Tag Archives: Lorne Buchman

New Standing Committee Created

Guest post by Art Center President Lorne Buchman

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

Last fall, I launched an important conversation regarding diversity through a forum with Dr. Daryl Smith, a leading national scholar in higher education diversity theory and research. The intention was to bring College leadership together to explore the values of diversity and inclusion as central to academic excellence and institutional mission.

Synchronized to align with the development of our new strategic plan, the forum was an important beginning in developing a common understanding of institutional diversity and inclusion. In the final plan itself, these values have been anchored at the center of our educational mission—precisely where they belong. Create Change recognizes the critical responsibility of developing professionals, leaders, and citizens able to thrive in and contribute to a changing and pluralistic society.

To implement and monitor relevant aspects of the strategic plan, I am pleased to announce that I have established a new standing committee for the College—the Council on Diversity and Inclusion. Parallel to Art Center’s Budget Committee, and Facilities & Technology Committee, the council will be a standing shared governance committee of the College. The responsibility of the Council on Diversity and Inclusion is to realize the strategies outlined in our new plan through ongoing oversight in measuring progress toward achieving our objectives.

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Doyald Young Memorial Scholarship Established

Young

Award-winning graphic and logotype designer, alumnus, mentor and revered faculty member Doyald Young, who passed away in February, will be honored by his alma mater with the Doyald Young Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship, which will be available to incoming and current Graphic Design students, was announced at Young Love, a celebration of Young’s life and legacy taking place at the College last weekend. With enough support, the College intends to endow the scholarship to benefit its students in perpetuity.

“Shortly before his passing, Doyald said, ‘If you have the gift of teaching, you must pass it on,’” Art Center President Lorne Buchman says. “In establishing the Doyald Young Memorial Scholarship, it is our hope that we honor the generosity and strength of a gifted artist and powerful teacher—and encourage others in that same spirit of giving to ensure his legacy in the next generation.”

Young taught lettering and logotype design in Art Center’s Graphic Design Department for decades. His freelance work included logotypes for hotels, clubs, universities, financial institutions, arts, entertainment and practically every other industry. He created several corporate and commercial fonts and published three books about his work: Logotypes & Letterforms, Fonts & Logos and Dangerous Curves.

Young was named Inaugural Master of the School by Art Center in 2001, named a Fellow of the Los Angeles chapter of AIGA in 2006, received an AIGA Medal in 2009 and received an honorary doctorate degree of humane letters from Art Center in 2010. His life story and immeasurable talent was also documented by lynda.com as part of their 2010 “Creative Inspirations” series. Young received his formal education at Frank Wiggins Trade School and Art Center.

Individuals interested in making donations to the scholarship can donate online, or contact Senior Development Officer Palencia Turner at 626.396.2366 or palencia.turner@artcenter.edu.

Creating Our Future Through Art Center’s Strategic Plan


What does the great art and design school of the 21st century look like? How can it best serve its students?

Last year, the Art Center community came together to find out. Through an all-inclusive visioning process, we addressed the challenges of making our distinctive education cutting-edge and pertinent—the what, where and why—and envisioned Art Center’s future.

The result of this process is Art Center’s 2011-2016 strategic plan, unveiled last week to the College community. The five-year plan both honors Art Center’s distinguished 80-year history and imagines its future.  It shapes our core values into a new model for art and design education for the 21st century—one that ensures continuing excellence, relevance and impact for decades to come.

We sat down with College president Lorne Buchman to find out more about the strategic plan, how it came about, and what it means to the Art Center community.

Dotted Line: Why was it important to involve the entire Art Center community in the visioning process?
Lorne Buchman: Art Center has a reputation for being incredibly rigorous with our students—it’s key to the quality and the kind of education that we offer. One of the wonderful things about the planning process was that it was a chance for us as an institution to be as rigorous with ourselves as we are with our students.

In coming up with this strategic plan, we felt it was really important that everyone—alumni, students, faculty, staff, Trustees—participate in the planning process that culminated in the plan. The College is filled with brilliant, creative, wonderful people who care deeply about this institution, and who have the power to design their future. The spirit of this planning process proceeded as such.

Dotted Line: And a new College mission statement came out of the process as well?
Buchman: Yes. I’ve never loved a mission statement, but I love this one: “Learn to create. Influence change.” It’s such a profound educational philosophy, and what our College is about.

Dotted Line: Why was a strategic plan necessary?
Buchman: There is a new ecology of learning going on. Higher education is changing incredibly rapidly. Our students are changing—they’re different than they were five, even 10 years ago. We must be attuned and responsive to these things.

Dotted Line: In what ways have students changed?
Buchman: Our students are coming to us with a real kind of social consciousness.  I think the success of Designmatters demonstrates this rather well. Students are coming to Art Center with the goal of finding meaningful work after graduation. They understand that what they do as artists and designers has ramifications for all communities and corners of the world. They can lend a way of thinking, creating, solving problems and addressing issues. That’s very deep and profound, and it opens up a new kind of knowledge. It’s our duty to help them in this pursuit.

Dotted Line: One of the plan’s key pillars is the Conservatory Spirit, which isn’t a term one usually applies to an art and design school. Can you elaborate?
Buchman: The idea of Art Center as a conservatory has its roots in the school’s history. This has always been a place that prepares students for creative and career success. Akin to Juilliard, we provide the highest caliber of education, we employ a professional faculty who bring a sense of real-world relevance to the classroom environment and we offer programs that meet the demands of society—all to ensure artists and designers have a place in the world. This is where the conservatory spirit comes from.

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Statement on Japan by Art Center President Buchman

On behalf of the Art Center College of Design community, I would like to express our deep concern for the impact the devastating earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan has had on all those affected by these tragic events.

Art Center has maintained close ties with Japan since the 1950s when the first design students sponsored by JETRO came to study at the College. In recent years, students from Tama Art University and Art Center have collaborated on several projects, including a study on earthquake safety, in an effort to design more effective approaches to education, preparedness and recovery. As we hear the news of this catastrophe, we are reminded of the common ties that bind those of us along the Pacific Rim.

Our shared vulnerability compels us to offer comfort; our long history provides a pathway to deliver it. Please know that we are reaching out to our many alumni, corporate and academic partners in Japan so that we can lend support where it is most needed. At the same time, we have dedicated resources to assist those students, faculty and staff on campus who are coping with losses from these events.

As the effects of Friday’s earthquake continue to unfold, our friends in Japan are foremost in our thoughts.  We mourn those who were lost and send our heartfelt wishes for a rapid recovery to all who survived.

Sincerely,

Lorne Buchman
President
Art Center College of Design

Image by designer Nick Nawroth. Prints are available for purchase, with half of the proceeds donated to the American Red Cross relief efforts in Japan.

* Editor’s note 3/16: Nawroth has contacted us to let us know that 100% of proceeds will be going to Japan relief efforts.

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.

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.”

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Students Spend Presidents Day with the Presidents

ACSG President Erik Molano, left, and College president Lorne Buchman

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

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 them a sneak preview of Art Center’s new strategic plan, which will be presented to the College’s board of trustees later this week.

Over the next few days, we’ll provide highlights from the conversation.

Today: Lorne Buchman on changes at Art Center.

On funding scholarships and technology:

“Art Center delivers an education that is very expensive to deliver. It’s high in equipment, high in labor and there’s a lot of team teaching. The cost of educating each of you is actually greater than the tuition that is paid.

“A huge part of my job is to find the philanthropy and scholarships that are going to help with this, not only to cover the gap, but to be sensitive to the enormous financial commitment that you are making as students. I think about this all day. Sometimes I think about it all night.”

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Meet the Presidents This President’s Day

This President’s Day, the Art Center Student Government (ACSG) is giving Art Center students the chance to speak with two Art Center presidents—College president Lorne Buchman and ACSG president Erik Molano.

The event will present a forum for students to ask questions and discuss various issues, in addition to learning more about the future of the College.

See you there, students!

ACSG Meet the Presidents
Monday, Feb. 21, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
Art Center Café
Hillside Campus

Art Center Media Minute

Some recent media coverage featuring Art Center, our faculty, students and alumni: