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B.C.'s Emily Carr Art College to Become University

by Jarrett Martineau | April 29, 2008 at 12:26 pm

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Granting ECIAD official university status is a good thing: now trust-funded starving artists can get Bachelor's and Master's degrees just like the rest of us.

But this might not be a good thing from the perspective of Emily Carr hipsters; they'll have one less thing to complain about.

British Columbia will soon have a new university focusing on visual arts, design and media arts.
Legislation will be introduced in Victoria this week to make the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design into a university, Premier Gordon Campbell announced Monday.

It will be the province's 10th degree-granting university.

There are more than 4,000 students at Emily Carr, studying drawing, painting, animation, film, TV, gaming and product design.

Emily Carr's president, Ron Burnett, says the new designation won't affect student fees.

"This new status means that we can increase opportunities for students to participate in professional degree programs leading to bachelor's and master's degrees," he said.

Emily Carr will be the latest post-secondary institution in B.C. to be given university status.

Last week Capilano College, Kwantlen College, the University College of the Fraser Valley and Malaspina College were also designated degree-granting universities.

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Rob Peters

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 13:04 on April 29th, 2008

Institutionalizing art has always been a little strange to me, but I suppose artists need jobs too.

To be honest I'm usually disappointed with the grad shows at Emily Carr. I think it's a problem from the top down--instructors encouraging students to engage in tired postmodern theory exercises that are usually beyond the typical student, and not enough emphasis on artistic technique and craftmanship. Art is ultimately a form of communication, and I come away from those shows unsure of what a lot of the art was trying to say. I also doubt whether the artists themselves know. But I suppose most kids in their early twenties don't really know themselves--I certainly didn't--and I shouldn't be surprised it shows up in the art.