Savannah College of Art and Design

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Savannah College of Art and Design
Shield of SCAD
Established 1978
Type Private college
President Paula S. Wallace
Faculty 355
Undergraduates est. 6,824
Postgraduates est. 973
Location Savannah, GA, USA
Campus Urban
Tuition $23,250
Mascot Art the Bee
Website www.scad.edu

The Savannah College of Art and Design (often referred to as SCAD) — founded in 1978 by Paula S. Wallace, Richard Rowan, May Poetter and Paul Poetter — is an independent, fully accredited, not-for-profit college dedicated to the visual and performing arts, design, the building arts and the history of art and architecture. Located in the historic Southern city of Savannah, Georgia, SCAD is the largest art college in the United States, offering Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Master of Architecture, Master of Arts, Master of Urban Design and Master of Fine Arts degrees. The college is closely engaged with the city and the preservation, at least architecturally, of its rich heritage.

SCAD enrolls more than 7,000 students from all 50 states and 100 countries. International student enrollment is 10-12 percent.

Degree programs include advertising design, animation, architectural history (M.F.A. only), architecture, art history, arts administration (M.A. only), broadcast design and motion graphics, cinema studies, contemporary writing, fashion, fibers, film and television, furniture design, graphic design, historic preservation, illustration, illustration design (M.F.A. only), industrial design, interactive design and game development, interior design, metals and jewelry, painting, performing arts, photography, printmaking, production design, sculpture, sequential art, sound design, urban design (M.U.D. only), visual communication (B.A. only) and visual effects.

Minors are offered in 28 of the major programs as well as in accessory design, British-American studies, business management and entrepreneurship, ceramic arts, cultural landscape, dance, decorative arts, drawing, electronic design, exhibition design, interaction design, marine design, museum studies, music performance, new media art, printmaking, sculpture, storyboarding and technical direction.

The college also features a study-abroad campus in the scenic town of Lacoste, France. In 2005, SCAD opened a campus in Midtown, Atlanta, Georgia, called SCAD-Atlanta. In June 2006, the Atlanta College of Art merged with SCAD, resulting in more opportunities for students. SCAD-Atlanta is near the Woodruff Arts Center and the High Museum of Art on Peachtree Street in Atlanta.


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[edit] Facilities

Poetter Hall, originally Preston Hall, was SCAD's first building and first historic restoration project.
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Poetter Hall, originally Preston Hall, was SCAD's first building and first historic restoration project.

The college's first academic building was the Savannah Volunteer Guard Armory, which was purchased and renovated in 1979. Built in 1892, the Romanesque Revival red brick structure is included in the National Register of Historic Places. Originally named Preston Hall, the building was renamed Poetter Hall in honor of co-founders May and Paul Poetter. SCAD soon expanded rapidly, acquiring buildings in Savannah's downtown Historic and Victorian districts, restoring old and often derelict buildings that had exhausted their original functions.

By restoring buildings for use as college facilities, the college has been recognized by the American Institute of Architects, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Historic Savannah Foundation and the Victorian Society of America, among others. The college campus now consists of more than 60 buildings throughout the grid and park system of downtown Savannah. Many buildings are located on the famous 21 squares of the old town, which are laden with monuments, live oaks, horse-and-buggy tours and an undeniable Southern gothic feel that is sought by the many movies filmed there.

Features located on or near the college buildings include the Riverfront Plaza and Factors' Walk — River Street's restored 19th-century cotton warehouses and passageways include shops, bars and restaurants — and City Market, Savannah's restored central market, features antiques, souvenirs and small eateries.

Located in Atlanta's burgeoning Midtown, SCAD–Atlanta facilities provide ample classroom and exhibition space, well-equipped computer labs, library, photography darkrooms, printmaking and sculpture studios, a dining hall, fitness center, swimming pool and residence hall.

The college's facilities in Lacoste, France, date back 500–600 years. Originally founded by Bernard Pfriem, an American artist, in the 1970s and called the Lacoste School of the Arts, the small town of about 300 permanent inhabitants is steeped in rustic charm and appears almost as a medieval village from a distance. Lacoste is in Provence, which is in Southern France. The beautiful countryside is an asset to the school as an inspiration for the courses taught there. Enrollment in Lacoste is usually for one quarter of the academic school year.

[edit] Departments

Montgomery Hall is home of Animation, Computer Arts and Digital Media
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Montgomery Hall is home of Animation, Computer Arts and Digital Media

The university is divided into seven schools: the School of Building Arts, the School of Communication Arts, the School of Design, the School of Film and Digital Media, the School of Fine Arts, the School of Liberal Arts and the School of Performing Arts.

The most popular is the School of Film and Digital Media, which has seen much growth in recent years with the addition of new majors to support the demand for technology-based art classes. These areas of study focus on computer effects, animation and design for film, television, games and the Internet. To meet this demand, a former 64,000-square-foot coffin factory was refurbished as a high-end, 800-computer animation and effects teaching/production house complete with render farm, greenscreen stages, and even stop-motion labs. SCAD recently added an increasingly popular program in sound design, offering concentration in music production or audio for image.

Also very popular and widely recognized is the School of Communication Arts, which includes graphic design, advertising design, illustration, photography and sequential art. Most graphic design classes are held in Poetter Hall on Madison Square, the college's original building and the former 36,248-square-foot National Guard Armory. As one of the college's older buildings, Poetter Hall still embraces the trend in electronic design and features a large number of computers and several high-end Apple Computer workstations in its labs.

[edit] Students

Anderson Hall, where foundation studies classes are taught.
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Anderson Hall, where foundation studies classes are taught.

Most students live off-campus, which is to say outside the residence halls, as there are no formal campus grounds other than those contained by the building properties themselves. There are nine buildings that provide student housing and range from one- to three-person, single-room residence halls; to four-bedroom student apartments. The residence halls are Weston House, Dyson House, Oglethorpe House, Turner House, Turner Annex, Pulaski House (an all female residence hall), Forsyth House, Gaston House, and Boundary Village. SCAD has no fraternities or sororities. The formation of a student union has been discouraged by the college.

The college has two newspapers, The Chronicle and the entirely student-run District. Student media also extends to SCAD Radio, an Internet-broadcast radio station; Beecon, the student television production group; and The Hive, a student-run online community. There are 23 student organizations related to academic programs and another 22 that are recognized but not affiliated with any particular programs.

Though Fridays are generally considered independent study days, Thursday evenings often end up being popular social nights in the absence of a fifth day of classes.

Students are expected to focus on three areas of study: foundation studies (art fundamentals such as drawing, color theory and design), liberal arts (math, science, art history and English needed for accreditation) and their major area of discipline (a specific course of study such as graphic design, sequential art or animation, to name a few).

[edit] Events

Chalk drawing by SCAD alumni at the Sidewalk Arts Festival.
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Chalk drawing by SCAD alumni at the Sidewalk Arts Festival.

The college operates 10 galleries, notably Red Gallery, the ACA Gallery of SCAD, the Pei Ling Chan Gallery, the Pinnacle Gallery, and La Galerie Bleue. In addition, the college holds several lectures, performances and film screenings at two historic theaters, the Trustees Theater and the Lucas Theatre for the Arts. These theaters are also used once a year for the popular Savannah Film Festival in late October or early November. With average attendance close to 35,000, the event includes a week of lectures, workshops and screenings of student and professional films. There is also a juried competition.

Outdoors, there is the Sidewalk Arts Festival, which attracts huge crowds to Savannah's largest downtown park, Forsyth Park. The festival, which takes place during the spring, consists primarily of the chalk-drawing competition, which is divided into group and individual categories of students, alumni and prospective students. Similar in spirit is the Sand Arts Festival. This particular sand festival is held every spring on the beaches of nearby Tybee Island. The competition is divided into sand relief, sand sculpture and sand castle divisions.

Individual departments host both yearly and quarterly shows to promote student work. Conferences such as the GDX Conference and events such as SCAD Style Week foster dialogue between students, faculty and professionals and offer opportunities for networking and career enhancement.

Students tend to frequent en masse non-SCAD-affiliated events if they are held in the historic district — for example, the Savannah Jazz Festival and the Savannah Shakespeare Festival (both in Forsyth Park) — not to mention the St. Patrick's Day celebration, which is one of the largest and oldest in the United States.

[edit] Noted alumni and faculty

[edit] Alumni

[edit] Faculty

  • Brenda Brathwaite, professor of interactive design and game development; writer of "Sex and Video Games"; named one of the game industry's 100 Most Influential Women by Next Generation, an online magazine, and her peers.
  • Larry Dixon, professor of photography; photographer; photographer of many album covers while working in Nashville, Tenn.
  • Jeff Eley, professor of architectural history; selected to serve on the Georgia National Register Review Board.
  • Denise Falk, professor of painting; painter.
  • Bridget Gaynor, fur groomer for "The Chronicles of Narnia."
  • Winrich Kolbe, professor of film and television; directed episodes for many popular television shows, including "Star Trek: The Next Generation," " 24," and "The Rockford Files."
  • Patricia Perrone, professor of computer arts; pioneering computer-based artist and one of the first students to earn a degree in computer arts.
  • E.G. Daves Rossell, professor of architectural history; noted scholar on vernacular architecture; works on Virtual Historic Savannah Project, which documents the evolution of urban form by combining architectural and social history research with 3-D computer and database technology.
  • David Spencer, Atlanta College of Art alumnus and SCAD-Atlanta professor of interactive design; rock musician with the band Tone Star.
  • Craig Stevens, professor of photography; photographer.
  • Phil A. Young, professor of animation department; worked at Disney for 25 years.
  • David Jeffreys, professor of art; formerly a guitarist for British band Prolapse.

[edit] Controversy

Unlike many institutions of higher education, none of SCAD's full-time professors are tenured; rather each professor receives a one-year appointment which may or may not be renewed. This results in more rapid turnover of professors which can be verified based on position announcements that are posted on a regular basis in the Chronicle of Higher Education. SCAD employs fewer professors with doctoral degrees than other, similar institutions, especially in departments in which the Ph.D. is considered the terminal degree. In addition, SCAD emphasizes teaching in lieu of research as professors have a higher teaching load than is typical in institutions that offer graduate-level degrees. These factors have both positive and negative connotations. In the positive sense, students may receive a greater breadth of experience and a more rewarding teacher-student relationship (although this relationship may only last a year). There are general concerns, however, within the academy of institutions that do not sanction tenure and place at least an equal emphasis on research as well as teaching. The theory is that professors who do not have the security of tenure will be less likely to undertake research in controversial areas. On a more practical level, professors who do not have time to research cannot make meaningful contributions to the world of knowledge and advance their respective fields.

In the early 1990s, several controversies occurred on campus as students tried to create their own government. The administration opposed these efforts, while much of the faculty supported them. Several pipe bombs exploded on campus and were linked to SCAD students (these students were, however, apparently not directly involved in the advocacy efforts). In 1990 a faculty member was dismissed mid-semester, and in 1992 several faculty members did not have their contracts renewed in violation of the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure. The latter dismissals were allegedly a punitive measure against faculty that supported the student movement. [1]

[edit] Trivia

  • SCAD has a "rolling admission" policy.
  • SCAD is on the quarter system. Typical workload is three classes per quarter, or 15 credit hours.
  • School is four days per week, with individual classes held every other day. Friday is reserved for independent study to allow more time on the weekends to complete projects.
  • Classes run 2.5 hours with one 10–15 minute break for most classes. The extended length is to accommodate studio classes, where traditional scheduling would seem rushed.
  • SCAD is primarily located in the historic district of Savannah.
  • Most classes offer a field trip, but it is not required.
  • Most classes are small at 20 students or fewer, with that number decreasing in higher-level courses to as few as five.
  • Spring break at SCAD is timed to coincide with St. Patrick's Day. The St. Patrick's Day celebration in Savannah is third only to Boston, Mass. and New York, N.Y.

[edit] External links

Georgia private colleges and universities
Agnes Scott College • American Intercontinental University • Andrew College • Argosy University • Art Institute of Atlanta • Atlanta Christian College • Atlanta College of Art • Bauder College • Berry College • Brenau University • Brewton-Parker College • Clark Atlanta University • Columbia Theological Seminary • Covenant College • Emmanuel College • Emory University • Georgia Military College • Interdenominational Theological Center • LaGrange College • Life University • Mercer University • Morehouse College • Morehouse School of Medicine • Morris Brown College • Oglethorpe University • Oxford College of Emory University • Paine College • Piedmont College • Reinhardt College • Savannah College of Art and Design • Shorter College • South University • Spelman College • Thomas University • Toccoa Falls College • Truett-McConnell College • Wesleyan College • Westwood College • Young Harris College

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Report: Academic Freedom and Tenure". Academe (May-June 1993):65-70
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