Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD) has opened its new Center for Creative Collaboration, a 27,000-square-foot hub designed to bring students, faculty, businesses, and community partners together to learn, make, and solve real-world challenges through creativity.
The Center transforms the historic Battelle Hall on CCAD’s downtown campus with a complete renovation, including an 8,000-square-foot addition. New fabrication and design innovation labs, flexible studios, and collaborative spaces give students across CCAD’s programs greater opportunities to work across disciplines, while also expanding the college’s capacity to serve as a creative resource for central Ohio. Outside, new green space provides a place for the CCAD community and downtown neighbors to gather, relax, and connect, while transforming a former surface parking lot into a more welcoming gateway to campus.
“Columbus is growing, and creativity is an essential part of what will keep our region innovative, competitive, and a place where people want to live and work,” said CCAD President Dr. Melanie Corn. “The Center for Creative Collaboration is an investment in our students, but it’s also an investment in Columbus. It gives our students extraordinary spaces to learn and make while creating new opportunities for CCAD to share our creative talent and expertise with organizations and communities throughout the region.”
That work is already well established at CCAD. Since expanding its focus on experiential learning in 2019, CCAD has facilitated more than 300 partnerships with local and regional organizations, with students and faculty contributing nearly 300,000 hours of work to central Ohio’s creative economy. CCAD's curriculum is designed to ensure 100% student participation in professional-level, real-world experiential learning.
Those collaborations put students to work on real challenges alongside organizations across industries. CCAD students partnered with Airstream to research, design, and build a full-scale prototype for an ultra-light travel trailer, while a multiyear collaboration with 99P Labs, backed by Honda and The Ohio State University, explored the future of mobility. Other partners have included Cardinal Health, JPMorgan Chase, Pelotonia, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Greater Columbus Arts Council, and Huntington Bank. The impact continues after graduation: CCAD alumni provide creative, research, design, and innovation talent to employers throughout the region, including all five Fortune 500 companies headquartered in metropolitan Columbus.
The Center creates more capacity for this work. Organizations partnering with CCAD are already using the building for research sessions, project meetings, and collaborative work alongside students and faculty.
“CCAD is a tremendous resource for creative talent, expertise, and ideas, and we want organizations throughout our region to see us as a partner,” said Vice President of Institutional Engagement Chris Mundell. “The Center gives us more capacity to bring organizations together with our students and faculty to solve real challenges, develop talent, and build partnerships that benefit both our students and our community."
Students across majors are already taking classes and working in the Center’s new Fabrication Lab, Metal Shop, Woodworking Lab, and other collaborative spaces, with access to state-of-the-art tools including laser cutters, 3D printers, and CNC equipment.
The Center also expands CCAD’s nearly 150-year tradition of making art and design education accessible to the region through extensive community classes for artists of all ages. Select Saturday Art Classes for kids, teens, and adults are being held in the new building this fall, with expanded making spaces creating opportunities for CCAD to grow community programming.
The majority of the $15 million project was supported through CCAD’s recently concluded Here for Change: A Campaign for The CCAD Way, which raised $25.6 million and became the most successful comprehensive fundraising campaign in the college’s history. The project also received significant public support, including $1.4 million from the City of Columbus and $1 million in federal funding secured through U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty. Additional support from Franklin County and the State of Ohio further strengthened the project’s public funding partnership.
Organizations interested in working with CCAD can learn more about opportunities to access creative talent, expertise, and educational resources at ccad.edu/workwithus, or explore sponsored and collaborative student projects at ccad.edu/career-services/employers-collaborators.
Media interested in touring the Center for Creative Collaboration or speaking with CCAD leadership may contact Senior Director of Communications Renee LeGendre at [email protected].
