Thames & Hudson and SCAD jointly announce the release of Class of 2024, a special, limited-edition book showcasing the work of ten emerging photography talents, all current SCAD students or recent graduates. The vibrant anthology, published as part of Thames & Hudson’s 75th anniversary and designed by Tyler Basa (B.F.A., graphic design, 2022) is a deeply individual look into the future of photography.
 
“I am delighted to introduce Class of 2024 – an outstanding collection of photographs presented by ten talented students and recent graduates from SCAD," said Sophy Thompson, CEO & Publisher, Thames & Hudson. “Throughout our storied history, Thames & Hudson has remained committed to championing the voices and visions of young and emerging artists in parallel with the publishing of leading writers and artists from around the world. It is in that spirit that we have collaborated with SCAD to publish this book."
 
Introduced in the artists' own words and illuminated by essays from established writers, curators and editors, the photographs span genres including portraiture, landscapes, fashion commissions,  private projects, collages, and film stills. In total, the book offers up ten compelling and imaginative ways of looking at the world today in all its complexity. Guided by the strength of the creativity within its pages, Class of 2024 captures a moment in time, providing a platform for emerging talent and inspire lovers of photography.

Fest in class: on display at ICP NY Bookfest. Photo: Mitchell Ritter.

“This unique project which began in a SCAD classroom and is now launched into the world through Thames & Hudson, publishers of the some of the most significant and influential photography books, proving that photography and education have never been more active or important," said Michael James O’Brien, chair of photography at SCAD. “Class of 2024 reflects the breadth and depth of the SCAD photography program itself as it manifests the full spectrum of photographic communication in 2024 and for the future." 

At SCAD, it is a fundamental view that photography bridges cultural divides to document human history and reflect its beauty. Students learn through this prestigious program how to frame their own distinct point of view, learning the full spectrum of photography — historic and analogue processes through modern and next-generation digital technologies.
 
The contributing photographers include five SCAD current students and five recent alumni representing several of the university’s preeminent degree programs including photography, advertising and branding, graphic design, and fashion design. The featured artists are Tyler Basa (Jackson, New Jersey); Ying Chen (Shanghai, China); Davis Clem (Knoxville, Tennessee); Joel Dubroc (Mandeville, Louisiana); Will Foerster (Deland, Florida); Kourtney Iman King (Decatur, Alabama); Vino Pan (Taipei City, Taiwan); Shan Shi (Shijiazhuang, China); Xavier Thompson (Fayetteville, Georgia); and Wisdom Warner (Stone Mountain, Georgia).

Class capture (l-r): Basa, Shi, and O'Brien at ICP NY.

The publication of the book was celebrated with events at Photo London Fair in May of this year, and in early September at ICP Photobook Fest, with appearances by photographers Tyler Basa and Shan Shi, professor of photography Michael James O’Brien, and New York magazine design editor Wendy Goodman.
 
Notably, Basa;'s contributions to the book include photography, text, and art direction. “To work with the best of the best at Thames & Hudson, to be among the pages alongside the bewilderingly talented photographers at SCAD, to provide a glimpse at the future of photography, and to be in presence for the books' debut and be given the opportunity to speak at both Photo London Fair and International Center of Photography’s 2024 Photobook Fest in New York City have all been great honors and experiences," Basa said.

Purchase Class of 2024 here.

Banner photo by Mitchell Ritter.

The SCAD Museum of Art is proud to announce the fall 2024 season of exhibitions, uniting works by forward-thinking creators who represent varied identities, viewpoints, and artistic movements. Reflecting upon the legacies of history while engaging directly with contemporary culture, the nine new exhibitions attune viewers to the power of the human experience, and the dynamic expressions of artists seeking connection to the world around them.
 
"The SCAD Museum of Art serves as a bold and brilliant beacon for lovers of visual ideation across the globe, said SCAD President Paula Wallace. “Our fall shows feature a charismatic lineup of contemporary artists from India, Italy, Kuwait, and beyond — and we welcome back SCAD alum Anya Molyviatis for her debut solo museum exhibition in the SCAD MOA Alumni Gallery. If you're ready to see the world with new eyes, join me at the SCAD Museum of Art this fall. The space draws you in, irresistibly. No passport required!"
 
SCAD MOA welcomes George Clinton to Savannah for the first museum exhibition of his wildly unconventional paintings and drawings that defy expectations with an imaginative Afrofuturist aesthetic centering improvisation and joy. Clinton will present this year's Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Lecture, placing his work in context with the lineages of African American storytelling. The museum is further honored to partner with Dia Art Foundation on a focused exploration of the innovative practice of Minimalist artist Dan Flavin (1933–96), whose pivotal works established a defining formal language of light and space.
 
In new and recent works, Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola critiques the commercialization of culture while uplifting the nuanced roles of everyday objects within Black life and individuality. Blending myth and purported fact in an evocative, grounding installation, multidisciplinary sculptor and filmmaker Monira Al Qadiri explores the complexities of the Persian Gulf's past and future. In her debut solo museum exhibition, SCAD alum Anya Molyviatis (B.F.A., fibers, 2021) merges technology and craft in intricate weavings that augment perception. Artist collaborators Thukral and Tagra contemplate the intersection of the digital and natural worlds in hyperrealistic paintings marked by analog pixels and glitches. Examining the connection between image-making and identity, Pop-Deco illustrator Olimpia Zagnoli transforms her graphic designs into bold portraits for a site-specific installation in the museum's public-facing Jewel Box vitrines. Beloved fashion designer Isabel Toledo is also celebrated with a posthumous exhibition of her work curated with her husband, artist, and fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo.
 
SCAD MOA chief curator Daniel S. Palmer said: "This new season of exhibitions at the SCAD Museum of Art will be unparalleled in the institution's recent history. With creators from across the globe working compellingly in nearly every medium, audiences are sure to be astonished by the art on view. Ranging from a historically significant display of American Minimalist Dan Flavin's most important series to the first solo museum exhibition of P-Funk cultural icon George Clinton's paintings and dynamic installations from Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola, Monira Al Qadiri, Anya Molyviatis, Thukral and Tagra, Isabel Toledo, and Olimpia Zagnoli, these exhibitions are certain to amaze and inspire."
 
The museum's fall exhibitions season reflects the prestige and relevance of SCAD's top-ranked degree programs, from painting, photography, and sculpture to fashion, fibers, industrial design, illustration, and film and television. Students, alumni, and visitors can engage with the artists and curators at complementary programming, including an opening celebration, artist talks and conversations throughout the week, and an electrifying performance by George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic.

George Clinton, Alice in My Fantasies, c. 1999, acrylic and markers on canvas, 30 x 24 in. Private collection. 

Join the opening celebration Thursday, Sept. 26, 6 p.m., at SCAD MOA, 601 Turner Blvd. in Savannah.
 
For more information, visit scadmoa.org.

Banner image: Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola, Party in the USA (HELL YEAH!!!), 2023, durags on aluminum and wood frame, 72 x 144 ½ in. Courtesy of the artist and Night Gallery, Los Angeles. Photography by Nik Massey.

The always anticipated, eagerly awaited SCAD AnimationFest returns to Atlanta this Sept. 26-28, 2024. The three-day festival, one of SCAD's scintillating signature events, is proud to honor living legend of the animation industry Genndy Tartakovsky.
 
"This year, SCAD AnimationFest proudly honors a titan of animation and a hero to Bees across the world – Cartoon Network and Adult Swim legend Genndy Tartakovsky, the genius behind Hotel Transylvania, Samurai Jack, and Dexter's Laboratory," said SCAD President Paula Wallace. "SCAD students grew up on Genndy's classics, and now, in true SCAD fashion, they will experience this 2D icon in 8K reality!" 
 
SCADFILM will present this year's SCAD AnimationFest Award of Excellence to Tartakovsky for his impressive creative contributions to the animation and entertainment industries. Tartakovsky will receive his award on Friday, Sept. 27 during a special presentation featuring the award-winning animation visionary, director, writer, and producer in person.
 
SCADFILM's signature festival for digital media will feature sessions with top executives and creatives from Adult Swim, Bad Robot, Crafty Apes, DC Studios, DreamWorks Animation, Netflix, and Warner Bros. Animation. The festival will also showcase SCAD students and alumni whose creative work is at the forefront of animation, motion media design, and visual effects.
 
"AnimationFest presents our students with the exclusive opportunity to be mentored by the best in the industry at this signature event," said SCADFILM director Mollie Brock. "At SCAD, animation is our top ranked degree program, and for good reason: Our students and alumni are creating incredible stories that pair passion with state-of-the-art technology, redefining what is possible in animation."
 
Thursday kicks off with a behind-the-scenes presentation of Creature Commandos, the upcoming Max Original series from DC Studios and Warner Bros. Animation from executive producer and writer James Gunn. Warner Bros. Animation executive vice-president of alternative programming Peter Girardi and supervising producer Rick Morales will be on hand to provide an in-depth look into the artistry and creative processes behind this highly anticipated series set in the DC Universe. On opening night, attendees will be some of the first to preview IFC Films charming stop-motion adult drama Memoir of a Snail, directed by Academy Award-winner Adam Elliot.
 
On Friday, Blue Eye Samurai production designer Toby Wilson will take fans "behind the blade" with an exclusive snapshot into the creative inspirations of the Emmy Award-winning Netflix show and a glimpse at the development process, as explained through visual development images. Friday night, attendees will be one of the first to preview an episode of Common Side Effects, a new original series coming to Adult Swim in 2025, co-created by Joe Bennett and Steve Hely and executive produced by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels.
 
More than 600 current students and recent alumni from SCAD's top-ranked degree programs have contributed to this year's slate of creative shorts. SCAD Animation Studios will premiere two new original student films, Time Flies and Chelita, as well as host the annual student showcase featuring the best of SCAD student work.

As President Wallace said: "See you at SCADshow....I'll bring the popcorn!"

For more information, visit scad.edu/animationfest.
 

"It was the end of the disco era," said archives and special collections librarian Andra Darlington, cueing up a clip from the 1980 movie Xanadu, "and they roller-skated a lot." A dozen-plus students leaned in, ready for action.
 
On Friday afternoon, animation and illustration students, select library staff, and a few looky-loos were on an upper floor of the SCAD Jen Library for Darlington's presentation "Don Bluth Behind the Scenes: Xanadu."
 
"For Xanadu, we have materials for almost every step of the animation process, which we keep stored in a climate-controlled environment and that we've pulled today for you to examine," Darlington said. Set out on tables were drawings, hand-painted animation cels, color models, studio memos, and even the lyrics to the relevant soundtrack song, Electric Light Orchestra's "Don't Walk Away."

If Xanadu is not the best-reviewed movie of all time, it's not the fault of the animation sequence, which retains its sparkly magic as Olivia Newton-John transmogrifies into a flirty fish. That sequence is the work of a team led by Don Bluth, the animator and director best known for An American Tail (1986) and The Land Before Time (1988).
 
The Don Bluth Collection of Animation — donated to SCAD in 2005 and held in the Jen Library's Archives and Special Collections — is extraordinary. "The Bluth Collection contains thousands of boxes, so we are barely scratching the surface," Darlington said.
 
After a few guidelines ("Please be gentle"), students were encouraged to handle the Xanadu materials. Yang Zhou (M.F.A., illustration) scrutizined the drawings, landing on one depicting the movie's two main characters in passionate embrace. "What I like is that the style is a little more mature than Disney," Yang said. "It's very expressive."
 
Students with sketchbooks and pencils began their own creative exercises, copying drawings as a way of understanding how Bluth's team had created their masterwork. Animation professor James Crossley circulated, making suggestions about linework.

Crossley, a former Disney animator, explained what Darlington identified among the production files as "sweat box notes." "Sweat box notes are what happens when the animators show their shot to the director and supervisor and they hit you with all these notes," Crossley said. "It can get hot." Darlington pointed to a note from producer Gary Goldman. "You can see his note was based on a rough drawing, and it says, ‘Separate the fins from the girl fish's body for split exposure.'"
 
For a full hour, students circulated, exploring the collection. The session was saturated with inspiration. The aim, Darlington explained, is for the Bluth Collection not to languish in a back room, but to be accessible. She encouraged studunts to email her directly and use the library website to request a research consultation.
 
"I'm happy to work with you to pull material related to your interests. The whole point of the collection is to support learning, and to be a special part of your SCAD experience."

Visit the Jen Library and learn more about Archives and Special Collections.

SCAD is proud to announce the appointment of Andreia Wardlaw as director of the Walter and Linda Evans Center for African American Studies at the SCAD Museum of Art. Wardlaw is an experienced leader and community builder who is passionate about education and the arts.
 
"The varied traditions in African American art have long served as a way to illuminate the voices of the community and celebrate Black culture," says Wardlaw. "I am honored to have the opportunity to elevate the esteemed presence of SCAD MOA’s Evans Center in hopes of building on its legacy of being a preeminent space for engagement with Black art."
 
As director of the Evans Center, Wardlaw will work closely with renowned artists, designers, scholars, and the SCAD community to develop programming that enhances public knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of Black art, culture, and literature. Prior to joining SCAD, she worked at the Center for Women’s History at the New York Historical Society and taught in higher education. Wardlaw received her M.A. in African American studies from Columbia University.
 
"We are thrilled to have Andreia Wardlaw as the new director of the SCAD Museum of Art’s Walter and Linda Evans Center for African American Studies," says SCAD MOA chief curator Daniel S. Palmer. "The depth of her experience working in various aspects of African American studies and culture will be a tremendous resource to SCAD students and the many visitors who come to see the remarkable exhibitions on view at the museum. Since its founding, the Evans Center has been a beacon that highlights transformative stories of contemporary Black culture, and we look forward to this continuing under Wardlaw’s directorship."
 
SCAD established the Walter and Linda Evans Center for African American Studies within the prestigious SCAD Museum of Art in 2011. The Evans gifted the museum more than 60 important works by renowned artists including Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Robert S. Duncanson, Richard Hunt, and Jacob Lawrence. The collection forms the foundation of a multidisciplinary center for the study, understanding, and appreciation of African American art and culture. A permanent gallery space in the museum is also dedicated to exhibiting the work of contemporary African American artists.
 
SCAD MOA’s Evans Center has continually exhibited and celebrated Black artists, including internationally heralded exhibitions focused on the legacies of Jacob Lawrence and Frederick Douglass, as well as contemporary exhibitions by Hank Willis Thomas, Carrie Mae Weems, Fred Wilson, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Kenturah Davis, Chase Hall, Nina Chanel Abney, Awol Erizku, and others.
 
Under Wardlaw’s direction, the Evans Center is presenting a summer film series titled Black Culture Rewind. The series continues Friday, July 19, at 6 p.m. with a screening of Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, a 2004 selection for the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Dash’s seminal film shines a cinematic light on the rich Gullah Geechee history of St. Helena Island, S.C. Prior to the screening, a conversation with Gullah Geechee Sweetgrass Basket expert Amadu Massally will explore the diasporic connections between the Savannah Sea Islands and West Africa. See the event listing here.

Welcome to SCAD, Andreia Wardlaw!

Fill your most stylish tote with macarons as the film festival experience returns to Lacoste! SCAD brings movie magic back to the magnificent Luberon Valley with the third annual SCAD Lacoste Film Festival, this Thursday through Saturday, June 27–29, 2024.
 
"With an acclaimed lineup of artisans, actors, and auteurs in attendance, this year's SCAD Lacoste Film Festival promises to be our largest and most exciting edition yet," said SCAD Theaters and Festivals Executive Director Christina Routhier. "This medieval oasis, with its enchanting views of the Luberon Valley, is a fantastical backdrop for filmmakers and movie stars to share their experiences and insights with our students and the community."
 
This year's festival includes tributes to French film artisans and industry insights from honored guests directly relating to many of the university's top-ranked, preeminent degree programs, including acting, film and television, production design, and fashion.
 
Treasured films from France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, spanning several decades, will find new audiences at SCAD Lacoste's uniquely intimate outdoor stage and theater during the festival.
 
This year SCAD will honor four special guests from the film industry: Miranda Richardson, Janty Yates, Sam Taylor-Johnson, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

Richardson, the legendary Golden Globe Award and BAFTA-winning British actor (Tom & Viv, Harry Potter, Damage, Kansas City) will be presented with the Étoile Award.
 
Academy Award-winning British costume designer Janty Yates (The Martian, House of Gucci, Napoleon) will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement in Costume Design Award. A frequent collaborator with director Ridley Scott, Yates won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for their first project together, 2001's Gladiator. Her most recent film is the highly anticipated sequel Gladiator II, scheduled to be released in theaters this November.
 
"I am so excited to attend this festival in beautiful Lacoste and engage with the students, many of whom will be future creatives in our industry, and I am very proud and honored to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from SCAD," Yates said.
 
Celebrated director, artist, and photographer Sam Taylor-Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey, Nowhere Boy, A Million Little Pieces) will receive the Outstanding Achievement in Directing Award during a special screening of her new film Back to Black, based on the life of British singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse, and starring Marisa Abela.

SCAD Lacoste Film Festival honoree, director Sam Taylor-Johnson.

Renowned French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Alien: Resurrection, Delicatessen), will receive the festival's Auteur Award on the closing night of the festival. Jeunet is best known for his 2001 Oscar-nominated international sensation Amélie, considered a classic across generations.
 
Other special guests include preeminent French production designer Anne Seibel (Midnight in Paris, Emily in Paris, Casanova) whose designs shine on the lauded new Apple TV+ show The New Look, chronicling the rise of fashion designer Christian Dior in post-World War II Paris. Also in attendance will be award-winning documentarian and director Lisa Immordino Vreeland (Truman & Tennessee, Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, Love, Cecil, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict).
 
The SCAD Lacoste Film Festival is presented by SCADFILM, the university's leading programmer of events for students and working professionals in animation, film and television, interactive design and game development, motion media design, immersive reality, and digital media arts. More than 150 SCAD students are taking classes this summer in Lacoste. A large majority of them are pursuing degrees within the university's School of Film and Acting.

"This festival is an intimate and carefully curated experience that allows European and international filmmakers to provide professional insights to our student filmmakers through master classes and insightful conversations," said Leigh Seaman, Senior Executive Director of Programming and SCADFILM. "Each year our students make connections that can help launch their careers in an inspiring and unforgettable setting."
 
See you there, mon pote!

Visit SCAD Lacoste!

Get ready for a fête to never forget! This Thursday, June 20 at SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film in Atlanta, delight in the opening evening reception for Entering Modernity: 1920s Fashion from the Parodi Costume Collection. While period dress is not required, there will be no mistaking who's got the look.

The exhibition features more than 60 works by designers who embraced the era's ethos of experimentation with convention-defying artistry. Entering Modernity highlights the styles and silhouettes that came to define one of the most revolutionary periods in fashion history. The exhibition is curated exclusively for SCAD FASH by Francisca Parodi, founder of the Parodi Costume Collection, and Gonzalo Parodi, director of the Parodi Costume Collection, in partnership with Rafael Gomes, creative director of SCAD FASH museums.
 
“One century later, these culturally important garments continue to resonate and inspire," said SCAD President Paula Wallace. “Entering Modernity brings the radical world of the Jazz Age to glittering, glamorous life only at SCAD FASH. Visitors will be dazzled by evening wear and accessories fit for a night at Gatsby's from legendary designers Paul Poiret, Madeleine Vionnet, Jeanne Lanvin, and Jean Patou. This summer, make your way to SCAD FASH for an unforgettable journey back to the Roaring Twenties!"
 
Ushered in by the postwar boom of economic prosperity and freshly won freedoms, the Roaring '20s were marked by glitz, glamor, and radical social and sartorial transformations. Following the global upheavals of the First World War and the suffrage movement, the women of the 1920s embraced new careers, new experiences, and new attires — no longer bound by the rigid conventions and wardrobes of their 19th-century forebearers. Marked by elevated thinking as much as excess, the Jazz Age would forever change how women dressed, behaved, and expressed themselves.
 
Emphasizing the richness of materials and garment construction, Entering Modernity offers a glittering showcase of defining 1920s styles, from the newly introduced cocktail dress with its sleek layers and drop waist hem to other relaxed silhouettes designed for movement. Among the many expertly preserved and rarely seen haute couture works from the archive of the Parodi Costume Collection, the exhibition spotlights Madeleine Vionnet's Flame Dress, Jeanne Lanvin's Robe de Style, a wedding gown by Paul Poiret, a cocktail dress by Jean Patou, and other signature looks by Mariano Fortuny and Henriette Negrin, among others.

Madeleine Vionnet, Flame Dress, Spring/Summer 1923, France, pink silk moiré dress with dark pink velvet flame appliquéw motif and gold metallic embroidery. Courtesy of the Parodi Costume Collection.

“This collaboration between SCAD FASH and the Parodi Costume Collection is the ideal combination of archival depth, excellent scholarship, and discerning curation supporting education," said Gonzalo Parodi, Director of the Parodi Costume Collection. “As a university museum, SCAD FASH is the ultimate environment to promote exchange on the origins of modernity in fashion. Together, we aimed at a deeper narrative that exposes the evolution and complexities of garment design beyond conventional representations of the decade. We are honored to present the result of our dialogue in this exhibition."
 
Thursday's intimate members preview will include a gallery conversation between SCAD professor Sarah Collins and Gonzalo Parodi delving into the decade's sartorial innovations and contemporary efforts to preserve fashion history.
 
“We are honored to collaborate with the prestigious Parodi Costume Collection, an institution dedicated to fashion conservation, archiving, and education," said Rafael Gomes, Creative Director for SCAD FASH Museums. “The 1920s are one of the most illustrious decades, and SCAD FASH is thrilled to bring such important works of couture from names forever linked with the period, including Paul Poiret, Madeleine Vionnet, and Jeanne Lanvin, for our students and guests to learn from these iconic works of fashion history."
 
Entering Modernity: 1920s Fashion from the Parodi Costume Collection is on view June 21–Aug. 25, 2024, at SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film in Atlanta. For more information, visit scadfash.org.

There is no party quite like SCAD commencement, and this year's event was the best and biggest yet. Students, alumni, faculty, and staff were delighted to honor the newest class of graduates at SCAD Commencement 2024, during the glorious first weekend of summer.

SCAD Savannah and SCADnow students participated in the Presidential Conferment of Degrees and Presentation of Degrees ceremonies for their academic schools on Saturday, June 1, while the ceremony for all graduating SCAD Atlanta students took place Sunday, June 2. All ceremonies were streamed live on YouTube.

This year's commencement caps off a milestone academic year as SCAD recognizes its 45th anniversary. As President Wallace said to the graduates:

"During our sapphire anniversary this year, SCAD has celebrated 45 Years of Star Power. And just as the cosmos creates the perfect conditions for a star to be born, so has SCAD provided the ideal environment for the birth of your star-studded career."

President Wallace reflected on the birth of SCAD in 1978, connecting its founding to its current graduating class. "At that time, in this quaint old seaport village, the very idea of SCAD was just so unlikely. At the time, I was already an educator, but to grow SCAD into an elite university, to prove the naysayers wrong, I would have to become something quite rare in education: an entrepreneur."

Vibes were high as President Wallace nodded with enthusiam. "And you joined me in this dream because you are entrepreneurs too!"

Acclaimed actor and New York Times bestselling author Rob Lowe shone as the 2024 commencement speaker. Known for his roles in "The West Wing" and "Parks and Recreation," Lowe addressed the largest class in SCAD history, representing over 40 top-ranked majors, including animation, fashion, and film.

"You are the storytellers," Lowe told the graduates. "You are the connectors that bridge the divides of our culture and unite the human spirit. We need you. We are depending on you. And you my fellow Bees can do this. Congratulations, Class of 2024!"

Congratulations to all our Bees, and to the valedictorian, salutatorian, and excelsus laureate in both SCAD Savannah and SCAD Atlanta.

SCAD Savannah:

Excelsus Laureate Morgan Eng (M.F.A. sequential art, 2024)

Salutatorian Tejumoluwa K. Olarewaju (B.F.A. sound design, 2024)

Valedictorian Caroline Gendron (B.F.A. illustration, 2024)

SCAD Atlanta:

Excelsus Laureate Katie Owens (M.F.A. animation, 2024)

Salutatorian Jayden White (B.F.A. film and television, 2024)

Valedictorian Melody Wu (B.F.A. UX design, 2024)

"Congratulations to the class of 2024. We did it!" —Jayden White

SCAD is proud to share that Yi Tung "Antonio" Chen (B.F.A. graphic design), member of the SCAD Atlanta fencing team, has secured a place in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, where he will represent Taiwan. With a win at the Asian Zonal Qualifier, Chen is the first male fencer from Taiwan to qualify in the foil category for fencing in the Olympics in 36 years and only the sixth ever to do so. Chen has had great success during his time at SCAD, securing a bronze medal at the Asian Fencing Championships.

"I'm so grateful for my SCAD teammates who have kept me sharp and on my toes throughout training," said Chen. "Qualifying for the 2024 Olympics is truly a dream come true, but the job is not done yet. I'm going to continue my training throughout the summer and give it my all in Paris!" 

Chen's qualification for the summer competition represents a storied moment for SCAD athletics. He is the first SCAD student-athlete scheduled to compete at the Olympic games while participating in that same sport at the university.  

"When we first started the fencing program at SCAD, we did so with the vision of having SCAD athletes competing at the highest level of their sport," said SCAD Atlanta Director of Athletics Glen Hill. "There is no bigger world stage than the Olympics, and to have Antonio Chen competing there in 2024 is incredibly exciting. It speaks volumes about the hard work and dedication of our athletes and programs here at SCAD." 

SCAD has a thrilling history with the Olympics. Weightlifter Cheryl Haworth (B.F.A. historic preservation, 2006) represented Team USA at the 2004 Olympics while attending SCAD, and in 2000 (when she won the bronze medal) and 2008 after her time as a Bee. Olympian Avard Moncur, who medaled in 2000 and 2008, also served as SCAD Atlanta's Head Cross Country Coach for several years.
 
The Olympic Games Paris 2024 will begin July 26 and run through August 11, with the fencing competition kicking off on July 27. Be sure to tune in to see SCAD athlete Antonio Chen in action!
 

For more information on SCAD fencing, visit atlanta.scadathletics.com.  

Collaboration is key — and when SCAD met Beeple, the results were glowing. On an epic day in May, SCAD students presented the results of their collab with Beeple Studios, home of the NFT-forward digital artist, designer and animator known globally as Beeple. The event took place at Beeple Studios in Charleston, South Carolina and featured works produced in classes at SCAD with faculty overseeing the process and guiding final designs. The showcase exhibited more than 70 one-minute motion-based student artworks.

"SCAD is delighted to have partnered with legendary digital artist Beeple to showcase a selection of our outstanding student work across programs including painting, illustration, motion media, and animation," said Honor Bowman Hall, Dean of the School of Fine Arts and School of Visual Communication.

"Like SCAD, Beeple Studios embraces innovation and collaboration," Bowman continued. "Beeple's immersive gallery, with its 6,400 square feet of projection space, allowed our students to see their work on an epic scale. Our students look up to Beeple for his tech-focused approach to making art, and for his commitment to forging his own path."

During the event, Beeple spoke about having a studio space for exploration and the growth he foresees for the medium. "It was natural to build a place where we could show physical work on our own timetable," Beeple said. "I've always been able to release work through the internet as soon as it was done, so to now have a studio to do that is really exciting. I feel very fortunate to have a space that allows people to experiment and for us to put on an event like the SCAD Student Showcase."

Beeple people (l-r): Valentina Gil Duque, Beeple, Dean Honor Bowman Hall, and Kare' Williams.

From the SCAD student digital artwork displayed at the event, a top 11 were selected, with awards given to Valentina Gil Duque (M.F.A. motion media design) who received the top prize of $2,500 donated by Beeple Studios, with a secondary prize of $1,000 awarded to Kare' Williams (B.F.A. painting). These awards were voted on by SCAD faculty. Selections were based on design, innovation, and creativity.

"Collaborations like this provide great opportunities for students to conceptualize and then speak through new and exciting mediums," said Dan Bartlett, Dean of the School of Animation and Motion. "For our fine art students, this meant a chance to explore time-based design and create work that utilizes advanced digital projection workflows. For our motion design students, they are able to leverage the potential of the Beeple Studios space and design experientially. The complexity of the projection and LEDsetup at his studio allowed students to design beyond the boundaries of the traditional screen."

This student showcase underscores SCAD's commitment to innovation within the arts, helping students build a foundation for their work while learning from renowned artists like Beeple. This event provided an ideal opportunity to show the art and design community what SCAD students have been working on this year, and to demonstrate the university's dedication to mentoring the next generation of imaginative, impactful artists.

Beeple breaks it down during the Beeple x SCAD Student Showcase.