG President Erik Molano. It’s a treasure trove of personal accounts, anecdotes and links celebrating Young’s life and work: doyaldyoung.blogspot.com.

Also, remember him with us by watching the video below, created by Lynda.com late last year:

Focus Screening Saturday

Mike Ross

Broadcast Cinema student, filmmaker Steve Hwang, is bringing an interesting topic to the big screen: a feature-length documentary on professional gamer Mike Ross.

For Focus, Hwang followed Ross throughout 2010 as he travelled the country, competing in Street Fighter 4 contests and preparing for the big tournament.

The film premieres tomorrow evening at Hillside Campus. Admission is free, and you can RSVP here. Check out the trailer below.

3×3 Tonight!

Don’t miss tonight’s lecture, hosted by the Graphic Design Department: 3×3: Transmedia Design: Communication Design Across Space, Time and Behavior.

Hear from three pioneers who navigate uncharted communication design territory. They engage space through narrative environments, engage time through motion and behavior programming and engage language in traditional and interactive formats and combine all of this into compelling transmedia design.

Tonight’s lecture features:

Aaron Koblin, an artist specializing in data visualization. His work has been recognized by the National Science Foundation, and is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Koblin is technology lead of Google’s Creative Lab in San Francisco, and shows work at international exhibitions and galleries.

Dan Goods, visual strategist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he has drilled a hole into a grain of sand, created installations out of aerogel, and is currently trying to put an object on a spacecraft going to Jupiter. In the evenings he works on commissions, such as eCloud.

Brad Bartlett, who earned his master’s degree in design from Cranbrook Academy of Art. His work at Cranbrook exploring the relationship of media and culture was presented at MIT and Fabrica of Benetton in Italy. He was selected as New Visual Artist by Print Magazine before establishing a small, multidisciplinary design studio in Los Angeles in 1999. In Art Center’s Graphic Design program, he teaches the wildly successful Typography 4: Transmedia studio.

The lecture, held in the L.A. Times Media Center, begins at 7 p.m. and is open to the public.

3×3: Transmedia Design: Communication Design Across Space, Time and Behavior
Thursday, Feb. 24, 7-9 p.m.
L.A. Times Media Center

More From Meet the Presidents

Molano and Buchman

On Monday, Art Center Student Government (ACSG) hosted a “Meet the Presidents” event in the College’s cafeteria for Art Center students.

The event provided students an opportunity to hear directly from Art Center President Lorne Buchman and ACSG President Erik Molano on changes they could expect to see in the immediate future, and also offered a sneak preview of Art Center’s new strategic plan, which will be presented to the College’s Board of Trustees later today.

Today: Origins of the strategic plan, the Sinclaire Pavilion, and staying in touch with ACSG.

Lorne Buchman on the origins of the strategic plan:

“I came to Art Center 18 months ago and brought a central question to the community: What does a great art and design school of the 21st century need to be to serve its students, and provide the best education possible? Great institutions ask these kinds of questions. They ask them regularly, and they ask them rigorously.

“Asking this kind of question is how you stay responsive to a world that is changing and evolving. That applies to institutions as much as it applies to artists, designers and teachers. And that was the question that we went forward with.”

Continue reading →

Ducha Halo Up for Award: Vote Today!

The National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA)’s Open Minds video competition is now underway—and Art Center students Narbeh Dereghishian and Jessica Yeh need your vote!

The annual Open Minds contest features cutting-edge innovation by students from around the country.

This year, 15 teams have been selected to participate in the high-profile event, which involves an exhibition and video competition held in partnership with Inventors Digest.

Product Design student Dereghishian and Environmental Design student Yeh have been nominated for their Ducha Halo, a low-cost, portable shower designed in 2009’s Designmatters Safe Agua studio.

Check out their video, and vote for it, at the Inventors Digest site. Voting lasts through March 14. Winners will be announced March 26 at the Open Minds event, held at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

Good luck, Narbeh and Jessica!