Learn to create. Influence change. This is our mission statement—and our answer to how art and design impact our global society. Part call-to-action. Part promise. All opportunity.
ArtCenter College of Design offers a new model for art and design education in the 21st century. Our visionary approach is based on the College's conservatory-like approach to teaching and learning a desire for productive, intercultural, and transdisciplinary dialogue. It is also a mandate to provide students with innovative learning and making spaces.
Founded in 1930 and located in Pasadena, California, ArtCenter College of Design is a global leader in art and design education. With a current enrollment of approximately 2,100 students (53% female and 47% male, representing more than 40 countries), the College has a student/faculty ratio of 9 to 1. ArtCenter offers 11 undergraduate and seven graduate degrees in a wide array of industrial design, visual and applied arts disciplines and a joint MS/MBA program with the Drucker School of Management and a minor in Social Innovation through the Designmatters program.
In addition to its top-ranked academic programs, the College also serves residents of the Greater Los Angeles region through a highly regarded series of year-round educational programs for all ages and levels of experience. Throughout the College's long and storied history, ArtCenter alumni have profoundly impacted popular culture, the way we live, and essential issues in our society.
ArtCenter is a private nonprofit fully accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) and the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD). Renowned for both its ties to industry and social impact initiatives, the College is the first design school to receive the United Nations' Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status.
We want you to thrive at ArtCenter. We're here to provide the resources to help you adjust to College life and optimize your experience. Even before you arrive on campus, our programs and services are designed to help you get the most from your time. As a student, you will discover numerous ways to get involved with the College community, whether by developing your leadership skills, participating in student clubs and organizations, volunteering with local groups, or tapping Southern California's vast cultural resources.
ArtCenter has a long history of building strong industry partnerships with employers from around the world.ArtCenter alumni become part of this professional network, creating a path into companies and studios across all disciplines.
Our alumni and industry network provides students with access to internship opportunities in some of the best studios across the country and around the world. Students are strongly encouraged to engage in these off-site experiences that allow them to work directly with professional mentors and gain firsthand knowledge of the industry and their craft.
ArtCenter students will work in settings requiring influential art and design skills and leadership skills and the ability to collaborate with others who do not always share similar life experiences, values, or histories. The CSE supports student learning of these complementary skills by offering educational opportunities that better prepare students for successful careers and meaningful lives. These opportunities are most prevalent each term through participation in campus life, committees, student organizations, ArtCenter Student Government, and the Orientation Leader experience.
Students interested in becoming Orientation Leaders can apply for a paid position at the beginning of each term. The Orientation Leader experience includes training on College services, policies, and programs, and opportunities for social networking, mentorship, and connections to College departments. Student leaders are hired each term based on the size of the incoming class and need per significant department.
Student Leadership Education and Development (SLED) Grants are designed to catalyze ArtCenter students' opportunities that directly shape their development in and out of the classroom. The fund is intended to support co-curricular activities that complement a student's learning but are not linked to any educational endeavors for credit or certification at ArtCenter. The hope is that students will develop leadership competencies and amplify their exposure and engagement to a variety of topics and issues relevant to College-wide educational outcomes. The fund is explicitly focused on enabling students to participate in off-campus activities such as educational conferences, workshops, service learning projects for the community, and other initiatives that demonstrate the potential for learning leadership skills, educational growth in a field of their interest, and networking.
Like many ideas emerging from ArtCenter throughout the decades, the very concept for such a school was visionary. Edward A. "Tink" Adams was an advertising man with a radical idea in education: to teach real-world skills to artists and designers and prepare them for leadership roles in advertising, publishing, and industrial design. To achieve that, he would create a faculty of working professionals from those fields. ArtCenter opened in 1930 with Adams serving as its director.
The viability of the idea he and a small group of colleagues launched was quickly proven. Even amid the Great Depression, ArtCenter graduates quickly found employment.
In the years since the caliber of our faculty and visiting artists have been extraordinary: Ansel Adams taught photography here on a visit to campus, Keith Haring painted a mural science fiction author Bruce Sterling was the College's first "Visionary in Residence." Our alumni include many of the world's leading car designers, contemporary filmmakers (Man of Steel, Transformers, The Vow), ad makers ("Thatsa one spicy meatball," "Got Milk?"), concept illustrators, (The Avengers, Star Wars), artists (The Blue Dog), product designers (Apple monitor, Oakley Zeros, Kikoman soy sauce dispenser) and others who have shaped culture with their talents and vision.
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