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About

Outer Circle is Art Center’s alumni publication and features alumni-driven content and stories. Produced by Art Center’s Office of Alumni Relations and the Marketing and Communications Department.  If you have story ideas for inclusion in future Outer Circle publications, please contact the Alumni Relations office at 626.396.2305 or email alumni@artcenter.edu.

Credits

Editorial Director:
Vanessa Silberman

Contributor: Kristine Bowne

Writers: Lara Warren, Mike Winder

Design: Paul Gillis

Web site production:
Chuck Spangler

Alumni Notes and Events Coordinator: Matt O’Brien

Special Thanks:
Robert Dirig, College Archivist

Cover Illustration:
Andrew Holder ILLU ‘07

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80 Years in Pictures

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Edward A. “Tink” Adams working on a drawing in class. Photo by Irene Vermeers. Gift of Irene Vermeers PHOT ’37.
“Tink Adams was a terrific guy, and he knew exactly what the profession needed in preparing young people to run the world—it needed a school that could address that. We wanted to be leaders in the field, so it wasn’t a matter of training, but a matter of truly understanding. A school like ours was unusual back in those days.”
–Art Center President Don Kubly ADVT ’49

1930 – 1947
7th Street Campus

Art Center was created in the midst of the Great Depression. Frustrated by the impractical bent of his own fine arts education, Edward “Tink” Adams had an idea: he would open an art school that taught real-world skills to artists.

Adams knew first-hand what the industry wanted—he had enjoyed a successful career as an advertising art director in Chicago for years. He chose a site on West Seventh Street in the Westlake Park area of Los Angeles for the campus, and in 1930 the Art Center School opened with a staff of 12 teachers and eight students. This original campus was comprised of a handful of small buildings scattered around a courtyard, a modest site that was sufficient for the young school.

Practicing artists and designers were hired to teach classes in advertising design and illustration. Art Center quickly became known for educating students who could move successfully into the commercial art and design. It claimed a 97 percent job placement rate for its graduates—no small feat in the midst of the Depression. Soon the school expanded its curriculum to include fine art, industrial design, photography and transportation design.

3rd Street Campus

Hillside Campus

Vevey Campus

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