Faculty of Art

Educating artists and cultural practitioners who will redefine the meaning of contemporary art practice.

About the Faculty of Art

Our six interdisciplinary programs prepare emerging artists to be successful in today's art market and teach transferable creative skills for a wide variety of career paths.

OCAD U is located in one of the most multiracial and multicultural cities in the world, on the ancestral and traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabe and the Huron-Wendat, and we aim to reflect this diversity in all aspects of our ethical and social engagements with materials, ideas, practices, and people.

The Faculty of Art, a collective of innovative and talented artists, educators, and lifelong learners:

Activates a deep knowledge of material processes in the production of images, objects, narratives and events through studio and hands-on practical experience.

Applies critical and reflexive thinking to theory and practice, making and knowing, respecting the interplay of poetics and politics.

Supports new knowledge through research and diverse modes of representation, including those that engage technological and social innovations.

Negotiates the role of individual and shared creative practices within a networked and globalized world towards responsible action.

Takes inspiration from the call to decolonize the university and ourselves, and a commitment to transformational teaching and learning that recognizes and incorporates Indigenous knowledge.

Undergraduate programs

Photo of a wall of canvases painted with abstract colour and shape

Drawing & Painting

Students perceive, read and translate the visual world into personal forms of unique pictoral expression and representation while developing technique in traditional and contemporary drawing and painting media.

Illustration of a person kneeling on the ground holding a flower.

Experimental Animation

Students develop their own creative vision and original visual storytelling while learning a wide range of animation techniques and industry-relevant skills to bring their imaginations to life.

Experimental Animation VFS Exchange

OCAD University Experimental Animation students can enrol in the following Vancouver Film School Diploma programs in their 3rd year of study for Classical Animation, 3D Animation and VFX, Animation Concept Art, Game Design, and Programming for Web, Mobile and Games.

Photo of an art installation, projected images on hanging cloth

Integrated Media

Students learn technical and creative skills in a variety of electronic and digital media that blends film, video, sound, and interactive installation.

Painting of two abstract faces on a bright pink background

Integrated Media: Life Studies Specialization

Students explore nature, the environment and the human body from the cellular to global ecosystems as inspiration for contemporary art. The program combines hands-on studio work in all mediums with courses informed by contemporary perspectives of ecology, technology and sustainability.

Photo of two people sitting on a bench wearing dried grass clothing

Photography

Approached as a fine-art medium within contemporary art practice, this program emphasizes the development of students’ artistic vision.

Printmaking & Publications

Students explore broad approaches to contemporary printmaking and publications through prints, books, zines, multiples and installations.

Photo of installation with large wooden sculptures

Sculpture/Installation

Students experiment with the making and transformation of three-dimensional objects in relation to other components, such as space, sound, text and images using a variety of materials.

Image credits Hana Hozhabr Pour, Yutong Liu, Brigita Gedgaudas, Pixel Heller, Delali Cofie, Carley McGoldrick, and Caro Simon.

Interim Dean, Faculty of Art

Philippe Blanchard has served as the Chair of the Experimental Animation program since July 2022. He was Acting Associate Dean of the Faculty of Art in 2021 and again in 2023. His academic leadership extends to previous roles as Chair of Digital Painting & Expanded Animation / Integrated Media from 2017 to 2020 and a term as Associate Chair of Media Installation Art from 2014 to 2016, where he played a key role in shaping the curriculum for digital arts and media students.

Philippe Blanchard has also maintained an interdisciplinary practice of his own combining animation, installation, light shows, drawing, painting, and printmaking. His expanded animation installations have been featured at venues such as Atelier Circulaire and L'Avenue Mont-Royal (Montreal), ReformerArt (Shanghai), and the Toronto Animated Image Society, among others. His work has been showcased internationally at the National Museum of Print (Mexico City), Chromatic Festival (Paris), The Kitchen (New York), Hirshhorn Museum (Washington, DC) and many more. Blanchard's animation has also been presented at major festivals and institutions, including Rencontres Internationales (Paris-Berlin), the Festival du Nouveau Cinema (Montreal), the Mattress Factory (Pittsburgh), LACMA (Los Angeles), and the San Francisco Art Institute.