CCA News
ENGAGE at CCA Combines Community Outreach with Project-Based Learning
Posted on Tuesday, January 5, 2010, by Brenda Tucker
In 2010, students at California College of the Arts (CCA) will design furniture for Lighthouse Community Charter School, Oakland; help improve communications and systems for seniors at Bethany Center, San Francisco; create protective nesting modules for seabirds on Año Nuevo Island, off the Northern California coast; and work with high school students to publish an anthology of personal essays at 826 Valencia Book Project, San Francisco. These and several other projects are part of ENGAGE at CCA, an innovative initiative that will launch January 11, 2010.
Heading up the initiative is Sanjit Sethi, chair of CCA's Community Arts Program and codirector of CCA's Center for Art and Public Life. "What we're doing is combining the Community Arts Program's successful model of community engagement with the project-based learning approach of the architecture and design disciplines," comments Sethi. "Rather than stand-alone community service projects, these are courses embedded throughout the college's curriculum. ENGAGE at CCA offers students the opportunity to work with outside experts to find solutions to community issues while simultaneously meeting the requirements of their academic programs."
Working across the college's academic programs, ENGAGE at CCA serves as a hub to connect faculty and students to community partners and relevant outside experts. In spring 2010, courses are offered in the Ceramics, Community Arts, Diversity Studies, Furniture, Industrial Design, Sculpture, SMART Teaching Concentration, and Writing and Literature programs. In addition to the organizations mentioned above, other community partners include Attitudinal Healing Connection, Oakland; Friends of Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, Oakland; John O'Connell High School of Technology, San Francisco; and Mission High School, San Francisco. See also ENGAGE at CCA for complete course descriptions.
About ENGAGE at CCA
Housed at CCA's Center for Art and Public Life, ENGAGE at CCA dynamically advances the college's mission to prepare its students for lifelong creative work and service to their communities through a curriculum in fine art, architecture, design, and writing. Partner organizations are located in diverse, under-resourced neighborhoods.
About the Center for Art and Public Life
The Center for Art and Public Life creates community partnerships using art, design, writing, and architecture to address issues of social justice, diversity, community development, and education. Its programming is woven across disciplines at California College of the Arts and serves the diverse populations of the San Francisco Bay Area.
About California College of the Arts
Founded in 1907, California College of the Arts (CCA) is noted for the interdisciplinarity and breadth of its programs. It offers studies in 20 undergraduate and seven graduate majors in the areas of fine arts, architecture, design, and writing. The college offers bachelor of architecture, bachelor of arts, bachelor of fine arts, master of architecture, master of arts, master of fine arts, and master of business administration degrees. With campuses in San Francisco and Oakland, CCA currently enrolls 1,740 full-time students. Noted alumni include the painters Nathan Oliveira and Raymond Saunders; the ceramicists Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, and Peter Voulkos; the filmmaker Wayne Wang; the conceptual artists David Ireland and Dennis Oppenheim; and the designers Lucille Tenazas and Michael Vanderbyl.