

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.
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.
Faculty of Art office
RHB 915 (230 Richmond Street West, Room 915)
artoffice@ocadu.ca

