May 17, 2017
After a Career as a Business Litigator, Attorney Decides to Enroll in Art School
Artist Antoinette Adams Decides to Give Back to Help Fine Art Students Thrive and Alumni Launch Careers
Antoinette Adams is the first to admit she’s not your typical art student. Just before her 50th birthday, she made a life-changing decision to go back to school as soon as her youngest child was old enough to drive. The bold choice to enroll at ArtCenter College of Design seemed an impossible dream after a long career as an attorney.
With trepidation based on the 20-year plus age gap between her and fellow Fine Art majors, she persevered and happily established lasting bonds with a close-knit family of artists.
Forever moved by the thrill of stepping onto campus and the encouraging, yet brutally honest, community of artists she’s now firmly a part of, Adams is giving back to the college that changed her life forever. She recently donated $50,000 to fund scholarships and Study Away travel expenses for an annual art sojourn to Berlin, Germany.
“We’re grateful to Antoinette for this generous gift to help our talented current students cover their educational expenses as well as provide vital support to recent alumni with the launch of their careers as working artists,” said Tom Knechtel, chair of the undergraduate Fine Art department at ArtCenter College of Design.
The gift from Adams, who graduated with her degree in Fine Art in 2015, is set to fund two new programs that will benefit enrolled students and recent alumni of the Fine Art department. Adams is a resident of downtown Los Angeles and also has a home in Berlin.
Kicking off this fall (2017), the Antoinette Adams Alumni Award will provide a recipient with studio space in ArtCenter’s 35,000 square foot building at 870 South Raymond Avenue, a thriving collaborative nucleus for the visual arts. The alumnus, to be selected by faculty, will receive a $2,000 stipend for two 14-week terms. Additionally, the chosen individual, who will have been out of college for at least two years and no longer than 10, will curate an exhibition of student work, help seniors prepare solo shows and present a talk about their own work.
“We anticipate that when alumni with life experience come to work in our studios alongside current students, they’ll engage in useful conversations about life after ArtCenter,” said Knechtel.
The gift is also set to provide travel stipends to make a Berlin trip possible for several students and alumni through the College’s robust Study Away program. During the excursion, students and alumni will have the opportunity to experience the depth and excitement of the museums, galleries and cultural life of Berlin. Covering expenses such as airfare and museum passes will be a tremendous relief for ten artists in the Fine Arts community. Adams plans to host both “welcome” and “farewell” dinners for the group at her home in Berlin.
About Fine Art
The undergraduate Fine Art program prepares students for creating and questioning in a way that transforms how we think about and engage with the world. The continual exercise of imagination and discipline is the basis for a career in art. ArtCenter Fine Art students become equipped with the rigorous foundational skills they need to be highly adaptable visual problem-solvers who learn to pay particular attention to aesthetics and conceptual dexterity.
The Fine Art community fosters a healthy fearlessness—experimentation, risk and complexity are embedded into the very fabric of student work. Such versatility and adaptability are paramount in preparing artists to excel in a continually changing global environment.
A nationally and internationally recognized faculty works to create a program that is both broad in its scope of interests and small in class size to allow for a more one-on-one education. ArtCenter’s Fine Art program supports a spectrum of disciplines including drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, film/video, photography and digital imaging, as well as an array of art-and-design hybrids.
About ArtCenter College of Design
Founded in 1930 and located in Pasadena, California, ArtCenter College of Design is a global leader in art and design education. ArtCenter offers 11 undergraduate and seven graduate degrees in a wide variety of industrial design disciplines as well as visual and applied arts. In addition to its top-ranked academic programs, the College also serves members of the Greater Los Angeles region through a highly regarded series of year-round educational programs for all ages and levels of experience. Renowned for both its ties to industry and social impact initiatives, ArtCenter is the first design school to receive the United Nations’ Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status. Throughout the College’s long and storied history, ArtCenter alumni have had a profound impact on popular culture, the way we live and important issues in our society.
Contact:
Teri Bond
Media Relations Director
teri.bond@artcenter.edu
O 626 396-2385
M 310 738-2077
