manifesto

this is columbia’s moment…

and this is our columbia story.

We are Columbia. We are your friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues.

We are students, teachers, donors, administrators, advisors, and builders.

We are writers, dancers, composers, filmmakers, performers, and photographers.

We represent the faces of today and the voices of tomorrow. Together, we are a unified front—working to

create a vision for the future. To create a future of change…ushering in the next era of great thinkers and fulfilling the

extraordinary culture of our times.

We see the vision for the future and we stand ready at the edge of discovery.

We proclaim this as our time. This is our moment.

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grounded in history

Columbia College Chicago was originally founded in 1890 as the Columbia School of Oratory, inspired by the World’s Columbian Exposition. Recognizing the rapidly emerging fields of radio broadcasting, television, advertising, and other areas of mass communications, Columbia evolved in 1944 to Columbia College Chicago, establishing an open admissions policy wherein all qualified students were afforded access to higher education.

With our generous admissions policy and our commitment to keeping Columbia as an affordable school, Columbia College has earned a preeminent position among mainstream institutions. Offering both graduate and undergraduate studies in media and the arts, Columbia College has developed into one of the world’s most remarkable institutions of higher learning.

In today’s age of 21st century thinkers, Columbia College has earned an international reputation in the disciplines that define our times:

The School of Liberal Arts and Sciences includes five

departments: Education,

Humanities, History, and Social

Sciences, English, American

Sign Language–English

Interpretation, Science and

Mathematics.

The School of Fine and Performing Arts includes nine

departments: Arts Entertainment

and Media Management, Arts +

Design, Dance, Dance Movement

Therapy & Counseling, Fiction

Writing, Music, Photography,

Theater, and Fashion Studies.

The School of Media Arts includes

seven departments: Audio Arts &

Acoustics, Film & Video, Interactive Arts

& Media, Journalism, Radio, Marketing

Communication, and Television.

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Darell Jones Artist in Residence 2008, photo by Bill Frederking

live what you love

Columbia College Chicago is the largest school of arts and media in the country grounded in a liberal arts education. Over 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students earn their degrees in subjects that span the visual, performing, and communication arts—from the medieval craft of papermaking to fashion studies, dance, and 21st century digital media, we’ve prided ourselves as a college of opportunity.

Our students study with a faculty of 1,630 full and part-time teachers, all practicing professionals in their respective fields. Our faculty consists of working artists, communications professionals, and scholars who take the College’s academic mission seriously, all living and breathing the curriculum they teach.

We do more than prepare our students for the jobs of today. Our academic mission drives us to educate the whole person, to nurture and equip students who will be ready to take control of their own careers in creative fields. When we send our graduates forth, with an engaging body of work, they become leaders in the disciplines they master—inventing and refining the jobs of tomorrow.

Our academic mission drives us to educate the whole person, to nurture and equip students who will be ready to take control of their own careers in creative fields.

Art by Alexa Rubinstein (’09) & Ben Bilow

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Critical Encounters is a college-wide initiative intended to synchronize conversations between the school and the community, in an ongoing dialogue, around a central, socially and culturally relevant issue, each academic year.Critical Encounters seeks to stand as a tangible model for effective civic engagement at the college-level and is an integral part of the Columbia College mission.

Critical Encounters

Originally the heart of Chicago’s printing center and rail yards, Chicago’s South Loop neighborhood has undergone one of the most dramatic periods of growth in recent years. Instrumental to that growth is Columbia College Chicago.

south loop rising

Columbia College is the largest single landowner in the South Loop, occupying over two dozen properties sprawling over 2.5 million square feet of performance spaces, galleries, theaters, media production space, computer labs, classrooms, offices, and living spaces. Columbia College co-exists along with a vibrant new residential community as our neighbor and with Grant Park as our front yard. As the academic anchor of Chicago’s non-profit arts industry, Columbia College has taken a leadership role in our cultural community. An important new study shows that this non-profit cultural community is a billion dollar business in Chicago. Columbia College is a key player in this booming industry. Our economic impact begins with our enrollment, which has doubled in the last ten years. Another impact is a faculty and staff workforce of some 3,000 men and women who earn and spend locally. Our economic activity in the city of Chicago, all told, is about a half of a billion dollars annually propelling Columbia College as an economic engine into the new millennia. In addition to our South loop campus, our classrooms extend to Hollywood, where our film students are busy finding out what it’s really like, and an extension program with the world renowned Second City Theater Company here in Chicago. Columbia College has also entered the global arena, with 400 students annually studying aboard on six continents in over 40 countries with programs in places such as Prague, Florence, Cannes, and Shanghai.

Affectionately known as the “Lollapalooza of literary events,” the Story Week Festival of Writers showcases innovative writers, thinkers, and performers in a weeklong celebration of the written word. Presented by Columbia College’s Fiction Writing Department and co-sponsored in part by the Chicago Public Library and Metro, Story Week offers readings, conversations, panels, performances, and book signings.

the Story Week Festival of Writers

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photo by George Le Claire

Today it’s clear that arts and media pulse at the heart of the American economy.

21st century thinkers

There was a time when the arts were viewed as a luxury. Today it’s clear that arts and media pulse at the heart of the American economy. It’s widely understood that an arts education provides a solid preparation for the economy of tomorrow. Simply learning technical skills is no longer enough. Our mission states: “Columbia’s intent is to educate students who will communicate creatively and shape the public’s perceptions of issues and events and who will author the culture of their times.” We have the largest theater department and fashion studies department in the United States and the largest film department in the world. Our arts-management department, also the world’s largest, was named one of the “25 Best” entrepreneurship programs by Entrepreneur Magazine, placing it among the very finest. Our bragging rights include a roster of Columbia College graduates honored at the Oscars, Emmys, and Grammy’s each year. Another list of honors won by our professors and our publications include eight Guggenheim Fellowship Awards for our faculty in photography.Our graduates are going out into the world with a well-rounded education—not only with a diploma, but also with a refined resume and a professional portfolio. They emerge with intense personal experience in the real world of social and economic diversity, with the skills of improvisation, reinvention, and critical thinking that come with an arts education, and with experience in the inter-disciplinary convergence of arts and media.

The Center for Asian Arts and Media is a multidisciplinary arts center dedicated to supporting, promoting, and presenting arts and media programs. As the first Asian arts center founded by a college or university in the Midwest, the Center for Asian Arts and Media brings together accomplished artists, scholars, and community builders from Chicago, the United States, and abroad for lively, reflective artistic programs and events.

The Center for Asian Arts and Media

Founded at Columbia College Chicago in 1983, The Center for Black Music Research is the only organization of its kind. It exists to illuminate the significant role that black music plays in world culture. By serving as a nexus for all who value black music, the Center for Black Music Research promotes scholarly thought and knowledge about black music as well as providing a safe haven for the materials and information documenting the black music experience across Africa and the diaspora.

The Center for Black Music Research

Photo by Tim Klein

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curtain call

From Mikhail Baryshnikov to Trisha Brown, Merce Cunningham, and Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan, performances presented by our Dance Center have featured the top international dance contemporaries of our time. And that’s not all… Columbia College is the single most prolific arts programmer in Chicago and one of the top presenters in the nation. Nearly 1,000 events take place on our South Loop campus each year, including student and professional concerts, dance recitals, theatrical productions, film and video screenings, performance art, readings, poetry slams, workshops, artists talks, standup comedy and spoken word events, and a variety of arts festivals, conferences, and symposiums. The nine galleries housed at Columbia showcase the work of emerging creative professionals as well as nationally and internationally renowned artists in photography, painting, drawings, murals, sculpture, book and paper arts, printmaking, fashion, multimedia installations, graphic design, and typography. Columbia College’s dynamic arts districts offers the greatest concentration of artistic expression found on any college campus in the United States. All told, Columbia College attracts more than 300,000 arts patrons yearly.

The Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) is the only museum in the Midwest with an exclusive commitment to the medium of photography. With works by Victor Skrebneski, Sally Mann, and notable alum Curtis Mann, The Museum of Contemporary Photography’s permanent collection features 9,000 artworks by more than 1,000 artists.

The Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP)

Photography Andreas Larsson

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Columbia College is home to the Chicago Jazz Ensemble—recognized internationally as one of America’s leading jazz ensembles. Additionally we’re home to the Sherwood Community Music School, offering performances regularly to the community free of charge.

Chicago Jazz Ensemble

—deeply rooted, nurtured, cultivated, and integral to our mission.

diversity

Diversity is a complex issue all across the world of higher education. At Columbia College, diversity is not an add-on, nor an afterthought. Diversity is deeply rooted, nurtured, cultivated, and integral to our mission. It’s not just a matter of providing opportunities to minorities or being respectful of all races, origin, sexual orientations, religious and political beliefs. Diversity is advantageous to everyone, no less so for young white men and women who have not yet experienced the real world in all its shapes, sizes, and colors. Our graduates come to the workplace more alert and aware than those who have been sheltered from the experience of diversity.

Through a program of dedicated scholarships, outreach in the public schools, recruiters who specialize in minority recruitment, professional associations that help us reach minority “influencers,” targeted advising, and partnerships with local minority community organizations and leaders—we’re on the case.

The Columbia College mission has always stressed diversity and service to community, a dedication reflected in providing opportunities to students. Our more than 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students come from all 50 U.S. states and 41 countries. Columbia College Chicago has taken its place in the ranks of national institutions without abandoning its principles, its mission, or its generous admissions policy. And when we send our graduates forth, they are able to make connections with Columbia College alumni organizations in nearly every major market in the United States. We have over 93,000 alumni out there!

The Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women & Gender in the Arts and Media works to deepen understanding and appreciation of how issues relating to women, gender, creativity, and community shape social policy, culture, history, and critical theory. The institute offers a wide range of public programs including exhibitions, performances, and panel discussions, and supports new research and creative work through its Fellowship program.

The Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts

Portrait Photography By Drew Reynold (BA ’97)

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fostering a spirit of giving…

“We wanted to do something that would resonate across all areas of the college to bring people in this community together for the greater good.”

In response to the ever growing need for student scholarships, a Columbia College Chicago staff member began a grass-roots effort to assist Columbia students struggling financially to stay in school. By inspiring a few fellow staff members with a call-to-action, the very first Faculty & Staff Scholarship Initiative was created—pledging that every dollar contributed would go directly to Columbia students.

Columbia College’s faculty and staff, our friends, our families, our alumni, community members, foundations, and corporations have come together to realize a simple goal—to secure the necessary resources to realize the college’s highest priorities and to fulfill its mission to be an educational, social, cultural, and creative force.

For the first time in its 120-year history, Columbia College has undertaken a $100 million dollar comprehensive fundraising initiative. This historic effort will respond to the College’s needs for first and foremost, scholarship monies for our students as well as programs, operations, and special projects.

The mission of our new Columbia College Chicago Friends of the Library program, founded in 2005, is to build and enhance important library collections, and in doing so, support the academic, cultural and intellectual needs of those who have chosen our student-centered institution.

Friends of the Library

The Averill and Bernard Leviton A + D Gallery

The Center for Book& Paper Arts

The Averill and Bernard Leviton A + D Gallery presents emerging and established artists whose work encompasses the broadest definition of visual art and design.

The Center for Book & Paper Arts is dedicated to furthering knowledge and appreciation of hand papermaking and book arts, including letterpress printing, bookbinding, and artists’ books. Exhibits at the Center feature the top national and international innovators in book and paper arts.

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and giving back.

Front row (from left): J. Wayne Tukes, Bob Blinn, Brian Ritchard,

Kamillah Ong, Mark Gonzalez. Second row: Brian Marth, Janet Talbot,

Karen Smith, Pattie Mackenzie, Ruby Turner, Linda Hunter. Third row:

Jessica Horwitz, Judy Dyke, Mary Blinn, Cory Byrd, Yolunda Kincade,

Lauren Targ, Ritch Barnes. Back row: Charles Cannon, George Bailey,

Will Casey, Keith Lusson, Arvis Averatte, Kevin Cassidy.

Photo: Corey Minkanic (B.A. ’04)

To succeed, we ask for your help in securing the future of Columbia College Chicago. We will rely on the support from the Chicago philanthropic community

and from our parents, alumni, friends, corporations, and foundations around the country. 

If you believe in advancing the arts community, If you believe in promoting the performing arts,

If you believe in elevating the visual arts, If you believe in 21st century thinkers,

If you believe in giving students the opportunity to succeed,

If you believe in giving the gift of a lifetime,

give.We ask you to foster a spirit of giving. Give back to an

institution that looks toward the future with bright ideas and creative minds.

This is your moment. This is your opportunity. This is your time to tell us your Columbia story.

Portrait Photography By Drew Reynold (BA ’97)

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colum.edu/giving