Columbus College of Art & Design launches Here for Change, a $20M comprehensive campaign to fuel college growth and success
COLUMBUS, Ohio—Columbus College of Art & Design has launched Here for Change: A Campaign for The CCAD Way, a $20 million comprehensive campaign that will significantly support student scholarships, faculty excellence and student success, and campus enhancements.
Guided by years of planning and CCAD’s current strategic plan, The CCAD Way, the $20 million campaign supports the people, programs, and places that animate CCAD’s distinctive approach to creative education. Campaign efforts will strengthen CCAD’s ability to attract the most creative students to central Ohio; recruit and retain outstanding professors; and improve learning opportunities and education spaces for students and faculty, as well as community collaboration.
“Central Ohio has benefitted from CCAD for more than 140 years, from its students and alumni, its community education offerings and gallery programming, and its cultural impact in the form of artists and designers who open local businesses, fuel creative problem solving at organizations big and small, and make our city beautiful,” said Dr. Melanie Corn, president. “We’re asking folks to support the creative CCAD community members who propel our region forward and make our city a better place to live, work, and play. ”
The three Here for Change pillars include:
- Student scholarships, $5 million. Scholarships allow students to fulfill the promise of their potential, and in the process, change lives. Campaign funds will create new named merit- and need-based student scholarships to attract and retain the most creative students and reduce financial burdens so students can focus on their studies.
- Faculty excellence and student success, $5 million. Faculty excellence and student success create a more prestigious college and bring highly talented creatives to our region, many of whom make their home here and contribute to the region’s cultural fabric. Campaign funds will establish CCAD’s first endowed faculty chair, create new endowed faculty positions, and expand campus services and programs that support students and our entire CCAD community.
- Campus enhancements, $10 million. Creatively solving today’s complex challenges requires best-in-class equipment and modern facilities. Campaign funds will open the Center for Creative Collaboration, a new interdisciplinary makerspace and collaboration hub including flexible classrooms and project-based learning labs; funds will also modernize campus infrastructure, tools, and technologies.
The Center for Creative Collaboration will not only serve as a makerspace for the CCAD community, but will also foster collaboration between the college and local businesses and nonprofits. Located at the corner of East Gay Street and Washington Avenue, on the college campus eastern border and across from the Columbus Museum of Art, the renovated and expanded building will function as a secondary, east entrance to CCAD’s campus, contributing to downtown revitalization efforts and serving as a dynamic gathering space for the Columbus creative community.
“CCAD graduates a new creative class every year that is essential to supporting a creative, diverse central Ohio workforce capable of envisioning the future and problem solving to meet it,” said Gil Cloyd, Board of Trustees member and Here for Change campaign chair. “Supporting CCAD means supporting the vitality of our region.”
“Meeting tomorrow’s business, environmental, and societal challenges first requires a creative mind who can look ahead to envision what that new problem might be. Those creative minds are here at CCAD,” said Corn.
To contribute to Here for Change, contact the CCAD Development office at 614.222.3232 or email [email protected]. Learn more at hereforchange.ccad.edu.
