The Art Institute of Colorado was a for-profit art and culinary school in
Denver, Colorado
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
. It briefly operated as a non-profit institution before it closed in 2018. The school was one of a number of
Art Institutes, a franchise of for-profit art colleges with many branches in North America, owned and operated by
Education Management Corporation. EDMC owned the college from 1975 until 2017, when, facing significant financial problems and declining enrollment, the company sold the Art Institute of Colorado, along with 30 other Art Institute schools, to
Dream Center Education, a Los Angeles–based Pentecostal organization. Dream Center permanently closed 18 Art Institute schools, including the Art Institute of Colorado, at the end of 2018.
History
The school was established in 1952 and founded as a private college for arts and crafts. In 1956 John Jellico, a former Assistant Director of the
Art Institute of Pittsburgh
The Art Institute of Pittsburgh was a private college in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Shortly before closing in 2019, it was purchased by Dream Center Education Holdings (in turn a division of The Dream Center, a Christian non-profit 501(c)(3) org ...
, joined the staff and introduced the Commercial Arts program. In 1960, he took over management of the school.
In 1975,
Education Management Corporation (EDMC) of Pittsburgh bought out the school and became a branch of the
Art Institute System of Schools. A year later
Interior Design
Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordina ...
and a
Photography
Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...
program were added. In 1977 the school moved from 16 West 13th Avenue to 200 East 9th Avenue in Denver where the administrative office were on the first floor with photography labs located in the basement level. The campus included the building at 300 E. 9th Ave which housed classrooms including the Industrial Design labs. A building south of 300 E. 9th, 838 N. Grant St., housed additional computer labs for graphic design and 3d animation.
A short lived program was the Music and Video Business program. It was started in 1987 and the first graduating class was in 1989. Some of the campuses later continued to offer a video production program. In 2013, the Web Design & Interactive Media and Graphic Design programs at both the Associates and Bachelors level were merged into the Graphic & Web Design program.
A
Culinary Arts
Culinary arts are the cuisine arts of food preparation, cooking and presentation of food, usually in the form of meals. People working in this field – especially in establishments such as restaurants – are commonly called chefs or ...
program was started in 1993 and a satellite campus in the Denver Design District at 675 S. Broadway is used for the Culinary Arts program. The Broadway location has four labs for production of hot and cold foods, one baking and pastry lab, one multipurpose lab, and one computer lab, along with the student-run ''Assignments Restaurant''. In 2000, the school moved its main campus to 1200 Lincoln St., keeping the old location as another satellite building, primarily devoted to the Industrial Design department. In 2012, they vacated the building on 9th Avenue, and all programs other than Culinary became hosted at the 1200 Lincoln location, which housed 26 classrooms; fifteen computer labs; a library; photography studios; digital video, animation, sound and editing studios; and the John Jellico Gallery in the Golden Triangle District in Downtown Denver. A long-term arrangement for student housing was made at 5785 E. 8th Ave. All three buildings were used until the school closed.
Although the school's official name became ''The Art Institute of Colorado (AiC)'', it was sometimes referred to as the ''Colorado Institute of Art (CIA)''.
On June 27, 2013, the Art Institute of Colorado was placed on notice by its regional accreditor, the
Higher Learning Commission
The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an institutional accreditor in the United States. It has historically accredited post-secondary education institutions in the central United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa ...
(HLC) of the
North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), also known as the North Central Association, was a membership organization, consisting of colleges, universities, and schools in 19 U.S. states engaged in educational accreditation. It w ...
. The commission cited concerns related to student success, including retention and attrition, institutional review of data related to student success, faculty workload and development, enrollment management, and evidence-based planning. The institute's accreditation was renewed in 2015 following a focused visit and subsequent report.
In 2017,
Education Management Corporation sold the school to Dream Center Education Holdings, LLC. The school stopped enrolling students in 2017,
and closed in 2018
after losing accreditation.
Presidents
*John T. Barclay, 1976–1980
*Cheryl Murphy, 1980–1991
*W.C. "Bill" Bottoms, 1991–1996
*David C. Zorn, 1996–2014
Notable alumni
*
John Cuneo – Illustrator
*
Cody Donovan
Cody Scott Donovan (born February 20, 1981) is an American practitioner of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He is also a retired mixed martial artist, who is perhaps best known for his four-fight stint in the Light Heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fight ...
(media arts) –
Mixed martial artist
*
Trevor Wittman –
Boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...
and
MMA
Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incorp ...
trainer.
Notable faculty
*Don Dexter, PhD. (video production, digital film)- current 2014 Regional Emmy Award winner - short form fiction, short form non-fiction
*Ed Kramer (Media Arts and Animation, Visual Effects and Motion Graphics) - Senior Technical Director and Sequence Supervisor at Industrial Light + Magic (1994-2006) CGI Artist credits on STAR WARS Episodes I, II and III, ''
The Mummy
A mummy is an unusually well preserved corpse.
Mummy or The Mummy may also refer to:
Places
*Mummy Range, a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado in the United States
*Mummy Cave, a rock shelter and archeological site in Par ...
'', ''
The Lost World: Jurassic Park'', ''
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'', ''
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest'',
The Perfect Storm, ''
Twister, ''
Van Helsing'', ''
101 Dalmatians 101 Dalmatians may refer to:
* ''The Hundred and One Dalmatians'', a 1956 novel written by Dodie Smith
* 101 Dalmatians (franchise), a Disney film franchise based on the novel
** ''One Hundred and One Dalmatians'', a 1961 animated film based on the ...
'', ''
Galaxy Quest
''Galaxy Quest'' is a 1999 American science fiction comedy film directed by Dean Parisot and written by David Howard and Robert Gordon. A parody of and homage to science-fiction films and series, especially ''Star Trek'' and its fandom, the fi ...
'', ''
Jumanji'', many others.
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Art Institute Of Colorado
Art schools in Colorado
Defunct private universities and colleges in Colorado
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
Universities and colleges in Denver
1952 establishments in Colorado
Educational institutions established in 1952
Educational institutions disestablished in 2018