Emily Carr University of Art + Design (abbreviated as ECU) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

art

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

located in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

, Canada. The university's campus is located within the Great Northern Way Campus in Strathcona. The university is a

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

instutiton that operates which operates four academic faculties, the Faculty of Culture + Community, the Ian Gillespie Faculty of Design + Dynamic Media, the Audian Faculty of Art, and the Jake Kerr Faculty of Graduate Studies. The school was established in 1925 as the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts. During the 20th century, the school was renamed three times, the Vancouver School of Art in 1933, the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1978, and the Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design in 1995. The university was able to issue its own degrees by 1994 and began offering its first graduate programs in 2003. In 2008, the institution was designated as a special purpose teaching university under the province's '' University Act''.

History

Emily Carr is one of the oldest post-secondary institutions in British Columbia and the only one dedicated to professional education and learning in the arts, media, and design. Formerly known as the Vancouver School of Art, it was established in 1925 as the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts. In 1978, ECU was designated a provincial institute before moving to Granville Island in 1980. A second building on Granville Island was opened in 1995. In 1995, ECU was granted authority to offer bachelor's degrees—BFAs and BDes—and honorary degrees: honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.), honorary Doctor of Laws (D.Laws), and honorary Doctor of Technology (D.Technology). In 1997, ECU was granted authority to offer Bachelor of Media Arts degrees (BMA). In 2006, ECI launched a Master of Applied Arts (MAA), and opened the Intersections Digital Studio. In 2007, the Great Northern Way consortium made up of Emily Carr, UBC, SFU and BCIT launched the Master of Digital Media program (MDM) at the Great Northern Way Campus. Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design's arms,

supporters In heraldry, supporters, sometimes referred to as ''attendants'', are figures or objects usually placed on either side of the shield and depicted holding it up. Early forms of supporters are found in medieval seals. However, unlike the c ...

flag A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design empl ...

, and

badge A badge is a device or accessory, often containing the insignia of an organization, which is presented or displayed to indicate some feat of service, a special accomplishment, a symbol of authority granted by taking an oath (e.g., police and ...

were registered with the Canadian Heraldic Authority on April 20, 2007. On April 28th, 2008, the Provincial Government announced that it would amend the ''University Act'' at the

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia is the deliberative assembly of the Parliament of British Columbia, in the province of British Columbia, Canada. The Legislative Assembly meets in Victoria. Members are elected from provincial ...

and recognize Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design as a full university, which would be named Emily Carr University of Art and Design. The university began its operation under the new name on September 1, 2008. On September 5, 2017, the university moved from its home on

Granville Island Granville Island is a peninsula and shopping district in the Fairview neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is located across False Creek from Downtown Vancouver under the south end of the Granville Street Bridge. The peninsu ...

to a new campus at 520 East 1st Avenue, near Great Northern Way between Main and Clark streets. The purpose-built building was a former industrial site of

Finning International Finning is a Canadian industrial equipment dealer specializing in Caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the ...

, and is in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of

East Vancouver East Vancouver (also called "East Van" or "the East Side") is a region within the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Geographically, East Vancouver is bordered to the north by Burrard Inlet, to the south by the Fraser River, and to t ...

. In 2019 the University's library became a fine-free institution in order to improve patron behaviour and the experience of students.

Campus

The university's campus is located within a four-storey building completed in Strathcona, Vancouver. Designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects and completed by EllisDon in 2017, the building houses informal gather spaces, exhibition spaces and studios; and three lecture theatres, including one 400-seat venue. The exterior facade of the building has white metal panels and glass reminiscent of a blank canvas, as well as a back-painted glass spandrel panels to evoke a sequence of colour and transition of an artistic colour palette. The colour palette was selected by Emily Carr faculty member Landon Mackenzie and another colleague. The colours were selected in honour of the painter Emily Carr. Several First Nations design elements were also incorporated into the building's design. The university campus is located within the Great Northern Way Campus, a property that is equally shared with four other postsecondary institutions. The Great Northern Way Campus is an property owned by the Great Northern Way Trust, a company that Emily Carr University, the British Columbia Institute of Technology,

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located ...

, and the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thr ...

are all equal shareholders in. The larger Great Northern Way Campus also houses facilities used by the other three postsecondary institutions. The

Centre for Digital Media Centre for Digital Media (CDM) is a multidisciplinary graduate institution based in Vancouver, British Columbia. It offers a Master of Digital Media (MDM) program accredited by its four partner institutions, the University of British Columbia, Sim ...

is an institution located on the Great Northern Way Campus that is managed by the four partner universities.

Academics

Emily Carr specializes in

sustainable design Environmentally sustainable design (also called environmentally conscious design, eco-design, etc.) is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of ecological sustainability ...

, photography,

new media New media describes communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for ...

, visual arts, media, interactive media, animation, industrial design, product design, ceramics, sculpture, communication design, illustration and

fine arts In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwor ...

. Degree programs include: * Bachelor of Fine Arts in Cultural and Critical Practices, Illustration,

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 emplo ...

, or Visual Arts. Visual arts majors can choose to specialize in painting, ceramics, drawing, print media, or sculpture and extended practices. * Bachelor of Design in Communication Design, Interaction Design or

Industrial Design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advance of the manufactu ...

. * Bachelor of Media Arts in Animation, Film and Screen Arts, or New Media and Sound Arts. * Master of Fine Arts in

Visual Arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile art ...

. * Master of

Design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...

with

Interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...

and User Experience (UX) options.

Research

In November 2009, Emily Carr University teamed up with Lucasfilm spinoff, Kerner Studios, to announce the establishment of a stereoscopic 3-D research studio. In 2014, Canada Research Chairs

Garnet Hertz Garnet Hertz (born 1973) is a Canadian artist, designer and academic. Hertz is Canada Research Chair in Design and Media Art and is known for his electronic artworks and for his research in the areas of '' critical making'' and DIY culture. Work ...

and Amber Frid-Jimenez joined Emily Carr, making it the first art and design institution in the country with Canada Research Chairs. In 2015, a third Canada Research Chair joined the university until leaving in 2021.

Arms

Notable people

Alumni

* Kate Ali * Unity Bainbridge * Arnold Belkin * Alexandra Bischoff * Phillip Borsos * Molly Lamb Bobak *

Emily Kai Bock Emily Kai Bock (born 1983 or 1984) is a Canadian writer and film director. In 2017, her short film '' A Funeral for Lightning'' was included in TIFF's annual Canada's Top Ten list of the top 10 Canadian short films of the year, selected by a pan ...

* Annie Briard * Karin Bubaš * Arabella Campbell * Neko Case * Douglas Coupland *

Stan Douglas Stan Douglas (born October 11, 1960) is an artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Douglas' film and video installations, photography and work in television frequently touch on the history of literature, cinema and music, while examining ...

Kevin Eastwood Kevin Eastwood is a Canadian documentary filmmaker and film and television producer. He is best known for directing the CBC Television documentaries '' Humboldt: The New Season'' and '' After the Sirens'' and the Knowledge Network series '' Eme ...

Geoffrey Farmer Geoffrey Farmer (born 1967) is best known for extensive multimedia installations made of cut-out images which form collages. Life Early career Farmer was born on Eagle Island, BC in 1967. His career as an artist was unplanned, but he attended an ...

* Ann Marie Fleming *

Tommy Genesis Genesis Yasmine Mohanraj, known by her stage name Tommy Genesis, is a Canadian rapper. In 2016, ''Dazed'' magazine described her as "the internet's most rebellious underground rap queen". Her music incorporates experimental style and often sexu ...

* Angela Grossmann * Colleen Heslin * E. J. Hughes * Carole Itter *

Donald Jarvis Don Jarvis (1923–2001) was a Canadian abstract painter. Career Born in Vancouver in 1923, Don Jarvis took up drawing at an early age. An aspiring cartoonist as a teenager, Jarvis enrolled at the Vancouver School of Art in 1941 and was encou ...

* Lynn Johnston *

Brian Jungen Brian Jungen (born April 29, 1970 in Fort St. John, British Columbia) is an artist of Dane-zaa and Swiss ancestry living and working in the North Okanagan of British Columbia.Hoffmann, Jens. "Brian Jungen: Prototypes for New Understanding ." ''Fla ...

* Ann Kipling *

Terence Koh Terence Koh (born 1977 in Beijing, China ) is a Canadian artist who has also worked under the alias "asianpunkboy". The artist's work spans a range of media, including drawing, sculpture, video, performance, and the internet. Originally workin ...

* Brian Kokoska * Attila Richard Lukacs * Julian Lawrence * Irene Luxbacher * Jeannie Mah * Sara Mameni * Annie Liu * Dandilion Wind Opaine * Frank Palmer *

Jack Shadbolt Jack Leonard Shadbolt, (February 4, 1909 November 22, 1998) was a Canadian painter. Early life Born in Shoeburyness, England, Shadbolt came to Canada with his parents in April 1911. He was raised in Victoria, British Columbia. He studied at ...

* Edith L. Sharp * Jeremy Shaw * Elise Siegel *

Heather Spears Heather Spears (September 29, 1934 - April 15, 2021) was a Canadians, Canadian-born poet, novelist, artist, sculptor, and educator. She resided in Denmark from 1962 until her death in Copenhagen in 2021. She returned to Canada annually to conduct ...

* Jeff Chiba Stearns * Merike Talve *

Ronald Thom Ronald James Thom, (May 15, 1923 – October 29, 1986) was a Canadian architect. He is well known for two works: Massey College and Trent University's riverside campus. Early years He was born in Penticton, British Columbia, the son of Ja ...

* Renée Van Halm * Ola Volo * Joy Zemel Long

Faculty and emeriti

* Gina Adams * Julie Andreyev * Marian Penner Bancroft *

Ron Burnett Ron Burnett (born 1947) is an author, professor and the President Emeritus and Research Director for the new Centre for Transdisciplinary Studies at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Education Burnett was born 24 May 1947 in London, Engl ...

Peg Campbell Peg Campbell is a Canadian filmmaker. She is most noted for her short films '' It's a Party!'', which was a Genie Award nominee for Best Live Action Short Drama at the 8th Genie Awards, and ''In Search of the Last Good Man'', which won the same aw ...

* Randy Lee Cutler *

* Maria Hupfield (Wasauksing Ojibwe) * Landon Mackenzie * Sandra Semchuk *

Gregory Scofield Gregory Scofield (born July 20, 1966 in Maple Ridge, British Columbia)Gregory Scofield ...

(Métis) * Durwin Talon *

Henry Tsang Henry Shiu-Lung Tsang (born 6 November 1943; ) is an Australian architect, politician and formerly a Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1999 until his resignation effective 3 December 2009. Early years Tsang w ...

* Frederick Varley * Ian Wallace *

Rita Wong Rita Wong (born 1968) is a Canadian poet. Biography Wong grew up in Calgary, Alberta, and currently lives in the unceded Coast Salish territories also known as Vancouver, British Columbia. She is the author of multiple books of poetry, incl ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Educational institutions established in 1925 1925 establishments in Canada Universities and colleges in Vancouver Colleges in British Columbia Art schools in Canada