Alberta College of Art and Design
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| Alberta College of Art and Design | |
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| Established: | 1973 |
| President: | Lance Carlson |
| Location: | Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
| Campus: | Urban |
| Headcount: | 1115 [1] as of fall 2005 |
| Website: | acad.ca |
The Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD) is located in Calgary on the North Hill overlooking the Bow River and the downtown skyline, in a 245,000 square foot (23,000 m²) building designed to house the college in 1973. ACAD's close proximity to downtown and The University of Calgary, via the C-Train (Calgary's light rail transit) provides students with easy access to the city's galleries, museums and cultural events. Current President and CEO of ACAD is Lance Carlson. The Alberta College of Art & Design is one of only four degree-granting, publicly-funded Art & Design colleges in Canada, the others being the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design in Vancouver, the Ontario College of Art & Design in Toronto and the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design in Halifax.
ACAD offers programs in the Fine Arts, Crafts, Graphic Design, and New Media. ACAD is committed to a solid studio-based experience for students - an experience balanced with relevant, complementary liberal studies and practical theory. The result is a rigorous studio program, which produces innovative thinkers, creative problem solvers, and visually talented students. ACAD creates a learning environment rich in character and extensive in quantity, quality and professional capability for its student body of artistic thinkers.
ACAD studios are extremely spacious and classes are small, allowing for regular one-on-one interaction. Faculty and space-per-student ratios are among the best in the country. Within this environment, students receive the techniques, tools, intellectual stimulation and encouragement to discover and develop their own personal voice and passion.
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[edit] History
Founded in 1926, ACAD has been a major contributor to Canada's visual culture in the 20th century, with many of its graduates gaining significant national and international reputations as artists and designers. With an annual budget approaching $12 million, and employing over 150 staff, ACAD provides accredited degree-standard education and learning opportunities to more than 1000 students enrolled in full- and part-time studies in a wide range of Art & Design studio disciplines together with academic study in the history of Art & Design, theory and criticism and related subject areas. Additionally, approximately 1500 students are registered each year in Continuing Education courses, including 700 in children's programs.
ACAD has had an important presence in the educational post-secondary sector in Alberta and, in 2001, celebrated its 75th anniversary. Originally part of the Provincial Institute of Technology and Arts (now SAIT), the Alberta College of Art, as it was then known, separated from SAIT in 1985 to become designated by the Alberta Government as an entirely autonomous and free-standing Art & Design college within the public sector. In 1995 the College amended its name to the Alberta College of Art & Design in order to acknowledge the separateness and importance of design education at the College.
In 1995, the ACAD was granted degree accreditation by the Alberta Government's Ministry of Advanced Education and Career Development. Since that time the College has been able to grant Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees to those students who successfully complete the BFA requirements of the College's four-year programs.
In 2000, the College was further granted authority by the Alberta Government's Ministry of Learning to award a Bachelor of Design degree to those students studying Design for their degree. This recent approval signifies an important step by the College in clarifying the distinction between Design as a discipline and those of the Fine Arts, and now provides the College with two degree programs. More recently, in 2004 the college received a new mandate from the province authorizing the offering of graduate degrees; as of January 2007 degree proposals are being prepared. The current President and CEO is Lance Carlson.
[edit] Programs
Throughout its long history the College has offered undergraduate education in a wide variety of Art & Design disciplines. In both degree streams, either Bachelor of Fine Arts or Bachelor of Design, students taking their degree will major in one of these studio disciplines. This major is chosen by students as they exit their second year of study, or on entering the College by "direct entry" from another institution. Typically this is done in either the second year or the third year. The chosen major discipline that students elect to concentrate their degree studies in will be supplemented throughout their degree program by a required liberal studies program and the provision of electives from other subject areas that a student may wish to take in addition to their major discipline.
[edit] Bachelors of Fine Arts (BFA) Programs
- Ceramics
- Drawing
- Fibre
- Glass
- Jewellery and Metals
- Media Arts and Digital Technologies
- Painting
- Print Media
- Sculpture
[edit] Bachelor of Design (BDes) Programs
- Visual Communications Design (VCD) - VCD is composed of four separate streams. At the end of second year, VCD students choose a stream in which to specialize in.
- Advertising Stream
- Graphic Design Stream
- Illustration Design Stream
- Character Design Stream
- Photography
[edit] Faculty Highlights
Past and present faculty have included noted artists such as: Chris Cran, Laura Vickerson, Don Mabie (a.k.a. Chuck Stake), Alan Dunning, Mark Dicey, Derek Michael Besant, Don Simmons, Joanne Bristol, Katie Ohe, Kay Burns, Dick Averns, Don Kottmann, Mitch Kern, and Rita McKeough.
- Liberal Studies: Judy Sterner and Gregory Scorfield
- Fine Arts: Laurel Johannesson, Norman Faulkner, and Derek Besant
- Visual Communications Design: Kevin Kurytnik, Xerxes Irani, and Eugene Ouchi
- Media Arts and Digital Technologies: Mary Scott, Daniel Dugas, Valerie Leblanc, Brett Pawson, and Alan Dunning
- First Year Studies: Bill Rodgers, Dave Casey, Tim Zuck, Gord Ferguson, Mark Mullin
[edit] Alumni
Several members of the United Congress, a well-known Calgary Artist Collective attended ACAD in the 1980's.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ ACAD Annual Report 2005-2006. Retrieved on 2007-10-11.
[edit] External links
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| Universities | Alberta · Athabasca · Calgary · Lethbridge |
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| Public Colleges | Art and Design · Bow Valley · Grande Prairie · Grant MacEwan · Keyano · Lakeland · Lethbridge · Medicine Hat · Mount Royal · NorQuest · Northern Lakes · Olds · Portage · Red Deer | |
| Technical institutes | NAIT · SAIT | |
| See also: Education in Alberta · School boards | ||
