The CAMPAIGN FOR CORNISH
CAMPAIGN FOR CORNISH
photo: Michelle Smith-Lewis
‘east/west double trio’ performance at poncho concert hall
mission statement The mission of Cornish College of the Arts is to provide students aspiring to become practicing artists with an educational program of the highest possible quality, in an environment that nurtures creativity and intellectual curiosity, while preparing them to contribute to society as artists, citizens, and innovators. Cornish realizes this mission by offering baccalaureate studies in the performing and visual arts and by serving as a focal point in the community for public presentation, artistic criticism, participation and discussion of the arts.
photo: Chris Bennion
‘cornish dance theater’ concert
Every important city in the world has the
great fabric of cultural life
to enhance its existence and to help identify it.
— Gerard Schwartz
bfa exhibition
p h o t o : K at h r y n T h o m a s
painting studio
‘the pajama game’, a collaboration between theater and performance production departments
photo: ??
p h o t o : K at h r y n T h o m a s
a theater student preparing for performance
music students recording in studio p h o t o :
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Michelle Smith-Lewis
photo: Winifred Westergard
bfa exhibition
CORNISH COLLEGE OF THE ARTS
invigorating a city on the edge
A student scratches ideas in a notebook. Music swells down the hall. A sculpture takes shape and dancers prepare to take the stage. Under the low-slung grey of a city on the edge, the halls, classrooms, studios and performance spaces at Cornish brim with creativity. Few cultural institutions existed in our gritty, hard-
We are innovators. Our students, faculty and alumni
scrabble town when Nellie Cornish first established her
have transformed modern dance, revolutionized con-
music school. Nearly a century later, Cornish College
temporary music and pushed the boundaries of visual
of the Arts assembles some of the most promising
and performing art. They bring to life the galleries,
young artists from around the world, offering each
stages and creative enterprise throughout our city.
of them a rigorous education that cultivates individual
They invigorate the city itself, helping to keep Seattle
vision and voice.
on the leading edge of ingenuity.
CORNISH COLLEGE OF THE ARTS
Building a laboratory of ideas & imaginatioN The campus is where Cornish comes together – a laboratory of ideas and imagination where artists intersect. Dancers alongside pianists, painters working with performers. Because collaboration is only possible when students interact. Shared space is a necessary ingredient for creative discovery and every budding artist needs a room where she can work. That room must invite the inspiration of her peers and provide the tools, materials and light she needs to discover her voice. Cornish students arrive on campus with new ideas, new ways of interpreting the world around them. They experiment with media and explore technology. To remain vital, Cornish must meet the evolving creative and academic needs of our students, our faculty and the community. The arts are dynamic. So are we.
‘the good person of szechwan’, a student performance staged at broadway performance hall
in recording studio with javino santos-neto
p h o t o : M i c h e l l e sm i t h - image lewis
caption treatment
photographer’s credit
art department alumni sculpture exhibition
photo: Chris Bennion
photo: Frank Huster
p h o t o : j o s e p h l a mb e r t
‘merce cunningham minevent’ performance
CORNISH COLLEGE OF THE ARTS
PuRSUING a FUTURE WHERE CREATIVITY BLOOMS
Arts education has never been more important. It provokes creativity. It kindles innovative thinking. It equips young people to take risks and tackle the challenges of an uncertain future. An arts education asks every student to peel back, dig deep and find his voice in this world. Dreamers, daredevils, virtuosos, firebrands—The Campaign for Cornish is a campaign for every student who comes to study and create at one of the country’s finest arts colleges. The Campaign will usher Cornish into the next century by creating an urban campus and growing our endowment. It will provide the space and stimulation to hatch new ideas and create bold new work—studios where sculptors shape or actors improvise. A growing endowment will secure our future for generations of students yet to come. These aims are a means to an end, pushing Cornish ever closer to the center of art, culture and innovation. Where engaged citizens feed the creative heartbeat of our
sculpture studio
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workforce, schools and culture. Where art and creativity thrive.
bfa exhibition
p h o t o : K at h r y n T h o m a s
CORNISH COLLEGE OF THE ARTS
BLURRING THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN CLASSROOMS & CITY LIFE
Cornish began as a small music school nestled on the north end of Seattle’s Capitol Hill. Nearly 100 years later, we’re building our future in the city’s urban core. The new Cornish campus eliminates the boundary
A Performing Arts Complex will be pivotal to our
between classrooms and the verve of city life, feeding
new campus. This exceptional facility will provide
an already strong connection among our students,
a new home to the dance and the music departments.
faculty, alumni and Seattle’s arts community. If you’ve
Surrounding the Performing Arts Complex, we will
been carried away by a performance on one of the
renovate and expand existing buildings to create
many stages in this city, admired a piece of art at a
enhanced learning spaces, including additional
local gallery, or marveled at the work of a community
classrooms and a space for the study of media arts,
arts organization, then you’ve intersected with Cornish
an expanded Cornish Main Gallery, and the new
College of the Arts. Our new campus will strengthen
home for the Art Department Senior Studios and
this exchange.
Sculpture Program.
future performing arts complex
rendering: studio/216
cornish campus located in seattle’s urban core
photo: Winifred Westergard
‘merce cunningham minevent’ at cornish main gallery
photo: Winifred Westergard
DEVELOPING AN URBAN CAMPUS The goal of the Campaign for Cornish is to create a vibrant urban campus that inspires and transforms our students. Your investment in the Campaign for Cornish helps complete this vision and ensures a vibrant future for our students and the arts.
1 Performing Arts Complex
OLYMPIC MOUNTAINS
ELLIOTT BAY Seattle Center
2 $38.9M
Main Campus Center
$1M
A new home for Dance and Music
An expanded Main Gallery
The Performing Arts Complex will unite the Cornish
The Campaign will fund the expansion of the Cornish
Campus and student body. The Complex will provide
Main Gallery, which will offer greater exhibition
dance studios and practice rooms, a dance perfor-
opportunities and better community access through
mance studio, a public recital hall and other spaces
a street-level entrance.
designed to inspire creativity and learning.
N B ELLT O W Denny Park
MAIN CAMPUS CENTER
QUEEN ANNE SOUTH LAKE UNION
DOWNTOWN
VISUAL Arts Complex
v Te r r y A
Visual Arts Complex NOTION BUILDING
RAISBECK PERFORMANCE HALL
MAIN CAMPUS CENTER ANNEX B ore
n Av
e
This building will provide the essential space to
provide additional classroom space. It will also
create works of sculpture of any form, materials or
be home to a new media arts space, providing a
size. It will also house individual studios for each
dedicated environment for study and practice in
senior student in the Art Department.
film, video and multimedia.
y
ia
The building will be renovated and expanded to
ra St
nn
gin
$7.3M
Additional classrooms and new media arts space
De
V ir
Notion Building
and Senior Art Studios L eno
5
$5.6M
A new home for the Sculpture Program
e
6
4
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3
4
3
St
Wa y
5 Main Campus Center Annex
Fa irv iew Ave
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2
(3) Photo: ??
1
6 Raisbeck Performance Hall
(1) Photo: chris bennion
Performing Arts Complex
photo: Winifred Westergard
art bfa exhibition
CORNISH COLLEGE OF THE ARTS
‘cornish dance theater’ concert
Securing a legacy of innovation Art and innovation prosper in Seattle. Artists defy expectation. Entrepreneurs rattle tradition. Community leaders make history. In every pocket of our city, individuals are leaving their mark,redefining the way we live and teaching us to see things differently. An investment in the Cornish endowment guarantees
You never know if the students breezing through
that all of our students will have this chance. It ensures
the halls at Cornish are the next Coltrane, Picasso
that future generations of Cornish students will receive
or Martha Graham. But they are most certainly
the distinctive, holistic and personalized arts education
tomorrow’s innovators and artists, designers and
that has defined us for a century.
entrepreneurs, setting out to create a world we
A robust endowment opens doors, making it possible for students to reach their dreams and find their voices. It readies them to define the future and secures the cultural vitality of our region for many years to come.
have yet to imagine.
photo: Chris Bennion
CORNISH COLLEGE OF THE ARTS
Celebrating the future of the arts
100 years ago, Nellie Cornish instigated a cultural revolution. She strong-armed great artists of her day to help her school take flight, trekking to the wilds of the far Northwest with them to teach a motley crew of budding young visionaries. She helped put Seattle on the cultural map. Today, Cornish remains ripe with possibility. Our campus continues to buzz with creativity and intellectual curiosity as students from around the world work to develop their voices and crafts— preparing for a life in the arts and the world. Your investment in the Campaign for Cornish is an investment in a great legacy of dreamers. Of imagination. It is an investment in the lasting character of our city,
‘the cherry sisters’ production
photo: ??
forever transformed by the young artists who came to Cornish to learn, create and inspire.
gamelan studio
photo: ??
design bfa exhibition
photo: Winifred Westergard
If you’re going to make an investment in the arts, why not make an investment
in the point where art begins, where training of artists happens, where the dialogue from one generation of artists to the next takes place. — J o h n G o r d O n H i l l
Cornish College o f the Arts Office of Instituti onal Advancement
1000 Lenora Street Seattle, WA 98121 206.726.5064 advancement@cornish.edu
art bfa exhibition
photo: Steve Hartson
artwork featured on front cover Artist: Kelsey Lee Offeild
Art Direction and Design Imelda Loei (Design ‘01) & Jeffrey Underwood (Design ‘08)
editorial Pyramid Communications
creative strategy Imelda Loei (Design ‘01), Jeffrey Underwood (Design ‘08) & Pyramid Communications
@2011 Cornish College of the Arts. All Rights Reserved.
www.cornish.edu
A RT · DA N C E · DESIGN · M USIC · PER FOR M AN C E PRODU C TION · T HE ATER
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