From the 2012 Art Educator’s Studio

The Art Educator’s Studio, an invite-only residential opportunity for high school art educators, will return for its third year this July.

The weeklong experience allows art educators to invest in their own creative growth, build relationships with their peers and CCAD faculty, learn specific techniques and lessons to take back to the classroom, and take advantage of CCAD facilities.

Last year, the program had participants from across the country, including California, Florida, and New York.

“Our Continuing & Professional Studies office does a great job of creating residency programs over the summer for middle school and high school students considering a future in art. We saw an opportunity for an easy crossover to an entirely different population—high school art educators,” said Paul Ritter, admissions manager at CCAD.

Participants get a residence hall room in CCAD’s Design Square Apartments, meals in the dining hall, workshops with faculty, and their own studio space with faculty input on their studio project.

“One of the appealing factors of the program is that invitees are chosen because of their contributions to the field of art and design. We look at factors such as their student success and recognition on a national level and work to bring educators to campus whose commitment to teaching art and design is evident,” Ritter said.

Marcy Adams’ “Arrangement Number 2″

The small group of participants ensures an intimate environment where educators can have one-on-one classroom and studio experiences with faculty members.

Marcy Adams from Fort Wayne, IN, attended last year’s program and is currently showing the work that she made in the summer studio in the exhibition M.A.C Show at Artlink Contemporary Art Gallery in Fort Wayne.

“It was beneficial to have the studio time at CCAD because I seldom have one week entirely to myself to create art,” Adams said. “I work 50 hours or more a week, maintain a rental business on the side, and I am married with four children.”

Adams used her time at CCAD to create a new body of work and enjoy the one-on-one times with CCAD professors who served as mentors.

She received help in particular from Gordon Lee, professor of Fine Arts, who worked with her on a new technique, which she applied to her existing work.

“I came away from the workshop with a pile of figure drawing sketches, two large-scale drawings, two completed mixed-media works, one animation short, and a few digital drawings. I can continue to develop my drawings into finished works, and I have learned several new techniques that I will utilize in the future,” Adams said.

“Our goal is for each of these participants to go back to their high school classrooms with a refreshed passion for art and a positive testament for their students regarding what CCAD has to offer anyone interested in art and design,” Ritter said.

Ologie created a suite of materials that show that a CCAD degree is anything but impractical.

It’s been a whirlwind six months for CCAD’s admission staff. They welcomed an energetic new director, launched an aggressive series of additional events, and unveiled an exciting suite of fresh recruitment materials—the result:  A notable uptick in applications submitted well before the Feb. 15 priority deadline.

“It’s exciting,” said Densil Porteous, director of admissions, about the rise in applicants. “We tried some new things, and people really responded to them. That is always gratifying.”

Porteous joined CCAD in August and hit the ground running. An early initiative of the office, which Porteous embraced, was the development of a series of new on-campus events called CCAD Discovery Days.

“We had a good problem. Routinely we were seeing that our on-campus admissions events were coming in well over capacity,” said Porteous. “We realized that a large number of prospective students wanted opportunities to engage with the college and so we developed an additional series of events that also included opportunities to discover our city, Columbus, as well as our campus.”

Not only were the new events a huge success but the existing events continue to register to capacity.

Another addition to the admissions tool kit was a new suite of recruitment materials.

“One of our challenges was overcoming the myth of the starving artist,” explained Robin Hepler, CCAD’s director of Marketing & Communications. “The tricky part is showing how an art and design college is a good investment without diluting the creative part of what we do. We need to speak to the practical and the artistic sides of students and parents.”

To help CCAD with this challenge the college engaged Ologie , a nationally recognized branding company owned and operated by alumna Bev Bethge.

In a recent posting Ologie described their approach: “In response, Ologie developed an integrated campaign with several pieces: an eye-catching poster for generating leads, a kit for introducing CCAD to art teachers and guidance counselors, and an oversized viewbook for following up with prospects. The viewbook included a glossary with some 60 potential careers for graduates, making it clear that a CCAD degree is anything but impractical.”

“Ologie gave us several new tools to use,” said Hepler. “One of the things I love most is how they play with our name—taking us beyond Columbus College of Art & Design in a way that is playful and a little quirky.”

Whether prospects responded to the new events or the idea of being part of “Columbus College of Loving What You Do” they responded.

“Not only have we seen more applications, we’ve been really impressed by the quality of work in the portfolios we’ve been reviewing,” said Porteous. “I think the next few weeks are going to be especially exciting as we come up on our Feb. 15 priority deadline. Students who apply by this date will get priority consideration not only for admission, but also for scholarships. It’s going to be a very busy two weeks.”

Learn more about applying to CCAD here. The college is hosting its next CCAD Discovery Days event on Saturday, April 13 (which is also the date for the CCAD Art Fair).