Ontario College of Art & Design

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Ontario College of Art & Design


Established	1876
Type	Public
President	Sara Diamond
Staff	156 full-time; 229 part-time
Location	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Campus	Urban
Students	2767 Full Time, 700 Part Time
Website	ocad.ca
Public transit access	505 Dundas (TTC), 501 Queen (TTC)

Inside a class in 1931

The Ontario College of Art & Design is Canada's largest and oldest university for art and design. It is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on McCaul Street beside the Art Gallery of Ontario. OCAD has one of the most in depth programs in visual arts and design than any other school of its kind in Canada. Students enjoy a learning environment that is one of a kind experience. The school combines an experiential, studio-based education with liberal studies, which are recognized with a BFA or BDes degrees. The school has a student body of approximately 3,500, with a student-faculty ratio of 20:1.

OCAD has a large research profile. It includes an institute for art and design education, as well as the Beal Institute for Strategic Creativity at OCAD - an institute in design, creativity and innovation. Graduates of OCAD are also well known for their creative skills. The work they bring continues to enrich Canada's culture in many areas.

[edit] History

Founded in 1876 by the Ontario Society of Artists, the Ontario College of Art & Design was originally known as the Ontario School of Art. In 1912, after various name changes, the school finally adopted the name Ontario College of Art. The school retained this name for another eighty-four years before changing to its present incarnation in 1996. The change was made in recognition of the integral role design plays in a visual art education.

Throughout its history, the OCAD community has been home to many of Canada's premiere artists and designers, including Arthur Lismer, and Michael Snow

The school has often found itself at the centre of Toronto's cultural and artistic nexus. In 1969-70, during his brief period of tenure, the President, Roy Ascott, radically challenged the pedagogy and curriculum structure of the College. The Ontario College of Art, OCA's open door culture of the mid-seventies' era, influenced science fiction/cyberpunk novelist William Gibson's years as he was dreaming up Cyberspace. At the turn of the 1980s, OCAD was a major participant in the Queen Street West scene. A new generation of artists such as General Idea, Jeremiah Chechik and Isobel Harry helped transform the run-down neighbourhood into a "Toronto's Soho". The scene evolved its own version of punk/new wave, featuring acts such as Parachute Club, Molly Johnson, and alumni Martha and the Muffins and Mary Margaret O'Hara. Sound and video artist David Rokeby's Very Nervouse System, relized Unincumbered Reality.

In the nineties, OCAD saw an explosion of creative talent in its design faculty. Its award-winning student periodical, White Space, drew city-wide attention.

OCAD received official status to confer the degrees of Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Design in 2002, via the new Ontario College of Art & Design Act, passed by the Government of Ontario. With its new university status, OCAD has make a number of significant changes. These include such things as a renewed curriculum, a new professorial structure for faculty, a research mandate, a new system of governance, and preliminary groundwork for future graduate programs.

The changes now make OCAD even more distinct in Ontario's educational sector. Students acquire critical thinking and writing skills, as they do in a liberal arts program at a traditional university. Unique to OCAD, however, this liberal studies education is integrated with a studio program that is more comprehensive than any other fine arts program in Canada. As well, the largest faculty of its kind in Canada comprises many leading art or design practitioners and scholars. The result of OCAD's educational experience is that students gain an in-depth knowledge of the history and theory of visual culture, as well as the analytical skills to execute powerful ideas within the studio context.

OCAD students also enjoy a learning environment that is one of a kind and dedicated exclusively to visual culture, and best understood as a creative "hothouse". Innovations and creative work are inspired by a vibrant community life, which will be even more dynamic as students begin to work in the university's renewed campus facility.

In 2004 work was completed on a new expansion. The "Sharp Centre for Design", designed by architect Will Alsop, of Alsop Architects, in a joint venture with Toronto-based Robbie/Young + Wright Architects Inc., has been called the "floating shoebox" or "tabletop". It consists of a box four storeys off the ground supported by a series of multi-coloured pillars at different angles. The critically-acclaimed $42.5 million expansion and redevelopment has received numerous awards, including the first-ever Royal Institute of British Architects Worldwide Award, the award of excellence in the 'Building in Context' category at the Toronto Architecture and Urban Design Awards, and was deemed the most outstanding technical project overall in the 2005 Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards. The College Street building, which was part of the campus until 1997, was once a Toronto Police station house.

OCAD's reputation continues to be shaped by the high calibre of its graduates, who are recognized for their broad skills in creativity and innovation, and for their ability to change the world in ways large and small. It is OCAD's aspiration that they will become an increasingly-valued creative force in the future, enriching our country's culture, and adding value to the economy and everyday lives of Canadians.

[edit] Academic Program

The Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) offers programs leading to the degrees of Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) and Bachelor of Design (BDes).

[edit] Faculties

Courses are offered through three faculties:

[edit] Faculty of Art

Criticism & Curatorial Practice
Drawing & Painting
Integrated Media
Photography
Printmaking
Sculpture/Installation

[edit] Faculty of Design

Advertising
Graphic Design
Illustration
Industrial Design
Environmental Design
Material Art & Design

[edit] Faculty of Liberal Studies

English
Humanities
Social Sciences
Science/Technology/Mathematics

[edit] Alternative Programs

[edit] Campus

The Ontario College of Art & Design campus is located on McCaul Street in downtown Toronto, just south of Dundas Street. The campus is comprised of six buildings all located in the McCaul and Dundas area.

[edit] Main Building

The central main building of OCAD is located at 100 McCaul Street. It contains the Great Hall, OCAD's central gathering and orientation space. The building also fetcures a mixed use space that includes lecture theatres, exhibition space, and e-classrooms and studios which are primarily for programs in the Faculty of Art and Faculty of Liberal Studies. The Administrative offices of the Faculty of Art, the Faculty of Liberal Studies are located in this building as well.

[edit] Sharp Centre for Design

The Ontario College of Art & Design showing the Sharp Centre for Design, below it is the original school.

The Rosalie Sharp Pavillion on the corner of McCaul and Dundas

The Entrance to the Ontario College of Art & Design during the night

The award winning new facility houses classrooms and studios primarily for the Faculty of Design, with some mixed-use space as well. The administrative offices of the Faculty of Design are located in in this building which is accessed through the 100 McCaul Street main building.

[edit] Annex Building

The Annex Building is located directly across the street from the main building. This facility, at 113 McCaul Street, is accessed through the Village by the Grange commercial complex. This building houses the Dorothy H. Hoover Library, as well as studios and classrooms for the First-Year program and Liberal Studies. The Writing & Learning Centre, the Centre for Students with Disabilities, and the new Centre for Advising, First-Year and Campus Life are also located in the Annex Building.

[edit] Rosalie Sharp Pavilion

The majority of OCAD's administrative operations and offices are n this building. The offices of the President, Vice-President Academic, Vice-President Administration, Communications, Development & Alumni Services, Human Resources, the Scotiabank Student Services Centre, Admissions and Recruitment, Finance and Plant Services are all located in the Pavilion at 115 McCaul Street.

[edit] Student Gallery

The Student Gallery osts a continuous rotation of student exhibitions.

[edit] Aboveground Art Supplies

The current tenant of OCAD's oldest campus building and is located just south of the main building.

[edit] Other Buildings

[edit] Butterfield Park

The campus' newest outdoor area. It is located underneath the Sharp Centre for Design, and provides informal meeting space for the OCAD community and general public. In the near future, walkways will lead directly to Grange Park as well.

[edit] 49 and 51 McCaul Street

These buildings were recently acquired properties. While 51 McCaul is still under construction, 49 McCaul is currently serving as studio space for Drawing and Painting Thesis students.

[edit] Student Life

OCAD's Centre for Advising & Campus Life develops programs while working with students to enhance the student experience at OCAD and the overall quality of campus life.

[edit] Student Groups

The Student government is headed by the Ontario College of Art & Design Student Union (OCADSU). It brings students together through community building and collective political action. They provide support of various kinds to student based initiatives that benefit the student population. OCADSU also supports a student-run independent gallery and social space called XPACE. OCADs' largest student group, with over 3000 members, is a nonpartisan student-run website called MYOCAD.

There are also several student clubs including The Korean Students' Association (KASA), Green Palette, OCAD Dance, OCAD Film Society and OUT at OCAD.

[edit] Student Housing

OCAD does not have on campus housing but provides links to off campus housing. Some of these services are provided by the University of Toronto’s Student Housing Service as well as the OCAD website

[edit] Faculty

Noted faculty have included Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald, Jock Macdonald, Gordon Rainer, Colette Whiten, Lisa Steele, Ian Carr-Harris, Robin Collyer, Johanna Householder, Richard Fung, Carl Dair, Allan Fleming, Doug Back and Norman White .