Ringling College Expands Business Education For Artists

Ringling College of Art and Design's four-year program The Business of Art and Design has grown by almost 50 percent since its inception and is getting ready to expand.

Blending creativity and business, the program's curriculum merges studio-based art classes with principles of economics, managerial statistics, marketing and professional communication.

The idea behind the creation of The Business of Art Design program is that design will revolutionize the way people do and conduct business. "People are going to have to be creative in the new economy,' says Christine Meeker Lange, special asistant to the president for media and community relations.

While there are other business and art programs across the country, Ringling is a pioneer in developing an integrated and comprehensive curriculum that incorporates studio-based art classes with business.

"We've done a lot of research and as far as we know, there is no other program in the country like ours and now private art colleges are looking to our Business of Art and Design program," says Lange. "We can definitely anticipate that this will become a trend in higher ed, especially in design education where we're merging both sides of the brain, the left and the right, and creating that perfect, creative professional."

From Feb. 4-6, Ringling will host their fourth annual International Design Summit and the 2010 theme is Design + Business: The Art of Designing Business Solutions. For more information about Ringling's Business of Art and Design program, click here, or click here to learn more about the Summit.

Writer: Nancy Vaughn
Source: Christine Meeker Lange