CCAD President Melanie Corn on art school challenges
Columbus Dispatch reporter Sheridan Hendrix asks Columbus College of Art & Design President Melanie Corn about challenges art schools might face.
- CCAD President Melanie Corn discusses the challenges and opportunities facing art and design schools.
- Corn highlights CCAD’s focus on career preparation and the growing demand for creative professionals in various industries.
- She emphasizes CCAD’s role as a cultural institution and its contribution to the central Ohio creative economy.
“Nobody’s mom ever made them go to art school.”
It’s a joke that Columbus College of Art & Design President Melanie Corn has made for years. She always meant it as a spin on the “art school stereotype.” She wanted people to see art school as somewhere full of passionate young people, not a place of frivolous pursuits.
But recently, Corn said she needs to stop making the joke.
“My job is to tell the story to parents and to prospective students that every parent should be excited about their kid going to art and design college because the opportunities for creative careers are incredibly strong,” Corn told The Dispatch in a recent interview.
Corn is nearing a decade at the helm of CCAD. She is the private art college’s fifth president in its nearly 150-year history.
Corn has focused much of her time on a two-fold mission: building up CCAD’s national reputation and strengthening the college’s role as a leading cultural institution in the region. She’s put a three-year strategic plan in place, oversaw the construction of the Cloyd Family Animation Center, and helped launch the college’s largest fundraising campaign to date.
Corn spent 13 years in academic administration at the California College of the Arts before coming to CCAD in 2016. She has a bachelor’s degree in art history from Stanford University, a master’s degree in art history from the University of California Santa Barbara and a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania.
The following question-and-answer interview with Corn has been edited for length and clarity.
How would you describe this moment in higher education?
Well, I would definitely say that this moment in higher education is a challenging one. I was really pleased to see just a couple of weeks ago the latest reports that Americans’ public confidence in higher education has increased for the first time in about a decade. So I think that tells you sort of the headwinds that we are up against.
But for me, I think the fact is that a college like Columbus College of Art & Design is really sitting in the perfect spot to meet those challenges. We have what I think is a really incredible combination of a strong, classic foundational liberal arts education that will serve any student well into the future, paired with a very strong trade school-esque focus on preparation for a career.
Are there specific challenges that art schools face right now?
I think there certainly are unique things that an art and design school faces. I think that many people probably have a stereotype of what it means to go to “art school.” A sense that it’s, perhaps, to just do what you love, but maybe it’s not focused on a career.
For CCAD, we definitely are thinking a lot about that and how do we really overturn that perception of what art school is and focus on what it really is today. This is an art and design college and the vast majority of our students are in design majors. Nothing against our incredible fine arts students, of course, as well. They also go on to have great careers, but our design students are focused on what is their creative career at the outcome of their degree.
The kind of education you get at a place like CCAD is not only giving all of those what we call “power skills,” others might call them soft skills — the critical thinking, the creative problem solving, the communication skills — they get this deep dive into real, tangible, deep skills in a creative field that is much needed out there.
Our top employers for CCAD alumni probably will surprise most people. It’s JP Morgan Chase. It’s Ohio State University, Nationwide insurance, Abercrombie and Fitch, and Bath & Body Works. Some of those you might think, right? Oh, Abercrombie and Fitch is fashion. But even Abercrombie and Fitch, it’s not just our fashion design students they’re hiring. They’re hiring photography students, our animation students, our illustrators, our graphic designers.
All of our students can find great jobs in every industry, whether it’s insurance or banking or a fashion company because all of those companies are driven by creativity.
How is CCAD helping bring and keep creative careers in central Ohio?
One of the things that we pride ourselves on is how many of our alumni do stay here in the region because there are an increasing number of opportunities for really great creative jobs.
I think one of the roles that CCAD plays in strengthening the creative economy in Central Ohio is simply by being here. From the Columbus Partnership and One Columbus and the Chamber of Commerce and others who are trying to attract and retain business here in the city, the higher education assets across the city are an incredibly important selling point to those businesses. You have a young, strong, well-educated, diverse population right here to draw from when you’re looking for your workforce.
As we try to to grow our creative industries, I think CCAD becomes the shining star in that constellation of higher education assets. I think that in addition to that sort of passive role that we play by just existing and being a strong institution, we play a more active role through our engagement with many of those companies and organizations here in the region.
For example, we have an office called Creative Careers and Collaboration — we call it C3 for short — which is a combination of a traditional sort of career services office where students go to with for help on their portfolio or resume. But in addition to that, the other part of that office works on partnered academic experiences.
From Huntington to Ohio History Connection to US Figure Skating to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, all kinds of organizations are working with a class on a real world project. Those types of experiences are incredibly important for our students, but they are also really important for those outside organizations.
For the organization, they’re getting great, young, fresh creative thinking, but they’re also using those engagements to scout talent. The more we can do those types of things, the more it demonstrates to our region the importance that CCAD students and alumni play in the creative workforce here in the region.
How do you see CCAD’s role in Columbus and central Ohio?
It has a multiple roles I would say.
On the one hand we are a cultural organization. We spent our first 100 years as part of our you know neighbor the (Columbus Museum of Art) and then in early 1980s kind of broke off as our one separate, nonprofit, fully independent entity. But we continue to be in some ways like another cultural organization.
We have an incredible gallery here right in (the Canzani Center) that’s free and open to the public and shows contemporary art, not just student work but contemporary art from around the world. We have a lot of other free events and artist lectures and gallery exhibitions. So in that way, I think we are a cultural resource for the community.
We also offer a real wide incredible array of youth and community learning classes. We have offered Saturday morning classes for kids for almost 100 years. But we also offer adult education classes.
While our primary focus and the bread and butter of what we do is bachelor’s degrees, we really believe that art education shouldn’t start at the college level. We’re committed to trying to open access and create more equity and access to arts education for youth as well.
If you could wave a magic wand and fix one thing in higher education, what would it be?
If I had a magic wand, I think I would somehow provide instant clarity about the process of going to college, about what you actually pay for college, and to really help you understand the value of college.
It’s a privilege to know how to work the system. And I don’t mean that in a in a negative way. I’ve got a a son who is going into his senior year of high school. I’ve spent my entire life in higher ed, literally. I went to preschool at the community college where my dad taught biology. I’ve literally spent my life in higher ed and I’m confused about how to make sure that he’s doing the right things and when is everything due and to help him with that essay and has he taken the the right tests and all of that.
I come from that privileged background of working in this field, but there are so many people out there who take themselves out of the equation because they are just overwhelmed and they don’t understand how it all works and they don’t think they can afford it.
On average, college is well worth it. People with a degree are going to earn more money. People with a degree have higher rates of of health and happiness and longevity in their lives. While I’m not saying a four-year degree has to be for everyone, I hate to think that people who want it but are taking themselves out of the race.
Lightning round with Columbus College of Art & Design President Melanie Corn
Summer reading?
I read a lot of just like mystery and crime novels. My mom is a very avid reader and every time I see her, she’s handing me over a bag of books. I think the last one I just finished was um I think the title was “A World of Curiosity.” It’s the 18th book in the Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny.
I’m about to start “There There” by Tommy Orange. I’m reading that one is because it is the common reading for our students this fall.
Top artist on Spotify?
I’m in the minority; I’m an Apple Music user. I can’t remember for sure, but I will say it was a really entertaining list to look back at because I love playlists. I’m a Gen Xer, so you know mixtapes were a big part of my life.
One of the funny things is that often for event campus events, folks will ask me to make a playlist, which I love doing. So I’ll sometimes make playlists for student events or for board parties. It’s a wide array of whatever the kids are listening to these days and whatever board members might want to listen to at a cocktail party. But I love it all.
Favorite campus event?
Chroma. It is essentially our end-of-year exhibition and end-of-school year party. It’s a time to celebrate both our graduating students as well as continuing students.
We fill almost all the buildings on campus with art and design. It’s a free event, open to the public. It’s this great combination of like an exhibition opening, block party and an open house.
If you’re visiting our campus, you can’t miss…
I have to say the ART sign. Literally, you can’t miss it. It’s 110 feet tall, right in the middle of a campus.
To me, it’s not only is a great marker of our campus, but it is hopefully a consistent visual reminder that art really should be at the center of Columbus.
Higher education reporter Sheridan Hendrix can be reached at shendrix@dispatch.com and on Signal at @sheridan.120. You can follow her on Instagram at @sheridanwrites.
