President + Executive Offices
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Emily Carr University of Art + Design was founded in 1925 and is one of British Columbia’s oldest post-secondary institutions and one of the world's leading arts institutions. Visit our main site for details on our programs and news events. Intersections Digital Studios is our research centre and one of the core accomplishments in our transition to a graduate and undergraduate institution. If you are interested in the Creative sector and in the Cultural Industries then Emily Carr University is the place for you. On behalf of the University, I recently signed the Tailloires Declaration which commits Emily Carr to sustainable practices at all levels of the University.
Emily Carr is also the owner along with SFU, UBC and BCIT of 18 acres of land to the east of our main campus. This project, known as the Great Northern Way Campus will allow Emily Carr to expand its existing programs and create new ones over the next five years.
Our mission statement reads as follows:
Emily Carr University of Art + Design is a learning community devoted to excellence and innovation in Visual Arts, Media Arts and Design.
Some of our objectives include:
- To promote a learner-centred environment focused on the Arts and Design and to facilitate the development of a milieu of creative engagement, innovation and professionalism;
- To be innovative, dynamic and self-renewing;
- To demonstrate professional excellence in all of our areas of specialization and to celebrate and support the importance and centrality of creative practices in all of the arts, media arts and design;
- To achieve diversity within our curriculum and equity in all student and staffing activities and accountability within every part of the institution; and,
- To be a leader in the development of new academic programs that respond to the emerging needs of students and society.
The purpose of education and learning in the arts is to enhance our quality of life and to add value to our culture and economy. The arts contribute to the development of society at all levels. This recognition of the purpose of higher education in the development of our people, our society, and our economy is central to our vision. We encourage and enable all students to achieve the highest intellectual and creative potential and to achieve beyond their expectations. We have created a culture which demands disciplined thinking, academic rigour, supports curiosity, challenges existing ideas and helps to generate new ones.
Emily Carr University stimulates its students to develop new and innovative ways of thinking and creating. At the same time, we invite students to prepare themselves for life after school. Our curriculum is flexible, personal, multi-disciplinary and based on the learning needs of students. Emily Carr University is dedicated to fostering an educational environment that is professional, practice-oriented and at the same time rooted in history and critical theory.
Our alumni and faculty are among the most influential and important artists, designers and media practitioners working in their respective fields. One of our alumnae, Liz Magor, who is also a Professor at the University, recently received a Governor General's Award in Visual Arts, one of Canada's most prestigious honours. Professor Paul Mathieu, one of the most important ceramists in Canada, won the Jean Chalmers National Crafts Award and most recently the Governor General's Award. Most of our professors are practicing artists and/or scholars and aside from their work at Emily Carr, they participate in and advocate for the arts locally and internationally. Our degrees in Visual Arts, Media Arts and Design and our Masters degree offer a careful balance of studio and academic programming. Over the last five years, we have won the national RBC competition in painting four times. The latest winner, Brenda Draney recently completed her Masters at Emily Carr.
Students bring experience, vision, energy, discipline and commitment to Emily Carr and this is balanced by what the University offers in quality, breadth, vision and choice. Students who come to Emily Carr will find themselves working in studios, classrooms, the concourse gallery, interning with community groups or at a local company. Our co-op program is one of the most active in British Columbia and we have extensive connections throughout the community.
Emily Carr is becoming more and more of an international institution, with students coming from over fifty countries, and exchanges in place with most major art schools and universities. I invite you to explore this website and our view book, and to discover for yourself why we are known as one of Canada's and British Columbia's most important and prestigious art institutions.
Dr. Ron Burnett, RCA
President + Vice-Chancellor
View a collection of essays, speeches and presentations by Dr. Ron Burnett.
Contact:
Alisha Walsh
University Secretary + Executive Assistant to the President
604.844.3890
awalsh@ecuad.ca