Motto | Think. Do. Reflect. |
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Type | Private |
Established | 1879 |
President | Dr. Melanie Corn |
Academic staff
|
180 full-time |
Undergraduates | 1,350 |
Postgraduates | 32 |
Location | Columbus, USA |
Campus | Urban |
Affiliations | AICAD |
Website | www.ccad.edu |
University rankings | |
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National | |
U.S. News & World Report | 82 |
Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD) is a private college of art and design located in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Founded in 1879 as the Columbus Art School, CCAD is one of the oldest private art and design colleges in the United States. Located in downtown Columbus, CCAD's campus consists of 14 buildings (including 2 residence halls) on 9 acres (36,000 m2) and is adjacent to the Columbus Museum of Art. Approximately 1,350 full-time students are enrolled.
CCAD awards a project-based, multidisciplinary Master of Fine Arts degree in Visual Arts: New Projects. The degree employs a rare structure that draws inspiration from the way artists work; each student thinks about a project at the beginning of the semester, and then sees it through till the semester ends. The project-based, multidisciplinary program seeks to develop not just candidates’ artistic skills, but also their skills in planning, communications, and leadership.
CCAD offers twelve undergraduate majors. They include:
The college offers a wide variety of community classesfor all ages, including children and youth grades 1-12 and art educators.
CCAD is an accredited member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD), the Higher Learning Commission, Member of the North Central Association, and the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
CCAD's MFA program ranks 82nd in U.S. News's list of top Graduate School in the Fine Arts category,[2] while it's Fashion design program is acclaimed as one of the top 20 programs in the United States. [3]
CCAD was founded in 1879 as the Columbus Art School. The idea for the school started in 1878, when a group of women formed the Columbus Art Association. Their main concern became creating an art school in Columbus. The first day of classes was January 6, 1879, on the top floor of the Sessions Building at Long and High. Use of that floor had been donated by Francis Sessions, an art-minded banker and entrepreneur and one of the first trustees of the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts. There were only there students and one teacher at the time. By the end of the school year, there were 118 students. Original classes included drawing, watercolor, art needlework, oil painting, clay modeling, china painting, and mechanical drawing. Soon after opening, the school added classes like sculpture and figure drawing with clothed models, as nude models were considered too risqué in Columbus at the time. In 1885, the school moved to the Tuller Building at Gay and Fourth St due to the poor ventilation and vapors rising from the Troy Stream Laundry on the floors below the school in the Sessions Block.