Mission
“CCAD fosters a community that educates diverse students so they can unleash their creative power to shape culture and commerce.”
CCAD will be recognized as a top-tier college of art and design, a cultural leader, and the engine of Columbus’ creative economy. CCAD will have a global reputation for delivering an innovative and relevant creative educational experience of value to its students, alumni, and society.
Mark of honor
In 2001, CCAD made a mark on the city skyline with their giant ART sculpture. The piece is 100 feet tall, 101 feet wide and weighs 24,000 pounds. (It also has zero bad angles when it comes to taking selfies.) The sculpture came to be after RicPetry, now Director of Graduate Studies, joked that CCAD should build a giant ART sign inspired by 1950s diners. Then President Denny Griffith liked the idea. So they got a giant ART sign that serves, as Denny said, “as a beacon for the arts in Columbus and beyond.”
Précis:
Founded in 1879, Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD), in downtown Columbus, Ohio, is one of the oldest private art and design colleges in the United States, offering majors in art and design that produce graduates equipped to shape culture and business at the highest level. CCAD and Columbus are a powerful combination: CCAD provides the education, and the city provides networking opportunities that launch careers in both the local and international creative industry.
Students are encouraged to think, create, and work at the highest level in a dozen undergraduate majors: Advertising & Graphic Design, Animation, Cinematic Arts, Comics & Narrative Practice, Contemporary Crafts, Fashion Design, Fine Arts, History of Art & Visual Culture, Illustration, Industrial Design, Interior Design, and Photography. CCAD’s alumni network and partnerships help their students to land jobs right out of college — in 2015, 84% of the college graduates were employed or involved in further education within six months of graduation.CCAD alumni can be found all over the globe and in all types of companies, including American Greetings, DreamWorks, General Electric, General Motors, Nike, and Paramount. CCAD grads also land prestigious residencies, such as Skowhegan, and create work that can be seen in galleries around the world.
Scholarly Courses:
CCAD is a liberal platform for core studies with classes provided in CORE Liberal Arts Instruction, CORE Studio, Honors classes, and study abroad opportunities. Students can also minor in a variety of studies, including Business.In addition to its undergraduate majors, CCAD providesgraduate degrees for students to continue to pursueand refine their studies.
CCAD’s two-year, 60-hour Master of Fine Arts inVisual Arts curriculum allows students to design,create and explain a project with one-on-onefeedback from select faculties and industryprofessionals. Study culminates with an exhibition at the college. CCAD’s Master of Design in Integrative Design provides talented designers and professionals with the tools to achieve leadership roles in organizations and create new businesses.
Columbus College of Art & Design also offers non-degree Saturday Morning Art Classes for children and adults.
Dr. Melanie Corn:
Dr. Melanie Corn became CCAD’s President in 2016 — the first woman President in the history of CCAD (and one of only six women serving as presidents of member institutions of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design). Dr. Corn’s academic and pedagogic work combines interests in contemporary visual culture and theories of gender and sexuality, and her graduate art history works are focused on the visual crisis surrounding the AIDS epidemic. She received her BA in Art History from Stanford University, her MA in Art History from University of California Santa Barbara where she also completed doctoral coursework and exams, and her EdD in Higher Education Management from University of Pennsylvania. Prior to her arrival at CCAD, Dr. Corn was provost (Senior Vice president of Academic Affairs) for California College of the Arts in San Francisco.
A strong believer in the power of art and design to impact the world, Dr. Corn has been actively engaged throughout her career in leading change, solving complex problems and creating solutions in the art and design school environment.ce.
Student Opportunities:
CCAD MindMarket gives students a chance to work on realworld projects with companies and organizations while in school, giving them the opportunity to learn and lead design processes, and providing partners the kind of unique and innovative thinking they can only get from CCAD.
Students have the opportunity to work closely with professionals in their fields, and can compete against peers and professionals in events such as the FirstBuildHackathon (Industrial Design) and the American Advertising Awards (Advertising & Graphic Design). Students also can exhibit and screen their work in off-campus venues, as well as in on-campus events such as Chroma: Best of CCAD and the Senior Fashion Show.
CCAD’s Career Services offers opportunities to meet future employers at internship and job fairs, through one-on-one career advising, job readiness workshops, help with resumes, and much more. The twice-annual juried Art Fair provides students and alumni the opportunity to sell their work to a crowd of eager art buyers.
CCAD’s Student Government Association and the Student Involvement and Orientation Office provide for fun and learning outside of the classroom as well as programming such as bringing comedians to campus, holding talent shows, and facilitating cultural, academic, religious, social, and recreational opportunities.
Awards & Recognitions:
Graphic Design USA has named CCAD one of the top design colleges in the country. CCAD’s Animation program has been named No. 5 in the Midwest. CCAD was named Best Value Art School by Pay Scale. CCAD’s Fashion Design program contributes to Columbus’ standing as the No. 3 city in the U.S. for fashion designers. And Ohio was recently named one of the top 10 arts and culture employers in the nation by the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Financial Aids and Scholarships:
The idea of financing your college education seem overwhelming — it’s a major investment. CCAD encourages an individual’s investment in his/her work and passionand envisions revolutionary changes those contributions will bring to the art and design world. They offer two types of institutional scholarships: academic scholarships and merit scholarships. These are based on academic qualifications such as grades and test scores, on your major and on the talent exhibited in your creative portfolio.
