NEW GIFTS SUPPORT DIVERSITY AND EXCELLENCE

CCA is honored to announce $4.7 million in new gifts to support excellence, diversity, and innovation in the arts and design fields. A $1 million gift from the Gensler family and a $1 million gift from the global architecture and design firm Gensler are earmarked to support design innovation and promote diversity, social justice, and environmental sustainability through the newly established M. Arthur Gensler Jr. Center for Design Excellence. An additional $2.7 million gifts from Amazon, Z SUPPLY Foundation, and an anonymous donor will fund scholarship programs that support the enrollment of more than 20 students from diverse backgrounds annually.

In addition, CCA has reimagined its Diversity Scholarship as the Visionary Practice Scholarship, which will be awarded to undergraduate students from diverse experiences who have bold ideas, a story to tell, and a creative vision. Together, the Gensler Center and these new scholarships will make a significant impact in broadening access to education at CCA.

A New Campus Art Hub

CCA opened its new Campus Gallery in Blattner Hall in January 2023 with the inaugural show Recognitions / 认 • 知, a solo exhibition by Christine Wong Yap. The exhibition featured three new social practice projects between alum Christine Wong Yap (BFA Printmaking 1998, MFA Printmaking 2007) and the Edwin and Anita Lee Newcomer School (EALNS)—a one-year language immersion elementary school, serving Chinese-speaking recent immigrants.

In one project, Christine reinterpreted student drawings of airplanes, a symbol of their emotional journey to the U.S., into three-dimensional tactile, comforting plushies. Visitors to the show could also interact with a large puzzle of a map of San Francisco, illustrating this vibrant community.

This exhibition was generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Grants for the Arts, and the Deborah and Kenneth Novack Creative Citizens Program Series.

Thesis Project Goes Viral

Ingrid Henderson (MFA Fine Arts) wants to challenge the idea that art is untouchable. So for her thesis project, she began creating fabric collages sewn onto clothing as a form of social sculpture; with each item of clothing meant to be passed from person to person. Last fall Henderson had the idea that superstar singer Billie Eilish should be the first person to wear one of these shirts. Henderson spent more than 200 hours collaging and embroidering the orange shirt Hills Burn in California, Part 3, whose title is taken from an Eilish lyric. But how to get Eilish’s attention? That’s where TikTok came in.

Henderson posted videos of her making the shirt a few days before the concert, initially only expecting a few hundred views; by the day of the concert she had more than 100,000. Today, the video has over 700,000 views. Although Eilish didn’t don the shirt during the concert, Henderson still feels the project was successful. She says, “As an artist, I feel like I have succeeded when a piece has drawn people and compels them to talk about it.”