Photo by Jenny Wise
Cloyd Family Animation Center Ribbon-Cutting
Showing its commitment to art and innovation, Columbus College of Art and Design opened their world-class Cloyd Family Animation Center this week. In a celebration of the individual, corporate and non-profit donations that made the facility possible, the space opened with student tours, guest speakers and a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
At the event, Columbus City Council President Shannon G. Hardin spoke on the Animation Center’s importance to art as well as the diverse and creative community that it calls Columbus home. Also speaking at the event was State Representative Kristin Boggs, who hopes CCAD will continue to attract young people to the area from across the country.
The new Animation Center “visually represents our department and our values,” says Charlotte Belland, chair of CCAD’s animation program. “There’s an equal representation of our three animation disciplines and then there’s the connected element of collaboration.”
Check out CityScene's Instagram Highlight from the event!
When walking through the space, these values of art-form equality and teamwork shine. The three animation disciplines: experimental, also known as stop-motion, 2-D and 3-D, each with a designated lab. The facility also offers top-notch artistic technology that provides significant upgrades to the program’s past capabilities.
“We used to be teaching in two small classrooms and a closet,” Belland says. “The center now just blows the roof off of expectations for all kinds of opportunities to experiment”
And experiment they do. One example is how the large collaborative drawing studio will be used throughout the year to bring in live animals for animation reference. The Columbus Zoo, Ironwood Wolves, Ohio Nature Education and Ohio School of Falconry have all brought wildlife in the past to walk around the space as students observe and draw. Paying homage to this collaboration are small paw markings imprinted in the concrete floor of the new facility.
“We’re taking an incredible artistic community, all these young artists, and saying you too can do what’s on these walls,” says Corn.
Not far from the open studio will be virtual reality drawing stations which hang from the ceiling and allow for the creation of virtual art as large as up to 15 feet around. The artistic opportunities presented by such equipment is essentially endless.
“We don’t know what artists are going to be able to do with this,” Belland says. “A team of our students released our first virtual reality film back in the spring so now it’s part of a more routine process”
Along with creativity and artistic expression, the school highly values employability and professional opportunities. Award-winning faculty and advisors are easily accessible to students thanks to the center’s new open layout, where the Animated Student Collective can use the lounge for artist talks or demonstrations and host other community events throughout the year.
If students somehow forget all the opportunities CCAD and the new Animation Center provides all they need to do is look around. Lining the hallways are promotional posters for award-winning student projects and blockbuster feature films including The Lion King, Zootopia and Wreck it Ralph’s second installment, Ralph Breaks the Internet.
As Dr. Melanie Corn, fifth President of CCAD, says in her opening remarks at the opening, “We’re taking an incredible artistic community, all these young artists, and saying you too can do what’s on these walls.”
Maggie Ash is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
