NEXT is a magazine for the alumni and friends of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. We aspire to share the realization of our mission through stories of alumni who are transforming the world through creativity and purpose, of faculty members who are delivering world-class education to tomorrow’s creative leaders, and of supporters who are generously believing in and bolstering the mission of MCAD. MAGAZINE CREDITS
MCAD BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Ann Benrud, Editor Rita Kovtun, Associate Editor and Writer Aaron DeYoe ’10, MFA, Designer Dylan Cole, DesignWorks Studio Manager
Uri Camarena, Chair David Moore, Vice Chair Howard Rubin, Treasurer Leslie Berkshire, Secretary Clinton H. Morrison, Immediate Past Chair Ta-coumba Aiken Kevin Bennett Susan Calmenson Anne Cashill Tara Dev
CONTRIBUTORS Jake Herrick ’14 Josie Keifenheim Lindsey Kusterman ’17
Cole Seidl ’17, MFA Forrest Wasko ’17 John Wilinski ’16
COVER ARTWORK Janie Arguedas ’17, Reify, 2017, hand-deconstructed fabric and acrylic. Read more about Arguedas on page 15. “I want to work with social sustainability and my passion for shredded fabric motivates that because I’m interested in the human condition, which is a very complex web, and shredded fabric is a visual representation of that.”
Joseph Donnelly Miles Q. Fiterman Greg C. Heinemann Jay Jackley Peter Lindahl Mitzi Magid Elizabeth Nientimp Todd Paulson Mary Bowman Rae Donald Robert Teslow II Bill Thorburn ’84
TRUSTEES BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Jay Coogan President
Alumni Board Representative
LIFE TRUSTEES Bruce W. Bean
Cy DeCosse ’52
AWARDS
PRESIDENT'S ADVISORY COMMIT TEE
The previous issue of NEXT magazine received the following awards: -> AIGA Minnesota 2016 Design Show -> People’s Choice Cover Design Award from the Minnesota Magazine & Publishing Association (MMPA) -> Gold Award in the Cover Design category for education magazines under 30,000 circulation from the MMPA -> Silver Award in the Single Page or Spread Design category for education magazines under 30,000 circulation (for the spread “A Letter From President Jay Coogan”) from the MMPA
Jay Coogan President Melissa Huybrecht Vice President, Enrollment Management Pamela Newsome-Prochniak Vice President, Administration
Cindy Theis Associate Vice President, Institutional Advancement Karen Wirth Vice President, Academic Affairs Jen Zuccola Dean, Student Affairs
THE MAGAZINE OF THE MINNEAPOLIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN
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A Letter from President Jay Coogan............................... 2 Alumni Updates.......................................................... 4 Entrepreneurial Studies MCAD's Revamped Entrepreneurial Studies Program.......... 6 Toys, Theater, and Thinking Big...................................... 9 Class Profiles.............................................................. 10 Student and Alumni Profiles.......................................... 12 Meet the Entrepreneurial Studies Faculty........................ 16 Foundation of the Program........................................... 18 Community Outreach.................................................. 20 Studio Visit with Wesley Kimler...................................... 22 2016–2017 Openings and Events..................................... 24 Alumni Notes.............................................................. 26 Who We Are................................................................ 28 Upcoming Events........................................................ 29
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1, SPRING 2017 Minneapolis College of Art and Design, 2501 Stevens Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55404 612.874.3700 • mcad.edu
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President Jay Coogan and Senior Nike Design & Knit Innovation Recruiter Annie Ekstrom in front of a recently completed 3D Shop cabinet mural by Julian Howley ’12. Ekstrom visited MCAD this January to recruit students for Nike’s creative workforce.
Photograph by Forrest Wasko ´17
A LET TER FRO M PRE SIDENT JAY CO O GAN
Staying at the Forefront of Art and Design Education This latest edition of NEXT magazine focuses on one
photography programs. E/STUDIO, which will be built this summer, will provide space for the entrepreneurial studies and animation programs (our fastest growing program) and will revamp studios for our fine arts program. Thanks to the generosity of donors, we are on track to exceed our goal of raising twenty-two million dollars. The success of this fundraising effort is thanks to many generous individual contributions as well as funding from a number of foundations and businesses. Looking back on the past year we also have other exciting news to be thankful for: -> The largest incoming class in my seven-year presidency. -> Our 2016 Auction at MCAD held last May raised more than $325,000 for scholarships, eclipsing previous numbers. -> The 19th annual Art Sale contributed nearly $260,000 directly to students and recent alumni, and the endowed Art Sale Scholarship Fund has grown to $180,000. Next year we are excited to celebrate the 20th Art Sale and will roll out some special features to make it a memorable occasion. A recent NEA survey reports that 4.7 million Americans are employed in the production of art and cultural goods. It is important that our students can successfully be a part of this creative workforce. We are investing in keeping MCAD accessible, supporting our faculty and staff, and keeping our learning spaces and technology up to date. We have set an ambitious agenda for the college. With your support we will keep MCAD at the forefront of art and design education and set our students up to successfully pursue their goals as graduates. Thank you for your support of MCAD,
of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design’s refreshed programs: entrepreneurial studies. Reading through the magazine will give you details about the exciting program and introduce you its passionate faculty and new director, Stephen Rueff. Recognizing that many of our students want to start their own creative enterprises, we revamped our bachelor of science degree in business and visualization to be a degree in entrepreneurial studies. The program not only helps aspiring entrepreneurs but also students who want to develop management, leadership, and teamwork skills that can be used in any for-profit or nonprofit enterprise they seek to build a career in. Students in the program explore starting and running a business, design thinking, marketing, project management, strategy, sustainability, accounting, and financing innovation. Students work across disciplines to learn how to manage and collaborate with companies and organizations at the intersection of art, design, and business. This program’s classes are open to MCAD students in all art and design majors. We are completing our NEXT/NOW Campaign on May 31. This is the first comprehensive campaign for MCAD and the largest amount of money raised by the college. I want to invite you to join the many donors who have given to the campaign by giving for the first time or making an increased gift. We are hoping to add another one million dollars to the scholarship funding we have raised thus far. To date, we have added eight million dollars to our scholarship funds, eight million dollars in annual funds, as well as six million dollars in funds for two major projects, M/LAB and E/STUDIO. M/LAB, completed two years ago, supports our web and multimedia, filmmaking, and
Students work across disciplines to learn how to manage and collaborate at the intersection of art, design, and business.
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Illustrations by John Wilinski ´16
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ALUMNI UPDATE S
Alumni Directory “Having the full scope of our MCAD alumni network, around the corner and around the globe, will be a valuable resource for the entire MCAD community.” —President Jay Coogan
Connect with your classmates, network with other alumni
When you update your alumni profile online, you can: -> Reconnect with your classmates. -> Find other alumni in your area or across the world on the directory's interactive map. -> Be a resource for current and prospective students. -> Provide career guidance and identify internship and career opportunities for students and recent graduates. -> Promote your work.
in your area, and be a resource for current students. Knowing where and what fellow alumni are doing not only is of value to graduates of MCAD, but also to young alumni moving to different parts of the country. The biggest benefit for MCAD alumni is being a part of a supportive global community. Update your profile today at mcad.edu/alumni-directory.
Coffee Cup Challenge President Jay Coogan and Cindy Theis have begun
needs of current students. Since the start of the campaign, the number of monthly gifts in support of MCAD scholarships has more than tripled! More than ninety-five percent of MCAD students receive some form of financial aid. The impact of ten individuals giving $10 per month provides a scholarship to a hardworking and talented MCAD student. Your support fuels the careers of eager young creatives! Visit mcad.edu/coffeecupchallenge to sign up. �
their annual trek around the country to visit with MCAD alumni. President Coogan plans to continue the successful Coffee Cup Challenge campaign that started two years ago at the Los Angeles alumni gathering and took off last year when alumni throughout the country were asked to make a recurring gift of just $10 per month (the cost of two cups of coffee). The value of an ongoing gift minimizes administrative costs and seamlessly supports the financial
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ENTREPRENEURIAL STUD IE S: A RE VAMPED PRO GR AM
Illustration by Jake Herrick ´14
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ENTREPRENEURIAL STUD IE S: A RE VAMPED PRO GR AM
MCAD’s Revamped Entrepreneurial Studies Program by Rita Kovtun With a new director and faculty members, a reinvigorated
Leading the program in response to these developments is new director Stephen Rueff, who previously worked in the fields of corporate marketing, communications, and performing arts. With his belief in the power of business to create change, Rueff’s personal mission is to guide students in defining their dreams and setting them on the path to realize their potential while shaping profitable, equitable, and environmentally sound business models. Under Allan’s leadership, students in the ES program worked on five-year projects, building upon the research of those who came before them to deliver implementable projects for clients like One Million Books for Gambia, Edremit Wetland Conservation in Turkey, International Health Service of Minnesota in Honduras, and Pillsbury United Communities’ North Market in Minneapolis. These projects helped MCAD students learn to work collaboratively, think critically, complement their art and design skills with business training, and launch their careers as entrepreneurs, creative directors, user experience leaders, project managers, and more. Truly, this has always been a program where creativity meets purpose as artists and designers focus their talents on creating positive change. Rueff will carry forward the mission of the program, introducing a shift toward the broader concept of sustainable development, while ensuring students are introduced to concepts and practices used in today’s creative economy. In
curriculum, and a dedicated collaborative space buildout, the entrepreneurial studies (ES) program’s updates respond to the needs of today’s students and economic landscape, keeping MCAD and this twenty-year-old program on the cutting edge. The program began two decades ago with first director Lester Shen, originally accredited as a visualization program and MCAD’s only bachelor of science degree that focused on interdisciplinary thinking, process, and computer technology. Jerry Allan took over in 2008, integrating advertising into the program and establishing a solid foundation for ES through the creation of a mission: giving students the opportunity to make connections between business, art, design, and science, while collaborating on teams with real clients on real projects locally, nationally, and globally. In today’s “gig” economy, students expect to work as freelancers or move jobs every three to five years and to constantly be retraining on new methods and technology. Although ES has always equipped students with general skills and ways of thinking that are transferable from job to job, the program intentionally remains responsive to the constantly changing dynamics of the tools, methods, and practices of the evolving economy. Today’s students also demand more. Research shows that millennials are conscientious consumers who seek to make a difference and want to find fulfillment in their work.
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ENTREPRENEURIAL STUD IE S: A RE VAMPED PRO GR AM
reinvigorating the program, Rueff engaged with ES alumni and faculty to inform his updates to the program’s curriculum with contemporary, interesting, and valuable courses. He then worked diligently to seek out a range of skilled, talented, and diverse faculty members to augment the solid core ES faculty. New courses include Financing Innovation—giving artists and designers financial literacy skills that they can apply to their own projects (see page 11)—and Entrepreneurship—helping students develop creative projects and build plans to implement them, while balancing financial, social, and environmental concerns. The majority of ES faculty are practicing creative professionals who connect classroom theory with applications in creative work. While core business principles remain the backbone of the program, faculty introduce students to essential practices in the creative economy such as leadership, project management, creativity and innovation, and emerging technology and media platforms. Artists are inherently entrepreneurs and the ES program provides skills and resources valuable to all MCAD students. Architectural renderings by James Dayton Design
After twenty years, E/STUDIO—2,800 square feet of collaborative, purpose-built space—will give the program a place to call home. Responding to changes in the practice of art making, advances in digital technology, and the growing creative economy, MCAD will transform one of the Main Building’s two-story studios into two separate floors of academic space. Pritzker-Prize-winning architect Kenzo Tange’s 1974 design of the building will accommodate the changes without affecting the facade of the building or expanding its footprint. E/STUDIO will include a client meeting and project pitch space, a flexible exhibition area, a coworking incubator suite, classrooms, and office space. With the power of the language of business, there is no stopping artists and designers to meet the needs of a changing world. The ES program equips students with the skills to be a valuable asset in a company, a knowledgeable and tactful team member, or a creative entrepreneur who starts and runs their own business, giving them the versatility to move easily between a variety of career paths. �
Top right: Entry to E/STUDIO client and project areas. Bottom left: Combined E/STUDIO classroom space with capability to transform into two fully-equipped smart classrooms.
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ENTREPRENEURIAL STUD IE S: D IRECTO R SP OTLIGHT
Toys, Theater, and Thinking Big with Entrepreneurial Studies Director Stephen Rueff
Photograph by Cole Seidl ’17, MFA
NEXT: You and David Barnhill run an organization called SuperMonster市City! Tell us a little more about this celebration of monsters, superheroes, and villains. Stephen Rueff: David is a childhood friend who never stopped collecting toys. He has 200,000 toys, posters, games, TV commercials, films, and lots of good stories. We assemble touring exhibits from his collection and I curate them considering social, political, and reflective cultural contexts. Our 2015 Goldstein Museum of Design exhibition received the title of “Best Museum Exhibit” from City Pages and we contributed one hundred pieces to Toys of the '50s, '60s and '70s, a nationally traveling exhibition developed by the Minnesota History Center. We like monsters—they’re empathetic characters who work through anxieties or stresses that children and adults both have.
You’ve worked as a performer, designer, manager, and producer, and have toured the globe with Blue Man Group, Meredith Monk, and Bill T. Jones. What was that like? There’s a lot of responsibility to work with artists of that caliber. My role would range from tour manager to technical director, and even though you’re not the direct creator, it’s important to make their creative voices heard and ensure that they can be seen as close to what the artist’s true vision is. I was the tour manager for Blue Man Group when they started performing their first shows in New York City in 1991. They were very disciplined. After shows, a lot of the artists would go out and have beers but Blue Man Group would usually go to a restaurant with their notebooks and go through every moment of the show to examine what worked, what didn’t, and why. They’re not successful by accident.
What gets you out of bed in the morning? The joy of discovering what is possible with artists, designers, and entrepreneurs when they don’t know how to go beyond what they’ve originally conceived. Taking it to that next stage of viability. To me, that’s magic. �
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ENTREPRENEURIAL STUD IE S: CL A S S PRO FILE S
Chris Cloud at the Walker Art Center where he is the voice of their social media channels.
Creating and Running a Business with Chris Cloud
guy,” Cloud says. Although Cloud’s ensuing projects may seem disparate, their origins have a common thread. “My thing is to look at what else is going on in the world and see if I can bring it to Minneapolis. I try to find spins on things that already exist,” Cloud says. Having given dozens of talks, including a TEDx lecture, Cloud was happy to bring his unique perspective to Creating and Running a Business. “I have all these concepts and experiences. I want students to learn from my mistakes and successes. I want to inspire them and plant seeds that hopefully they’ll cultivate and grow,” Cloud says. Cloud feels that both parts of the course, the creating and the running, are important. “Creating things is at the core of what MCAD does, so in my eyes it’s also at the core of the course, thinking about how to generate different business models. The running part is what takes you off the ground,” he says. Students in Cloud’s fall 2016 class formed teams and pitched concepts to members of the local creative community. Concepts generated in the class included a website that hosts knitting and crocheting tutorials; a service that simplifies estate sales; and a brand of niche zines, enamel pins, and patches. “MCAD has an investment in ES and now they’re increasing it because they see it's the way the world’s heading. A lot of entrepreneurship is working with the world’s problems, whether that’s social change or how to make your neighborhood better. We’re so interconnected that it’s very important to have a program of entrepreneurial studies that gives people the tools, tactics, and resources to make the next wave of businesses out there—the next wave of ideas and disruptions. I think MCAD’s investment will pay off in dividends,” Cloud says. �
Last time I used a black pen.” It’s a Tuesday night at MCAD and instructor Chris Cloud is passing back a graded quiz in his Creating and Running a Business course. Cloud is not a new face around MCAD, having guest lectured in past entrepreneurial studies (ES) classes, but this is his first time teaching a class of his own. With plenty of experience starting and running creative ventures, Cloud is here to share his experiences with MCAD students, hoping to inspire them, guide them in generating ideas for business concepts, and help turn those ideas into viable, successful enterprises. Cloud is an artist, curator, culture maker, and a fixture in Minneapolis’s creative milieu. “I call myself a culture maker because I make and produce lots of different things, whether that’s art, events, or experiences,” Cloud says. “Lots” is not an exaggeration. Spurred on by a DIT (do-it-together) philosophy, the first project he co-founded, MPLS.TV, produced 300 original videos in three years and published content by people all across the Twin Cities. That venture spawned MPLSzine, a submissions-based digital publication. His most recent venture is Pizza Camp—an overnight retreat for pizza-loving adults—that he founded with Paige Guggemos ’10. On top of everything, he has an emerging art practice. When he isn't cultivating projects, he works full-time as the voice of the Walker Art Center on social media. Although Cloud has always felt the pull to create, it was a peer-nominated award for creativity he received while working at Carmichael Lynch, shortly after starting up MPLS.TV, that propelled him forward. “I was working at an ad agency that has a creative department and they gave the award to the IT
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Photograph by Cole Seidl ’17, MFA
“I used a red pen this time. I felt like a real professor.
ENTREPRENEURIAL STUD IE S: CL A S S PRO FILE S
Beth Franklin in the Gallery @ Fox Tax, featuring work by Minneapolis painter Bruce Nygren ’69 and son Matthew Nygren.
Financing Innovation with Beth Franklin
Photograph by Rita Kovtun
A new class at MCAD is arming artists and designers with
thought out and will support their creative projects. Franklin began the semester with the topic of personal finance in order to help students develop an instant connection to the subject and then moved on to breaking down the different ways to fund creative ventures. To mix up the class, Franklin invited in guest speakers like Noah Keesecker, program director at Springboard for the Arts; Bobby Maher, an artist and musician who has funded projects through grants and crowdfunding; Nick Dahl ’10, a digital manager at mono who talked about agencies and budgeting; and Kate Mohn ’14, MA, grants and project administrator at MCAD. Emmy Carter, development and communications director at the Cedar Cultural Center and a musician, served as a teaching assistant and offered her expertise with grant writing. Students learned how to write proposals for their projects, balance budgets, prepare grant proposals, and create appropriate crowdfunding campaign incentives. Franklin’s goal is to help young artists take ownership of their financials, their businesses, and ultimately, their lives. “Money for so many people is really stressful. They feel like they don’t know how to control it because they don’t understand the system. Let’s tear down the ‘man behind the curtain’ mentality. My end goal is to break down barriers and give people the tools to be able to make better financial decisions,” she says. Franklin hopes artists realize that financial literacy matched with clear descriptions of creative projects is not only important, but necessary, to their long-term success: “You wear so many different hats when you’re running a business and, like it or not, you should be able to talk about your business in a financial way. It’s just another way to tell the story.” �
the financial literacy skills they need to succeed. Financing Innovation, which piloted in fall 2016, guides students through telling the financial story of their creative enterprises in order to create a sustainable business model, attract funding, and ultimately thrive as a working artist or entrepreneur. Seeing a need, Entrepreneurial Studies Director Stephen Rueff approached Beth Franklin, a tax accountant and small business advisor at Fox Tax, a tax and accounting haven for creative entrepreneurs, to teach the course. “A lot of feedback from alumni was that they wanted to feel better prepared to run a business. Accounting is one of those things that is so daunting and feels so mysterious. I wanted to teach it in a way that was useful, applicable, and accessible,” Franklin says. Having always been drawn to working with those at a disadvantage with financial literacy, Franklin was the perfect fit to pilot the class. Aside from her role at Fox Tax, Franklin volunteered at Prepare + Prosper, a nonprofit that offers free tax preparation and financial planning for the low-income population, taught a financial accounting class at Normandale Community College, and gave tax talks at a number of conferences and colleges. Though not an artist herself, she has always had an affinity for those who are. “This is kind of my art,” she says of her profession. The class introduces students to basic accounting principles and different capital-raising strategies available to the arts community, such as loans, fiscal sponsorships, crowdfunding, and grants. Teaching students to ask questions like “How do I know how much to ask for in my Kickstarter campaign or my grant application?” ensures that their financial decisions are well
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ENTREPRENEURIAL STUD IE S: STUDENT AND ALUMNI PRO FILE S
Susan Quakkelaar ’03
coordinator. She quickly moved up to a project manager and ultimately landed where she is now—a digital manager at Twin Cities PBS. Quakkelaar truly embodies the spirit of the program, which aims to create a bridge between art and business, teaching its students to speak the language of both. “MCAD is woven into almost everything I do because I’m constantly working with creatives and business owners and translating for the other side,” she says. Passing that spirit on is something she relishes. Four years after graduating, Quakkelaar came back to MCAD to teach Project Tracking in the ES program for nine semesters. While teaching budgets, timelines, scope, and client management, she discovered students were missing a softer skill: conflict management. She put together a class that pulled from her experiences with managing clients and teams and doing crisis call counseling. Teaching and mentoring students in the same program she went through was a powerful experience for Quakkelaar. “Ever since I graduated, I have tried to mentor students, inspire them, and grow them outside of the program. I gave back everything MCAD gave me to a whole new group of students,” she says. �
successful alumni ever since its inception. As one of the first graduates of the program, Susan Quakkelaar has worked as a project manager for big names like Best Buy, Carmichael Lynch, and Twin Cities PBS. For her, this career success stems back to the flexible lifelong skills she gained in the program: learning how to teach herself and how to go between the fields of art and business. Quakkelaar graduated in the second class of students to ever go through the program, originally called “visualization” and accredited as a bachelor of science degree. “It was like a family. We were all pioneers,” she recalls. In the program, Quakkelaar discovered what she loves doing: facilitating teams, projects, and client experience. The most important skill she learned is one that transcends a job description—one that she solidified in the program’s required physics class. “You go to a regular science class and they’re like, ‘Here’s what electricity is.’ But I had to learn it, teach it, and make a product about it, all in one class. That is the difference between MCAD and somewhere else,” she says. While still in school, Quakkelaar began interning at Carmichael Lynch through an alumni connection. After graduation, the agency hired her full-time as a project
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Photograph by Rita Kovtun
The entrepreneurial studies (ES) program has produced
ENTREPRENEURIAL STUD IE S: STUDENT AND ALUMNI PRO FILE S
Photograph by Cole Seidl ’17, MFA
Michael Ortiz ’16
NEXT: How did you find out about and choose MCAD?
more growth as an artist, but in ES you got more growth as a person. ES definitely teaches you to shine, to champion yourself no matter what your skills are. The people around you, the people at MCAD, artists in the Twin Cities and around the world—we are such a strong network that connects everyone at MCAD to the rest of the world. I don’t think MCAD would be the same without the ES program.
Michael Ortiz: An MCAD recruiter came to my high school. I heard that they had animation and business classes, saw the reels, and said, “This is where I need to go.”
How did you choose your major? I joined entrepreneurial studies (ES) because I didn’t want to just be in animation—I didn’t want to be just one type of artist. I wanted to have the ability to market myself as a freelance artist so I could work on my own, with a group, or in any sort of option that was available to me—be multifaceted, which is the type of artist that I am. In ES, I was able to explore multiple mediums and grow as an artist. We have a network of people in ES who are the same way. We’re all hybrids. We all came together and pooled our resources to work as a team. Being able to play off of each other is a benefit of the program.
What did you learn during your time in the ES program? I interned at the Good Grocer, a nonprofit grocery store in Minneapolis, through the ES program. I learned everything from the detailed inner workings of managing a nonprofit to day-to-day interactions with people of every background. Being originally a very shy and introverted person, I transitioned out of that to be one of the most outspoken people in my class, trying to be a leader in my program. I tried to get myself out there more by not sitting in the shadows as the quiet artist who knows how to draw really well but doesn’t know how to communicate with other people. I learned to have a timeline of goals. Writing down “This is where I’m going to be in a year, in five years, in ten years,” made me realize my bigger goals of “Yes, I can do this,” and to break it down in steps. �
What was the ES program like? In ES, you were constantly working with an outside client. You were in a real-world, nitty-gritty, real consequences sort of environment. In art and design classes, it’s more of a simulation. You were getting a grade and you didn’t feel the weight of things as much. In art and design classes, you got
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ENTREPRENEURIAL STUD IE S: STUDENT AND ALUMNI PRO FILE S
Kyle Lieberman ’16 Photograph from Red Bull Crashed Ice 2015 by Kyle Lieberman
craft sometimes. You have to know how to market yourself.” Lieberman had never even heard of MCAD until he studied abroad in England during his sophomore year at St. Cloud State University, unsure of which direction to take his studies. There, he met a student who was in the ES program. “She told me about the program and how it intertwined the business and the art. That seemed like exactly what I wanted to do,” he says. “I applied for MCAD, got accepted while I was still in England, and just kind of went on a limb.” For Lieberman, the ES program was the perfect supplement to his photography classes, and more. “The ES degree definitely helped me advertise and market myself and my personal business, as well as opened my mind to sustainable living and a different way of thinking about the world,” he says. “Being surrounded by so many open-minded individuals really frees your mind. No one is judging you or telling you what to do. You just create at MCAD.” “MCAD was definitely one of the most pivotal things and it all came from just making a rash decision while I was in England,” Lieberman says. “Every portfolio piece that I have is because of MCAD equipment. All the connections I made there or people I have met from there—everything from the past three years has been because of MCAD.” �
was photographing Red Bull Crashed Ice, the Ice Cross Downhill World Championship held annually in St. Paul. “It was the second Red Bull event I ever shot, so it was a huge opportunity. It’s also the largest event they do in Minnesota, so there was a lot of pressure,” he says. Lieberman had covered for a friend when he took pictures of a Red Bull pickup hockey league. The company liked his images so much that they asked him to cover Crashed Ice, which he did for three years. “The first year, I was freezing and trying my best to not screw it up. By the third year I became pretty good friends with a lot of the best racers in the world and photographed them outside of Crashed Ice,” Lieberman says. That gig paved the way for Lieberman to continue shooting for Red Bull in New York City, where he moved last fall. He also works in editorial and fashion photography and as a model. Lieberman came to MCAD for the entrepreneurial studies (ES) program. He was interested in photography and business, but wasn’t satisfied with a program that would only focus on one or the other. “I wanted something that would integrate a business background because I feel like a lot of artists don’t have that,” Lieberman says. “Owning your business is much more important than mastering your
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Photograph by Ryan Taylor Visual
As a first-year student at MCAD, Kyle Lieberman
ENTREPRENEURIAL STUD IE S: STUDENT AND ALUMNI PRO FILE S
Photographs by (left) Forrest Wasko ’17 and Cole Seidl ’17, MFA
Janie Arguedas ’17
Detail of 2016 hand-deconstructed fabric and forged steel installation Worth the Weight by Janie Arguedas
NEXT: How did you find MCAD and the entrepreneurial studies (ES) program?
applied to many things, such as the idea of the fabric of our society. I want to work with social sustainability and my passion for shredded fabric motivates because I’m interested in the human condition, which is a very complex web, and shredded fabric is a visual representation of that.
Janie Arguedas: After testing the waters at several other art schools and feeling unfulfilled, I decided to reroute. I looked at MCAD and I didn’t even know that they had an entrepreneurial studies program. I wanted job security and MCAD was also costand time-effective because they would take my BFA credits.
Tell us more about your passion for sustainability. I’m half-Costa Rican with family and property in Monteverde. I wanted to connect to those roots because I grew up here, so last summer I studied through two programs in Bocas del Toro, Panama, and Atenas, Costa Rica, and focused on social sustainability. I did an installation with my shredded fabric in an abandoned warehouse in Panama and was able to communicate my ideas more clearly about my own artistic practice.
Are your art and your work in ES classes intertwined? Very much. You’re able to take an assignment and incorporate it in the way that is representative of your creative process, whether that’s making a poster, a painting, or an installation. It allows me to express myself in ways that are difficult to do in words. I’m also very passionate about sustainability, so I’m able to do that, practice my art, and still have practical realworld experiences with clients.
What are your post-graduation goals and dreams? I’m planning on writing grants and working in activism or community art programs. I’m considering graduate school or teaching. Long-term, having my own business in Costa Rica on my family’s land. I did an independent study and developed a plan for a zero-waste permaculture community consisting of different social groups. This is something I’m working to move forward. The ES program has helped me be more confident and directed in my career path. �
Can you talk about your art practice? I explored the idea of how we cast ourselves in clothing every day and our relationship with materialistic consumption and our identities. I started altering clothing by pulling apart the fibers until it was at its most basic state. I knew this was something that I’d be working with for a while and I’m still motivated by it because it’s an abstract concept that can be
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ENTREPRENEURIAL STUD IE S: FACULT Y SP OTLIGHT
Meet the Entrepreneurial Studies Faculty ARLENE BIRT ’02 Birt is an infodesigner, visual storyteller, and public artist. She is chief visual storyteller at Background Stories, an infodesign consultancy that translates complex ideas, systems, and metrics into clear visuals to help people understand sustainability.
MIKE HEGGERNES Heggernes is an artist at heart and has spent his entire career working as a creative problem solver, graphic designer, art director, creative director, and marketing strategist in the advertising arena.
NANCY RICE ’70 Rice is an entrepreneur and an advertising legend, having held senior creative management posts with Knox Reeves, Bozell & Jacobs, DDB Chicago, Ogilvy & Mather Chicago, BBDO Minneapolis, and Rice & Rice. She was a founding partner in Fallon McElligott Rice and is a member of the Art Director's Hall of Fame.
STEPHEN RUEFF Rueff is a McKnight fellow and has worked in the fields of corporate marketing, communications, and performing arts. Read more about the new director on page 9.
EMMY CARTER (Not pictured) Carter is the director of development and communications at the Cedar Cultural Center. She has ten years of fundraising and marketing experience at institutions like Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Cunningham Dance Foundation.
KIRK HORSTED (Not pictured) Horsted is a founder and principal of 2 Heads Communications— a Twin-Cities boutique communications company. Horsted also held an executive position with Minnesota Monthly magazine and worked in advertising and public radio.
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ENTREPRENEURIAL STUD IE S: FACULT Y SP OTLIGHT
Entrepreneurial Studies faculty are made up of practicing creative professionals who connect classroom theory with applications in creative work. Their contemporary courses introduce students to core business principles as well as emerging practices in the creative economy.
NICK DAHL ’10 Dahl works in the digital space and has helped craft unique online experiences for a slew of clients, from startups to Fortune 500 companies. He is currently a digital manager at mono.
CHRIS CLOUD Cloud is an artist, curator, culture maker, and a fixture in Minneapolis’s creative milieu. He is the co-founder of MPLS.TV, MPLSzine, and Pizza Camp, and the voice of Walker Art Center on their social media channels.
BENJAMIN KJOS ’11 Kjos is a Minneapolis-based creative director and copywriter who works on communications campaigns and solutions for multiple Fortune 1000 clients. He loves to share his enthusiasm for words and the Oxford comma with his students.
BETH FRANKLIN Franklin works at Fox Tax LLC, a tax and accounting haven for creative entrepreneurs. Franklin is a CPA and holds a master's in business taxation, which has allowed her to expand her work beyond taxes and into academia.
MOLLY PRIESMEYER Priesmeyer is an award-winning writer, editor, and story-gatherer based in Minneapolis. She is the owner of Good Work Group, a communications and storytelling consultancy, and a go-to copywriter specializing in brand and journalistic storytelling.
Photograph by Forrest Wasko ’17
ABBI ALLAN ’08, MFA Allan is a fine artist and instructor. She has taught at MCAD since 2008, as well as at the Science Museum of Minnesota, STAR Academy, and other institutions, working with students of all ages to blend art, science, and the love of learning.
CONNIE RUTLEDGE (Not pictured) Rutledge translates her experience in evaluating business concepts into hands-on courses designed to help students thoroughly “kick the tires” on their ideas and develop great value for their customers.
SAM ERO-PHILLIPS (Not pictured) Ero-Phillips is a designer at 4RM+ULA architecture, a trainer/artist alum at Intermedia Arts for the Creative CityMaking program, an artist for the Arts on Chicago Project with Pillsbury House Theatre, and an environmental design instructor at Juxtaposition Arts.
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ENTREPRENEURIAL STUD IE S: FOUNDATIO N O F THE PRO GR AM
History of Entrepreneurial Studies First directors of the entrepreneurial studies program Jerry Allan (left) and Lester Shen established a solid foundation for future students.
Twenty years after its inception, entrepreneurial studies
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Photograph by Cole Seidl ’17, MFA
The students in the program were creative in a different way. “The types of students that we wanted were ones that would facilitate, lead, and manage,” Shen says. Jerry Allan, who took over as the program’s second director in 2008, states: “All other programs within the school are defined by media, and in this program the media are people. The other programs say, ‘We make things.’ ES says, ‘We make things happen.’” Allan was a part of the program’s initial planning process and faculty. Retiring as of this year, he taught at MCAD for nearly forty years after being recruited from his positions as founder of Criteria Architects Inc. and professor of architecture at the University of Minnesota. Under Shen, the program had largely focused on technology. Allan shifted that focus to social causes while retaining the emphasis on a user-centered approach and client-based projects. With a background in preemptive peace, Allan created five-year projects with organizations in countries all over the world. Advertising also came under the umbrella of the program. Allan is excited for the program to evolve under new director Stephen Rueff and with the upcoming E/STUDIO space, glimpsing a bright future: “This program would not exist outside of a creative school. It would be a business program, but the creative school makes us very unique. Once people learn what we’re really doing, we’ll have to turn them away.” �
(ES) remains both a legacy and pioneering program at MCAD. The program was the brainchild of former MCAD President John Slorp, who wanted to make it easier for students to find jobs after graduation. He called on Anedith Nash, former liberal studies chair, and Andrea Nasset, former academic vice president, to help develop the program. The program’s first director, Lester Shen, was working as an engineering consultant when he was approached by Nash in 1997 to help develop courses for the new venture. Shortly after, Nash left MCAD and Shen took over. With his engineering background, Shen built the program around a systems thinking framework. “I wanted the students to work in teams, so they knew how to lead and how to follow,” he says. Shen brought in outside clients to work with the students and built in a required externship and internships as capstone experiences of the program. “It enriched their resume and it gave them connections,” he says. For Shen, “It was not a program of answers, but a program of questions. It’s more important to learn how to learn.” The questions students learned to ask helped them assume the role of a translator between clients and creatives. In other words, the program took a user-centered design, later coined design thinking, approach to problem-solving. MCAD was on the cutting edge of teaching this process to students when it was just becoming popularized.
ENTREPRENEURIAL STUD IE S: FOUNDATIO N O F THE PRO GR AM
Funding Long-Term Impact
Photograph by Lindsey Kusterman ’17
MCAD donor Gary Smaby of the Smaby Family Foundation helped launch a refresh of the college's entrepreneurial studies program.
When it comes to supporting ideas, Gary Smaby is ready to fight for the ones no one else will. “When the Smaby Family Foundation funds a project, we often meet with the development director near the end of the calendar year to identify proposals that didn’t get funded, despite considerable promise, because they were considered too risky. Those are exactly the kind of projects that we like to invest in,” Smaby says. The Smaby Family Foundation was established by Smaby’s father, a real estate entrepreneur, and mother, a lifelong artist. The foundation focuses on grantmaking in those respective fields, with a particular emphasis on education. According to Smaby, most of the programs funded in recent years have specifically emphasized collaboration, innovation, social change, and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math). “In the social venturing realm, we’re not looking at a return on investment in terms of dollars invested. The currency is different. We focus on the long-term impact that our investment can make on people and the community in which they live,” Smaby says. With a mission like this, it would come as no surprise that the foundation has funded MCAD projects such as the bog, a web and multimedia class, and the Greater Minnesota Arts Initiative. “Our strategy is not to invest in large-scale projects where our drops of water get lost in the ocean. We’d just as soon take risks by focusing on embryonic projects with high risk-reward potential,” Smaby says.
Smaby himself has a background in both art and venture enterprise. He studied art in his undergraduate career at St. Olaf and has been a lifelong photographer (he captured images of music stars like Joni Mitchell and Paul McCartney in the seventies). Most recently, he’s been producing giant-screen science education films. Smaby has been an artist-in-residence for the last four years at the University of California Santa Barbara’s Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics. Considering all of this, it makes perfect sense that the Smaby Foundation helped launch a refresh of MCAD’s entrepreneurial studies program: “We put our money where our mouth is. To us, it’s a perfect program—empowering students seeking a career in the world of art with the understanding that twenty-first century businesses are becoming increasingly reliant upon artists and designers to be successful.” For Smaby, all working artists are entrepreneurs. “They sit on the outer edge of the bell curve pushing that envelope, experimenting, prototyping, and innovating—characteristics that are critical not only to business success but also to enabling artists to express their personal vision,” Smaby says. And it’s the quality of the “people and ideas” that keeps Smaby coming back to MCAD. “I see a continued focus at MCAD on achieving growth with excellence and a willingness to take risks and explore new ideas, knowing that some of them aren’t going to work.” �
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CO MMUNIT Y OUTRE ACH
Coffee and Collaboration with the Velasquez Family
Bottom: Photograph courtesy Velasquez Family Coffee
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Top: Photograph by Rita Kovtun
Allowing students the chance to collaborate on teams they’re paying their growers at a premium price. They meet with real clients on real projects locally, nationally, and globa lot of the sustainability values that we look for in clients.” ally is a pillar of the entrepreneurial studies (ES) program. A group of students collaborated with VFC in two Velasquez Family Coffee (VFC), a company run by Guillermo classes—Client Studio, taught by Rueff, and Project Tracking, and Cathy Velasquez that sells taught by Nick Dahl ’10, also a fair trade, high-quality coffee digital manager at mono. The grown by their family in the students organized a coffee tasting and created surveys mountains of Honduras, is one of the latest collaborations. for VFC's subscribers and the Velasquez Family Coffee general public. They then looked at the specialty coffee began in 1991 when Guillermo market in the Twin Cities, and Cathy Velasquez brought a analyzed five years of VFC’s few hundred pounds of coffee monthly subscribers through beans from Guillermo’s family data mapping, and evaluated farm in Honduras back to Minnesota in suitcases. That year, VFC’s marketing approach. At coffee prices were so low that the end of the fall 2016 semesGuillermo’s father didn’t even ter, they presented a growth want to harvest the beans, but strategy, new potential target Guillermo proposed trying to markets for VFC, a social media sell them in the U.S. The beans playbook, and a redesigned sold, and when more beans email newsletter. came in suitcases the following Cathy and Guillermo were year, those sold too. Thus, VFC very pleased with the students’ was born. work. “They helped affirm some of the things we had Today, the company is hunches about, that yes, cusfifteen years old, selling shadegrown, hand-picked, sun-dried tomers are looking for the story coffee on a subscription-based and that personal connection, Top: (Left to right) Entrepreneurial studies students Beza Daniel ’18, model. The beans are grown and that fits nicely with what Joel Minan ’18, and Daren Hill ’19, Cathy and Guillermo Velasquez of at the farm, prepared by Guillwe have to offer,” Cathy says. Velasquez Family Coffee, and student Janie Arguedas ’17 after the group's final presentation at mono. ermo’s brothers, and shipped VFC has already imBottom: Guillermo and his brother Sabel Velasquez check out the to Minnesota where they are plemented several of the coffee harvest at Sabel's farm in Matazano, Honduras—one of the group’s solutions, including roasted and delivered to cusplaces Velasquez Family Coffee gets coffee beans. the newsletter template and tomers in a matter of days. In the past year, VFC reaped a bountiful harvest. “Knowing we design elements that guided the revamping of the company's were getting a full container and that Guillermo’s brothers website, and will stay on as a client for future ES courses. were planting more, we wanted to figure out ways to grow “Students will build on this research, updating based on how our base of customers,” Cathy says. In looking to refresh their the company or the marketplace has evolved,” Rueff says. The Velasquez family is excited about that idea. “We’ve business model and marketing materials, the Velasquez family connected with the ES department at MCAD. been really impressed with what we’ve been learning about ES Director Stephen Rueff felt that VFC was an ideal MCAD itself. It would be fascinating to see what else we can match as a program client: “They pay more than fair trade; learn having other students work with us,” Cathy says. �
CO MMUNIT Y OUTRE ACH
MCAD Collaborates on Arts Project with Simpson Housing Located just a few blocks from MCAD's campus, Simpson
techniques, created landscape collages, experimented with watercolors to express their emotional reactions to various genres of music, and painted acrylic still lifes. For their final arts project, the children worked in teams to create large canvas paintings of what the idea of home means to them. Works created by the children were displayed in a miniexhibition at MCAD in late May. The children also took a field trip to the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Following the program, Simpson staff was provided with art supplies and lesson plans to continue to support children in future creative activities. MCAD also created detailed lesson plans so that Simpson staff can expand their tutoring program to include creative activities for enrolled children. �
Housing Services is a nonprofit organization dedicated to housing, supporting, and advocating for people experiencing homelessness. In 2015, MCAD and Simpson began exploring the possibility of creating a collaborative project that would provide free arts programming to children transitioning out of homelessness. The resulting pilot project, funded by RBC Foundation – USA, ran through the spring 2016 semester. MCAD teaching artist Melodee Strong ’06 and intern Chelsea Novotny ’16 worked with fifteen Simpson students, ages five to twelve, to create original pieces of art using a variety of approaches and materials. The children learned drawing and texture rubbing
MCAD DesignWorks Refreshes Minneapolis Voting Signage In 2016, MCAD DesignWorks worked with the City of
by AIGA through its Design for Democracy project, the MCAD design team created a modular, flexible system of signage. Concurrently, the City of Minneapolis had been considering a redesign of voter signage and recognized the value of MCAD’s refreshed signage approach. Working with designer Hardy Stewart ’07, DesignWorks students developed a style guide of standardized colors, fonts, and graphic elements to unify the system but also allow for adaptability depending on the needs of the various precincts. The signage system was also translated into Hmong, Somali, and Spanish. City officials commented they were pleased with the uniformity and clean look of the new signs. �
Minneapolis to redesign the city’s voting signage, which rolled out on Election Day. MCAD first served as a polling place for Ward 10, Precinct 9 in the 2012 general election. Heavy voter turnout and low user-friendliness of existing signage led a group of students and staff to develop a multilingual signage system to help guide voters through the various steps of exercising their franchise on Election Day in time for the 2014 general election. The team was guided by Kate Mohn ’14, MA, MCAD grants and projects administrator, who previously worked at the Secretary of State’s office. Following best practices developed
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STUD IO PRO FILE
Studio Visit with Wesley Kimler
Story and photos by Rita Kovtun 23
STUD IO PRO FILE
It's very much its own world—dark, moody, messy. A place for Kimler to dream up his creations and give them life. Wesley Kimler was surprised to find himself as a student at MCAD. “I grew up on the streets, in the old South of Market area of San Francisco, which was all derelict wino hotels. I left home when I was fourteen,” he says. When he was twenty, he moved to Afghanistan and worked as a carpet buyer. A few years later, he moved to Austin and started thinking about college. First, he had to get his GED: “I didn’t finish ninth grade.” Then, he decided on MCAD. “I just liked the catalog. I went, ‘Oh, I’d like to go there.’” And finally, he had to make it there. “I didn’t even know how to drive so I bought an old Ford panel truck and got a learner’s permit. I literally learned to drive on my way to Minneapolis,” he says. Kimler quickly found his calling. “I was going be a painter—and my paintings were controversial. There was a group of us painters and I guess I was sort of the ringleader. We made obscene, disgusting, slash-and-burn paintings and we’d hang them in the cafeteria. I got in trouble for one I did. It turned into a big fiasco,” he recalls. Shortly after this, Kimler left MCAD only two years into his studies. “I was kind of a hothead,” he says. And so began Kimler’s decades-long painting career, in which he became known for his colossal, dramatic, emotive paintings and shrewd, critical view of the
art world. His latest paintings depict themes of war. “I try to find beauty in brutality,” Kimler says. He’s telling me his story in his studio, an old warehouse in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago that originally belonged to Goodman Theatre. He came here fifteen years ago when he was involved with Collaboraction Theatre Company, so it makes sense that walking inside feels like stepping backstage. It’s very much its own world—dark, moody, messy. A place for Kimler to dream up his creations and give them life. His towering paintings are lit with theatrical lighting while the rest of the studio is dim. “This is how I like to work—with things almost in twilight,” he says. Under the same roof reside his ten-year-old daughter Amina, a little white dog, and an assortment of parrots who occasionally interrupt our conversation with a loud squawk. Today, Kimler credits MCAD for his success: “So much time has gone by, I just see the good things now. I went to a great school and it led me to being a painter today and to what painting should be. Even though I only stayed for two years, it profoundly influenced me and helped me become who I am.” � To see more of Kimler’s studio, visit mcad.edu/wesley-kimler.
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M C AD HIGHLIGHTS
2016–2017 Openings and Events
a. T om and Angie (not pictured) Wicka, winning bidders of Robert Whitman's photograph of Prince, with the artist, President Jay Coogan, son Nash Wicka, and friend at the 2016 Auction at MCAD. b. F ull Fashion Panic at the Mechademia Conference on Asian Popular Cultures, hosted at MCAD.
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c. M CAD staff and board members pose with Ed Charbonneau ’06, MFA, studio mate Jeremy Szopinski, and a team of student painters in front of their mural at the new U.S. Bank Stadium. d. G uests at the Stevens League Alumni Luncheon. e. P resident Jay Coogan with Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges during her visit to MCAD. f. S hoppers at the 19th annual MCAD Art Sale.
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g. B anner by Piotr Szyhalski in A Pressing Matter, his exhibition with student group the People’s Library.
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M C AD HIGHLIGHTS
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ALUMNI NE WS
Alumni Notes MCAD alumni are setting new standards across the broadest range of creative careers and include independent business owners, global marketing directors, and award-winning animators, photographers, illustrators, artists, and designers. In addition to the recent alumni highlights below, MCAD news and updates can be found online at mcad.edu. Rogers and Barlow in Perpetual Revolution: The Image and Social Change Bobby Rogers ’14 and Leslie Barlow ’16, MFA, both have pieces included in Perpetual Revolution: The Image and Social Change at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York. The ICP website describes the exhibition as “a look into an ongoing revolution that is taking place politically, socially, and technologically, and new digital methods of image production, display, and distribution simultaneously both report and produce social change.” (a)
The illustrators’ works are on the SILA's website and were exhibited at the Gallery at Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles. The selectees are Grace Easton ’19 (seven works, including Honorable Mention), Nathan Motzko ’16 (five works), Emma Fortney ’18 (two works), Madelyn Kozlowski ’17 (two works), Jacob Yeates ’17 (two works), Calvin Bauer ’17, Jaeden Blawat ’16, Hannah Northup ’17, and Yuchen Zhang ’18, MFA.
Carlson and Buffalohead Receive Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant
opened Friend Mart in LA's Chinatown, stocking merchandise designed by many of the artists—this time, with full permission and compensation.
Lockstadt Illustrates for City Pages’ Year in Music Issue Cover Allegra Lockstadt ’10 illustrated the cover for the 2016 Year in Music issue of City Pages. The cover story for the issue, “2016: The Worst Year in Music,” speaks on the influential musicians that we lost last year including Prince, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, and others. (c)
Andrea Carlson ’05, MFA, and Julie Buffalohead ’95 are two of the twenty-five recipients of the 2016 Painters & Sculptors Grant Program in the amount of $25,000 each. The foundation annually awards grants nationally, by nomination, to individual artists. The Painters & Sculptors Grant Program offers unrestricted career support and hopes to demonstrate that painting and sculpture are significant cultural necessities.
Faculty member Julie Van Grol ’14, MFA, was featured by the Huffington Post for her illustration project 100 Days of Badass Babes, shared through her Instagram account @julievangrol. From supreme court justices to rock band members, all of her portraits incorporate vibrant patterns and bright colors. (d)
Illustrators Accepted into Illustration West 55
Bassen Opens Shop in Los Angeles
Hoffman an Ad Age Power Player
The Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles (SILA) accepted several MCAD artists into their annual student competition and exhibition highlighting the best illustration of 2016—both from Los Angeles and from all around the world. Of close to 1,300 entries, twentytwo works of art by nine MCAD recent alumni and students were accepted.
Tuesday Bassen ’11 made headlines when she confronted international retailer Zara for stealing her designs. Several other artists came forward with similar claims, and the story went viral. After pressure from Bassen's fans on social media, Zara pulled several of the designs in question from their website. In August 2016, Bassen and a friend
Greg Hoffman ’92, chief marketing officer at Nike, has been named an Ad Age 2016 Power Player. The elite list of ten also includes the likes of Elon Musk (of Tesla) and Jeff Jones (of Uber). Hoffman got his start at Nike in 1992, when he borrowed his parents' van to drive from Minneapolis to Portland, Oregon, to start working as a design
Carlson Nominated for Grammy Award Eric Timothy Carlson ’06 was named a nominee in the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. He was recognized under the category of Best Recording Package for his design of Bon Iver's album 22, A Million. (b)
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Van Grol's Badass Babes Makes Headlines
(a) Photograph courtesy Bobby Rogers (b) Image courtesy Eric Timothy Carlson (c) Image courtesy Allegra Lockstadt (d) Image courtesy Julie Van Grol (e) Photograph courtesy Casey Opstad
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intern. This past summer, Hoffman led Nike's hugely disruptive “Unlimited” campaign, which turned into one of the most diverse and most watched campaigns of the year. Ad Age's Power Players are the executives setting the branding and marketing agenda—people challenging assumptions in the industry and leading others to follow. The list recognizes influencers and disruptors who are moving marketing forward.
Opstad Creates Chalk Murals for General Assembly Casey Opstad ’11, MFA, was recently interviewed by Laura Leebove of General Assembly about his corporate chalk portraits. His subjects have included the pioneering nurse and American Red Cross founder Clara Barton, former Boston Red Sox slugger David “Big Papi” Ortiz, Star Trek star Leonard Nimoy, and other local heroes. (e)
The article goes into detail about the merits of chalk as a medium, how environment can shape a person, and the artists that inspire Opstad.
Hunner, O'Connor, and Ulku among Ad Fed's 32 Under 32 Peter Hunner ’10, Tess O'Connor ’10, and Anne Ulku ’07 are among the winners of Ad Fed's 32 Under 32 for 2016. 32 Under 32 is about celebrating Minnesota's annual advertising, marketing, creative, and PR all-stars that are doing awesome work before turning thirty-two. According to their website, 32 Under 32 is “for the true movers and shakers who shape our industry.”
Animation Alumni Receive Oscar for Zootopia Having contributed to Oscar-winning movies Big Hero 6 (2014) and Frozen (2013) in the past, Disney animators Dan Lund ’89, Matthew Meyer ’01,
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Andrew Chesworth ’07, and Justin Weber ’08 cinched a 2017 Oscar for Zootopia. The film garnered lots of press during awards season not only for being a fun kids movie, but for also integrating topical messages involving themes of bigotry, racism, and prejudice.
Feider Builds Modern and Eco-Friendly Treehouses Dustin Feider ’05 is recognized in Sonoma Magazine for designing and building eco-conscious treehouses that respect trees and embrace their shapes and aesthetic. As an “arboreal architect” he focuses on making his treehouses light, efficient, and viewable from all angles. Feider and his company O2 Treehouse have built several houses among Bay Area branches and have expanded their design to include modular and expandable frame structures. �
WH O WE ARE
Where Creativity Meets Purpose The Minneapolis College of Art and Design educates individuals to be professional artists and designers, pioneering thinkers, creative leaders, and engaged global citizens.
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Recognized nationally and internationally for its innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to visual arts education, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design is home to more than 800 students and offers professional certificates, bachelor of fine arts and bachelor of science degrees, and graduate degrees. The campus is located just south of downtown Minneapolis and is composed of eight buildings and three acres of lawn and gardens. College facilities contain the latest in technology with multiple studios and labs open 24/7.
85% undergraduate 15% graduate/post-baccalaureate 68% female 32% male 65% from the Midwest 35% from all over the country, including California, Colorado, Maryland, Montana, New York, and Texas; and from around the world, including Chile, China, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, and Taiwan 97% receive financial aid 29% undergraduate students of color 25% undergraduates from private, parochial, and homeschools 38% undergraduate transfer students 90% first-year students live on campus 21 average age of undergraduates 100% undergraduates complete at least one internship 76% graduates working in their fields of study—full-time, part-time, or freelancing
Minneapolis College of Art and Design 2501 Stevens Avenue Minneapolis, MN 55404 mcad.edu 612.874.3700
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M C AD C ALENDAR
Upcoming Events FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT MCAD.EDU
MFA Thesis Exhibition
Summer Youth Programs
MAY 12, 2017
SUMMER 2017
The culminating exhibition of graduating master of fine arts candidates features a variety of disciplines: photography, painting, animation, printmaking, illustration, sculpture, and graphic design. This exhibition at the program’s new studio and gallery space is the result of a two-year journey of intensive research and studio practice.
Every summer, MCAD Continuing Education offers a plethora of exciting art classes for everyone, no matter your age or skill level. Classes for young artists cover everything from wild patterns and magical mobiles to outrageous fashion and creative comics.
20th Annual MCAD Art Sale
The Auction at MCAD
N OVEMB ER 16 –18, 2017
MAY 18, 2018
Held the weekend before Thanksgiving, the MCAD Art Sale is your chance to buy one-of-a-kind art created by students and recent graduates at unbeatable prices. Now in its twentieth year, the MCAD Art Sale is a Minnesota tradition that has generated more than three million dollars for emerging artists.
For one thrilling evening, mingle with fellow connoisseurs and collectors. Bid, buy, and collect from a unique mix of established alumni, friends, and faculty talent. Held every other year, The Auction at MCAD is a unique mix of the emerging talent, provocative creativity, and unbridled enthusiasm that can only happen at an art school.
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STUDENT SH OWC A SE
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Previous page: Selections from MCAD’s self-portrait contest a. Audriana Knox ’19 b. Marina Harkness ’17 c. Nate Christenson ’19 This spread: a. Anna Schultz ’16, Creation, 2016, photograph b. Jonathan Herrera ’17, Norte, o Muerte, 2015, lithography on handmade paper
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c. Erin Sandsmark ’17, MFA, Pinch, 2015, acrylic d. Cleo Malone ’17, No. 5-S, 2014, mono print with graphite e. Maddie Kozlowski ’17, Squad, 2017, digital illustration f. Erin Busko ’17, Can We Talk?, 2016, video g. Samuel Busko ’17, Drift Coffee Table,
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2016, oak and glass
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STUDENT SH OWC A SE
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