MCAD's Path Forward

MCAD’S PATH FORWARD

FO R M I N G + T R A N S FO R M I N G

M C A D. E D U #MAKEMCAD

2501 Stevens Avenue | Minneapolis, MN 55404

MCAD’S PATH FORWARD

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In envisioning the future for Minneapolis College of Art and Design, we must build upon the institution’s solid foundation, strengthened for more than a century, while also transforming and growing. We must embrace accessibility and practice adaptability to ensure that our students are well equipped to meet the ever-changing needs of our world.

With our new strategic roadmap in place, MCAD will continue to adapt to attract emerging artists and designers, so that they may have the place and space to define their personal and professional roles as creative, cultural leaders.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know MCAD.

– President Sanjit Sethi March 2022

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Higher education has faced ground-shifting challenges over the years, but the pandemic accelerated the need for deeper change–a holistic rethinking of the student experience. As today’s high school students plan their future, they have reordered their priorities, such as safety, affordability, career support, personalization, wellness, community, and social justice, among others. And so must we.

MCAD’S PATH FORWARD

2501 Stevens Avenue | Minneapolis, MN 55404

MEET MCAD Founded in 1886 as the Minneapolis School of Art, MCAD is a specialized private college at the leading edge of artistic and industrial innovation. The college is committed to providing a transformative education within a community of support for creative students of all backgrounds to work, collaborate, and lead with confidence in a dynamic, interconnected world.

As the preeminent arts educator in Minnesota and the region, MCAD envisions a future that emboldens creative leaders to be agents of change through equity, empathy, and imagination. Today, MCAD offers undergraduate and graduate programs to approximately 800 students in the areas of fine arts, design, entrepreneurship, creative leadership, and sustainability.

Community building is central to the college and is achieved through a variety of partnerships, exhibitions, public artist lectures, and continuing education programs that serve an additional 3,000 people annually. MCAD employs nearly 150 full-time faculty and staff, and has an annual operating budget of approximately $25 million.

Acknowledging the forces of change both internally and externally, we rearticulated our purpose, values, and impact.

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2501 Stevens Avenue | Minneapolis, MN 55404

MCAD’S PATH FORWARD

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OUR NEW MISSION Minneapolis College of Art and Design provides a transformative education for creative students of all backgrounds to work, collaborate, and lead with confidence.

Creative, cultural leadership unleashes the power of all art and design practitioners to change society by imagining what’s possible.

MCAD STUDENTS BECOME + Accomplished makers and scholars + Equity-minded problem solvers + Critical, conceptual thinkers + Inclusive, collaborative partners + Empathic listeners + Creative storytellers + Engaged citizens within a global context

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OUR GUIDING BELIEF

2501 Stevens Avenue | Minneapolis, MN 55404

MCAD’S PATH FORWARD

CREATIVE, CULTURAL LEADERS MCAD’s community of students, alumni, and faculty lead the way through ideation, creative expression, experimentation, collaboration, and action.

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2501 Stevens Avenue | Minneapolis, MN 55404

MCAD’S PATH FORWARD

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L AURA FULK ’07 Laura Fulk is an advocate for sustainability and inclusiveness in fashion, both as a technical designer at Target and an independent fashion designer.

Her volunteer work with the blind community influenced her creative practice as she learned ways blindness can influence an individual’s experience with clothing. “With any kind of volunteering, you end up getting more out of it than you put in. I feel like everyone should be doing that, or using what they know to make change, to do good.” Laura is currently working on a project to develop apparel that functions comfortably with adaptive equipment, such as wheelchairs.

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AMIT TISHLER ’12, MFA Animator Amit Tishler spent his early career writing, animating, and producing for shows on Cartoon Network, HBO, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon. In 2017, he co-founded PopBase, a gamified platform that teaches kids how to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

PopBase was acquired by Pure Imagination Studios, where Amit is a creative director in the interactive entertainment division.

2501 Stevens Avenue | Minneapolis, MN 55404

MCAD’S PATH FORWARD

PAO HOUA HER ’09 Pao Houa Her is known for her powerful photographs documenting the Hmong diaspora in the United States. Her body of work represents a narrative extension of her family’s memories of fleeing Laos as well as the stories of ethnic Hmong communities which formed in the late 1970s and 1980s following the Vietnam War. Using a formally rigorous approach, she draws from traditions of Western portraiture and still life, critically and playfully engaging the boundaries between artifice and reality, landscape and studio backdrop, black-and-white, and color photography. Pao was selected for the 2022 Whitney Biennial.

AMANDA LOVELEE ’10, MFA Amanda Lovelee is interested in how people connect and the spaces in which they do so within contemporary society. Her interactive public artwork comprises video and photography, weaving together data, stories, and personal experiences to create non-linear narratives about the fragility of human relationships.

As a City of St. Paul Artist in Residence in 2014, she advised city agencies, curated expansive city art initiatives, and created new artworks. Amanda is currently Parks Ambassador for the Metropolitan Council based in the Twin Cities, where she connects people to the outdoors with a focus on equity.

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MCAD’S PATH FORWARD

2501 Stevens Avenue | Minneapolis, MN 55404

LOOKING AHEAD: FOUR STRATEGIC AREAS MCAD is focused on four transformational strategic areas. Together, these meaningful changes will help further distinguish the college’s unique character and value, increase the number of students who have access to the college, and ensure that MCAD remains a thriving enterprise into the future.

A CULTURE OF EMPATHY AND INCLUSION

CAMPUS OF THE FUTURE

CREATIVE, CULTURAL LEADERSHIP

INNOVATIVE CURRICULA

COLLABORATIVE COMMUNITY

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+ We will help our students imagine what’s possible through experiential learning, collaboration, and reflection, preparing them to influence and change society. + Because creative, cultural leadership is not one-size-fits-all, we will design coursework with flexibility in mind, to support individual student needs. + Our curricula will integrate real-world considerations, including heightened expectations for environmentally sustainable solutions and strengthened diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

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INNOVATIVE CURRICUL A Being a preeminent art and design college in the country, now and well into the future, demands that we transform our coursework and programs with a focus on student choice and success, offering both place-based and digital instruction.

2501 Stevens Avenue | Minneapolis, MN 55404

MCAD’S PATH FORWARD

CAMPUS OF THE FUTURE As an enterprise and campus, we are strategically investing in our long-term economic and environmental sustainability. + We are evolving our stewardship at all levels of the institution, ensuring the commitment needed to attract and serve a student body of 1,000. + The college has recently embarked on a reimagined campus master plan led by award-winning MASS Design Group. + We will prioritize investments, including on-campus spaces and IT infrastructure, that reduce our climate impact, elevate our brand, improve employee engagement and wellbeing, and increase student enrollment and retention. + We envision a physical and digital campus that is welcoming to the broader community and accessible, inviting and engaging for all types of learners, at all life stages.

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+ We hold ourselves accountable to empathetic leadership that integrates humility, inclusion, curiosity, and foresight. + We are committed to improving college completion through increased financial aid, flexible learning options, and academic advising that helps to address food and housing insecurities. + Because we know mental health is paramount and too often ignored, we will focus on a holistic approach to wellbeing, including resources for physical and mental wellness.

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A CULTURE OF EMPATHY AND INCLUSION We are determined to reduce barriers so everyone in the MCAD community can be their authentic and best selves in a space of accessibility and inclusion.

2501 Stevens Avenue | Minneapolis, MN 55404

MCAD’S PATH FORWARD

COLL ABORATIVE COMMUNIT Y While strengthening our college community, we actively collaborate with individuals, groups, and organizations beyond our campus because the critical social issues facing the world today can only be solved by working together. + MCAD is working to strengthen our capacity to address local, regional, national, and global challenges, such as entrenched barriers to education, climate change, and racism. + We aim to deepen relationships with MCAD alumni through continual learning initiatives, career support, and serving as a resource for their community-based work. + We seek to enrich our students, faculty, staff, and community through broad exposure to creative work and inclusive conversations.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR FUTURE

Connect with us: 612.874.3777 institutional_advancement@mcad.edu For media inquiries: communications@mcad.edu Published March 2022

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MCAD is focused on four transformational strategic areas. Together, these meaningful changes will further distinguish the college’s unique character and value, increase the number of students who have access to the college, and ensure that MCAD remains a thriving enterprise of the future.

Cultural equity has two parts: a right to have one’s stories told, and the responsibility to know other people’s stories. With this recommitment to cultural equity, MCAD is investing in both halves of that compact and will be a place of affirmation, connection, and exchange.

– Jamie Bennett Interim President of United States Artists and former Chief of Staff at the National Endowment for the Arts

2501 Stevens Avenue Minneapolis, MN 55404 mcad.edu #makemcad