Angelo Donghia Foundation awards third grant to California College of the Arts
The grant to the Interior Design program will support a two-year initiative to inspire sustainability in design through coursework and programming with climate-focused topics
San Francisco, CA—July 31, 2023—The California College of the Arts (CCA) Interior Design program was recently awarded its third multi-year Angelo Donghia Foundation grant. The grant of $50,000 will support the Climate Action Initiative, a program at CCA to infuse climate responsibility into the college’s pedagogy and produce the next generation of eco-conscious designers.
Specifically, this funding will support a curriculum that encourages forward-thinking design work, including opportunities to embed climate-focused topics in the BFA Interior Design program’s studio practice and curriculum, course materials and field trips, climate-focused public programs, certification programs, and professional development for students and faculty. The grant will be applied over two years, further preparing future interior designers to meet the challenges of climate change.
“This generous support of the Angelo Donghia Foundation will be extremely impactful for our program, and we are very grateful,” says Margaux Schindler, chair of CCA’s Interior Design program. “In the wake of climate change, it is imperative to incorporate elements into our curriculum to prepare future designers to meet the existing and unknown challenges that lie ahead. This grant will allow us to evolve our educational approach through the lens of sustainability.”
The Interior Design program at CCA is founded on the idea that the design of interior spaces can transform organizations and change communities. The program is committed to developing and promoting ecologically responsible design methods to educate the designers of the future. Students are offered opportunities to engage with climate-focused design leaders through the Climate/Justice Lecture Series and add an Ecological Practices minor. They are challenged to be creative and visionary, to design with social and environmental issues in mind, and to integrate artistic, technological, and material approaches to the practice of interior design. The program is grounded in an understanding of the body in space, human scale, sustainable material practices, and the power of perception.
CCA received its first $50,000 grant from the Angelo Donghia Foundation in 2020 to support students through an expanded lighting design curriculum with a focus on research-driven, interdisciplinary courses, for two academic years. In 2021, CCA’s Interior Design program was awarded a $75,000 three-year grant from the Foundation to support the expansion and development of the program’s Materiality and Space curriculum, which is one of Interior Design’s three core curricular streams, along with Interior Design Studio and Design Media.
“Our past Donghia Program Grants have allowed us to accomplish many programmatic goals that have significantly impacted our students,” says Amy Campos, professor of CCA’s Interior Design program. “With this additional funding, we will build upon our existing initiatives and innovations and will expand our educational offerings focused on environmental responsibility, which is critical to CCA’s mission and values.”
About California College of the Arts
Founded in 1907, California College of the Arts (CCA) educates students to shape culture and society through the practice and critical study of art, architecture, design, and writing. Benefitting from its San Francisco Bay Area location, the college prepares students for lifelong creative work by cultivating innovation, community engagement, and social and environmental responsibility.
CCA offers a rich curriculum of 22 undergraduate and 10 graduate programs in art, design, architecture, and writing taught by a faculty of expert practitioners. Attracting promising students from across the nation and around the world, CCA is among the 25 most diverse colleges in the U.S. Last year, U.S. News & World Report ranked CCA as one of the top 10 graduate schools for fine arts in the country.
Graduates are highly sought after by companies such as Pixar/Disney, Apple, Intel, Meta, Gensler, Google, IDEO, Autodesk, Mattel, and Nike, and many have launched their own successful businesses. Alumni and faculty are often recognized with the highest honors in their fields, including Academy Awards, AIGA Medals, Fulbright Scholarships, Guggenheim Fellowships, MacArthur Fellowships, National Medal of Arts, and the Rome Prize, among others.
CCA is creating a new, expanded college campus at its current site in San Francisco, spearheaded by the architectural firm Studio Gang. The new campus design will be a model of sustainable construction and practice; will unite the college’s programs in art, crafts, design, architecture, and writing in one location to create new adjacencies and interactions; and will provide more student housing than ever before.