OCAD University

History

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 Ontario Society of Artists passed the motion to "draw up a scheme" for a school of art on 4 April 1876, and the first School of Art opened on 30 October 1876, funded by a government grant of $1,000.

Curriculum

In 1971–72, Roy Ascott radically challenged the pedagogy and curriculum structure of the College.

In 2008, OCAD president Sara Diamond changed the pedagogy. She emphasised 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. in 2010, Tom Travis, then president of Dalhousie University in Halifax, was conducted a confidential review of how OCAD was managed. He found that the number of senior faculty and administrators was excessive. He recommended that deans be given more autonomy. Sara Diamond adopted most of his 30 recommendations, for example, giving department deans more power.

Name changes

OCAD University has had a number of names over time.

Academic degrees

OCAD offers a Bachelor of Arts (Visual and Critical Studies).

The school combines a studio-based education with liberal studies, which is recognised 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

The OCAD campus consists of a north campus and a south campus. 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, and the Continuing Education Centre. The south campus consists of buildings that are physically situated on Richmond Street West, plus the proposed Mirvish-Gehry development further south on King Street.

Buildings at OCAD are referred to by their street addresses. Some buildings are also assigned a building number that is encoded as the first digit in 4-digit room numbers.

The Main Building

The Main Building traces its roots to the first building that the school constructed, which was also the first building in Canada specially built for art education. Now known as the George A. Reid Wing, the building was designed by the school’s principal George A. Reid in the Georgian style and opened on 30 September 1921. On 17 January 1957, the first extension, a modernist building known today as the A. J. Casson Wing, was completed and was opened. Two more extensions to the building were subsequently added in 1963 and 1967.

Sharp Centre for Design

In 2000, funding was secured from Ontario’s SuperBuild program to build a fifth extension to the Main Building. Through Rod Robbie of Robbie/Young + Wright Architects, Will Alsop of Alsop Architects was made aware of the project and was eventually selected in 2002. A joint venture was formed between the two firms and the new building, now known as the Sharp Centre for Design, was completed in 2004. The design, which came out of a process of participatory design, 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. The $42.5-million expansion and redevelopment has received numerous awards, including the first 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.

Libraries and museums

The main library on campus is the Dorothy H. Hoover Library, located in the Annex Building. The Learning Zone, also located in the Annex Building, houses the OCAD Zine Library, Art & Design Annuals and the Visionnaire periodical collection.

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

Research

OCAD conducts research under the umbrella of 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:

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

Commercialization of research is supported by two incubators:

Notable faculty members

Faculty and staff of OCAD University have included