The Maine Faculty of Artwork on Tuesday unveiled a title adjust and a strategic strategy that envisions increasing the school’s bodily footprint in Portland.
As of Tuesday, the academy launched as the Portland College of Artwork in 1882 phone calls by itself the Maine College of Artwork & Design. When style and design has been element of the curriculum for over a century, the new moniker is a nod to the simple fact that 60% of modern learners are pursuing structure occupations.
According to the college, the new identify is extra inclusive and reflects the school’s tutorial offerings that will now capture all students’ pursuits. The modify was accompanied by a new logo, designed by college customers Drew Hodges and Steve Bowden (a 1997 graduate) with contributions from 2017 graduate Hallie Mitchell, of the Portland-based design enterprise behind Broadway brand names which include “Lease,” “Chicago” and “Hamilton.”
The college also labored closely with Portland’s By means of Company on its new imaginative identification.
Requested how very long it took to come up with the new identification and emblem, Laura Freid, the school’s president, said that learners, staff members, college and alumni worked to develop the college’s new glance around the previous three yrs.
She also pointed out the school’s great importance to the nearby and state economies, calling its flagship Porteous building a vital anchor in Portland’s Artwork District, wherever the school’s Institute of Up to date Arts attracts 17,000 visitors each year.
“Portland would not be the arts town it is nowadays without the need of the large contributions of the extremely gifted faculty, college students and alumni of MECA&D during the earlier 140 several years,” she advised Mainebiz. “We believe that that artists have the ability to alter communities for the far better, and we are dedicated to empowering our college students to make art, make an impact and encourage transform in the planet.”
She included that “when you see artwork on the street, the emblem for your favourite restaurants, or shop in a nearby boutique, odds are you’re seeing the impact of MECA&D.”
Attracting far more pupils from away
Freid stated the expanded identify will make it easier for pupils from throughout the nation to uncover the Portland school throughout college or university searches, “and will much more precisely connect the extent of the instructional alternatives they will have obtain below.”
All around 71% of MECA&D pupils are at first from exterior Maine, and a lot more than fifty percent of all those college students keep in Maine immediately after graduating, according to Freid.
“It is these talented alumni who have helped make Portland so unique and who help to push the $1.55 billion arts and tradition sector’s contribution to Maine’s economy,” she additional.
In addition to the title transform, the university released its initially-at any time strategic system outlining expansion about the upcoming 10 years, the faculty outlined five targets which includes range and inclusion, tutorial excellence and remote discovering.
Distinct targets include the generation of a new Living and Learning Heart for applications and to house 200 sophomores and upperclassmen.
Questioned about achievable spots, Fried said the university is taking into consideration web-site destinations that supply a walkable commute to its downtown Portland campus structures.
File picture / Tim Greenway
Laura Freid, president of Portland’s Maine Higher education of Art & Design and style, explained to Mainebiz the college is considering internet site locations for a new Living and Finding out Center.
“Based on the feasible web pages underneath consideration, this will most likely be a renovation, not new building, and we hope to have the new dwelling and understanding facility all set within just the 2023-25 time period,” she reported.
Freid included that the new facility will both create on the school’s historic part as the innovative anchor of Portland and increase the institution’s Portland footprint and identity whilst delivering a new hub for pupil activity and engagement.
She declined to give an approximated price tag of the building challenge, indicating, “We are preparing on a lease-to-acquire solution, which supplies the most favorable financing for the school and will allow time to fundraise.”