A Great Start to Fall 2022!
President Charles Hirschhorn greets students during the 2022-2023 Welcome Ceremony for new students. Photograph by Danielle Vega/Otis College of Art and Design.
This year, Otis College proudly welcomed the largest and most diverse class in its 104-year history, with nearly 1,300 BFA and MFA students arriving from over 20 countries and 12 U.S. states. Thirty percent of our Fall class are also first-generation students. The campus is buzzing once again with students learning and creating in-person following two years of remote or hybrid instruction, and we couldn’t be happier.
Contributing to this energy are MFA Fine Arts students, who relocated to new studios on the Goldsmith campus this summer after years of being located offsite at studio spaces in Culver City. With this change, Otis College’s BFA and MFA Fine Arts programs are now housed together for the first time in over 20 years, allowing for improved access to facilities and exciting new opportunities for collaboration among the students and faculty.
The College also welcomed its first Charles White Scholarship recipient. Launched in 2021, this four-year, full-tuition scholarship is designed to increase access to an art and design education for emerging creatives from underrepresented groups. The scholarship will expand this year to include another local recipient, as well as one from anywhere in the United States.
We are both so excited for the renewed energy and sense of community we’ve felt since returning to campus this Fall, and many of the College’s new initiatives that are highlighted in this issue of GRID at Otis College. Be sure to read Anna Raya’s Letter from the Editor for the rundown of all the stories in this issue.
Until then, we wish you a great Fall and a safe winter holiday!
Sincerely,
Charles Hirschhorn, President
Jiseon Lee Isbara, Provost