OCAD University
Logo of OCAD University
Motto	Imagination is Everything
Established	1876
Type	Public university
Endowment	C$9,576,604[1]
Chancellor	Catherine Delaney
President	Sara Diamond
Academic staff	102[2]
Students	4,072[3]
Undergraduates	3,882[3]
Postgraduates	95[3]
Location	Toronto, Ontario, Canada 43°39′11″N 79°23′28.3″W / 43.65306°N 79.391194°W / 43.65306; -79.391194Coordinates: 43°39′11″N 79°23′28.3″W / 43.65306°N 79.391194°W / 43.65306; -79.391194
Campus	Urban
Former names	Ontario School of Art (1876–86) Toronto Art School (1886–90) Central Ontario School of Art and Industrial Design (1890–1912) Ontario College of Art (1912–96) Ontario College of Art & Design (1996–2010)
Affiliations	AICAD, AUCC, CBIE, COU, IAU,
Website	http://www.ocad.ca

OCAD University (pron.: /ˈoʊkæd/ OH-kad; commonly referred as OCAD U or OCAD) is a public university, whose campus is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The school is within the Grange Park neighbourhood, and adjacent to the Art Gallery of Ontario. The school is Canada's largest and oldest educational institution for art and design.^[4] OCAD U offers courses through the Faculties of Art, Design, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and alternative programs. The enabling legislation is Ontario College of Art and Design University Act, 2002.^[5]

History [edit]

The University's beginnings stretch back to the project of the Ontario Society of Artists whose objectives included the development of art education in Ontario. The first School of Art was opened in 1876.

Curriculum [edit]

Inside a class in 1931.

In 1969–70, Roy Ascott radically challenged the pedagogy and curriculum structure of the College.^[6]

In 2008, OCAD president Sara Diamond changed the pedagogy. She emphasized academics over studio time and required full-time instructors to hold an advanced degree. There was some controversy as two faculty resigned over the changes.^[7]

Sharp Centre for Design [edit]

In 2004 work was completed on a new expansion. The "Sharp Centre for Design", designed by architect Will Alsop, of Alsop Architects, in a joint venture with Toronto-based Robbie/Young + Wright Architects Inc.^[8] It consists of a box four storeys off the ground supported by a series of multi-coloured pillars at different angles and is often described as a tabletop.^[9] The $42.5 million expansion and redevelopment has received numerous awards, including the first-ever Royal Institute of British Architects Worldwide Award, the award of excellence in the "Building in Context" category at the Toronto Architecture and Urban Design Awards, and was deemed the most outstanding technical project overall in the 2005 Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards.

Name changes [edit]

OCAD University has had a number of names over time.^[10][11]

• Ontario School of Art, 1876–86 founded by the Ontario Society of Artists to provide professional training in art.^[12]

Aerial view of Grange Park, with OCADU visible to the right, and the Art Gallery of Ontario in the background.

Looking north at McCaul at OCAD

Looking north along McCaul Street, with the Ontario College of Art & Design in the distance. Toronto, Ontario, Canada

View from Grange Park

• Toronto Art School, 1886–90
• Central Ontario School of Art and Industrial Design, 1890–1912
• Ontario College of Art (OCA), 1912–96
• Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD), 1996–2010
• OCAD University, 2010–present

Academic degrees [edit]

The school combines a studio-based education with liberal studies, which is recognized with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), a Bachelor of Design (BDes), an Interdisciplinary Master's in Art Media and Design (MA, MFA or MDes), a Master of Fine Arts in Criticism and Curatorial Practice (MFA), a Master of Design in Strategic Foresight and Innovation (MDes), an Executive Master of Design in Advertising (EMDes), a Master of Design in Inclusive Design (MDes), and a Graduate Program in Digital Futures (Graduate Diploma and MA, MDes, MFA).

Campus [edit]

The OCAD consists of a north campus and a south campus.^[13] Buildings at OCAD are referred to by their street addresses.^[14] Some buildings are also assigned a building number ^[15]

The north campus includes the Main Building and Sharp Centre for Design, the adjacent Butterfield Park, the Annex Building, the Rosalie Sharp Pavilion, the Student Centre, the Inclusive Design Institute, the future Continuing Education Centre ^[15] and the proposed Mirvish-Gehry development^[15]. .^[16] The entire south campus is situated physically on Richmond Street West.^[17][18]

Galleries [edit]

A number of galleries or exhibition spaces exist both on-campus and off-campus. A faculty gallery is planned as part of the proposed Mirvish-Gehry development.^[17] The existing major exhibition spaces are:

• Onsite [at] OCAD U. Created in 2007 as the OCAD Professional Gallery before taking on its current name in 2010, Onsite [at] OCAD U is features works by national and international professional artists and designers.^[19]

• Student Gallery. The Student Gallery curates and features works submitted by current OCAD students and recent alumni.^[20] The Student Gallery used to be located at 285 Dundas St. West and 76 McCaul Street. It was created in the early 1970s^{[21] [22]}

• Graduate Gallery. The Graduate Gallery is a gallery for graduate students and research faculty.^[23][24]

• Xpace. The OCAD Student Union runs a gallery called the Xpace Cultural Centre, located off-campus. (Hence Xpace, which stands for “external space.”) It aims to provide students and emerging artists a space to exhibit their work in a professional gallery setting, and to better respond to “contemporary issues in theory and aesthetics” in the community through the use of shorter time frames in its programming.^[25][26]

Research [edit]

As a research university, OCAD also conducts art and design research via the Digital Media Research + Innovation Institute (DMRII) which focuses on creative applied research in digital expression, digital immersion, digital experience and digital media industries. It consist of 19 research labs, including:

• the Ambient Experience Lab, focusing on experience design^[27]
• the Art Research Centre^[28]
• the Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC), focusing on inclusive design with an emphasis on information and communications technology^[29]
• the Social Body Lab, focusing on the interaction between the human body and the external world, which includes material research and wearable technology^[30]
• the Game:Play Lab,explores through play, critique, theory and practice the gaming experience

In addition to research centres within the school itself, OCAD also belongs to a number of research networks, including:

Centre for Innovation in Information Visualization and Data-Driven Design. The Centre for Innovation in Information Visualization and Data-Driven Design (CIV-DDD), led by York University,^[31] is a 5-year research initiative launched in March 2010 to address “innovation and training in information and scientific visualization in Ontario.”^[32][33] It consists of a team from York University, a team from OCAD University directed by Sara Diamond, a team from the University of Toronto, 14 industry partners, and a number of international collaborators.^[34] It is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation.^[35]

Inclusive Design Institute. The Inclusive Design Institute (IDI), directed by Jutta Treviranus,^[36] is a regional research network for inclusive design founded in 2008^[37] and officially launched on May 24, 2012,^[38] with the aim to “address the challenge of designing our information and communication systems (ICT) so that they work for all potential users, including users with disabilities, varying language needs and diverse cultural preferences.”^[36] It consists of eight core postsecondary partners (OCAD University, University of Toronto, Ryerson University, York University, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Sheridan College, George Brown College and Seneca College) and over 100 collaborating organizations,^[36] and is funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation.^[39][40][41]

Research by students, alumni, and faculty receives support for commercialization through its incubator program called the Imagination Catalyst, under the direction of the AVP Research and Graduate Studies and coordinated by the Digital Futures Implementation office. This incubator was established in August 2011 as the Digital Futures Accelerator and the Design Incubator.^[34][42]

The MEIC convergence centre is the industry mobile incubator under the direction of the MEIC which is a not for profit association of mobile industry stakeholders and academia.^[43]

Notable faculty members [edit]

Faculty and staff of OCAD University have included

• Roy Ascott
• Barbara Astman
• Bill Buxton
• Allan Fleming
• Richard Fung
• Ian Carr-Harris
• Martha Ladly
• Arthur Lismer
• J. E. H. MacDonald
• Jock Macdonald
• Christiane Pflug
• George Agnew Reid
• Lisa Steele
• Maurice Vellekoop
• Norman White

Notable alumni [edit]

• Peggy Adam – French comic book artist, illustrator
• Myfanwy Ashmore – conceptual artist^[44]
• Barbara Astman RCA – artist, photographer
• Yank Azman – actor
• David Blackwood – Canadian artist
• Shary Boyle - Canadian artist who works with sculpture, painting, drawing and performance
• Jubal Brown – video artist^[45]
• George Bures Miller – installation artist
• Jack Bush – abstract expressionist painter, member of the Painters Eleven
• Meryn Cadell – writer, performance artist
• Franklin Carmichael – painter, member of the Group of Seven
• Robin Cass – filmmaker, producer
• Aimee Chan – graphic designer, Miss Hong Kong 2006, actress
• George Dunning – artist, illustrator
• Wallace Edwards – illustrator
• Frank Faubert – politician, final Mayor of Scarborough
• Ed Furness – comic book artist
• Gregory Gallant – comic book artist, writer
• Max Gimblett – artist
• Emanuel Hahn – sculptor, coin designer
• Rachel Hayward – actress
• Wade Hemsworth – songwriter
• Peter Ho – singer, producer, actor, model
• Cleeve Horne – painter, sculptor
• James Archibald Houston – artist, children's author
• Barbara Howard, RCA – Canadian artist and wood engraver
• Eli Ilan – sculptor
• Michael Ironside – actor, director
• Clark Johnson – actor, director
• Carlos del Junco – musician
• Garry Kennedy – conceptual artist
• Christopher Kier – encaustic painter
• Maya Kulenovic – painter
• William Kurelek – artist, writer
• Monte Kwinter – politician
• Martha Ladly – designer, musician
• Robert Lougheed – Canadian artist
• Irene Loughlin – performance artist, writer
• Wayne Lum – sculptor, commercial artist
• Duncan Macpherson – cartoonist
• Michael Martchenko – illustrator, illustrated Robert Munsch stories
• Jean Mathieson – animator
• Doris McCarthy – landscape artist
• Ross McLaren – artist, filmmaker
• Claire Mowat – writer
• Walter Tandy Murch – painter
• Mary Margaret O'Hara – musician, actress
• Lucille Oille – sculptor, illustrator
• Kim Ondaatje – painter, photographer, filmmaker
• Oscar Orenstein – politician, artist
• Harley Parker – painter
• Lee Patterson – actor
• Kelly Richardson – video artist, photographer
• William Ronald – painter, founder of the Painters Eleven
• Floria Sigismondi – photographer, director
• Anne Simpson – poet, novelist
• Michael Snow – installation artist, filmmaker
• Rudolf Stussi – painter
• Rick Switzer – sculptor
• Paul Szep – cartoonist^[46]
• Rirkrit Tiravanija – installation artist
• Maurice Vellekoop – artist, illustrator
• Lea Vivot – sculptor^[47]
• Simon Wilcox – musician
• Dick Wilson – actor
• Elizabeth Wyn Wood – sculptor
• Noreen Young – producer, puppeteer^[48]

See also [edit]

Visual arts portal

• Canadian Interuniversity Sport
• Canadian government scientific research organizations
• Canadian industrial research and development organizations
• Canadian university scientific research organizations
• Higher education in Ontario
• List of Ontario Universities
• Ontario Student Assistance Program

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Official website

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