Why ArtCenter

Welcome! If you're looking to pursue a creative path but not sure where to start, you’re in the right place.

It doesn’t matter if you’re interested in fine art or filmmaking, animation or illustration, smartphone or sneaker design. We know you want to make a difference, and we want to help you get there. We’ll help you discover and strengthen your voice. We’ll show you that the best way to tackle a challenge is to dive in and get your hands dirty. Then we’ll place you in real-world situations to put your skills and knowledge to the test.

Industry Impact

At ArtCenter, a professional, industry-focused environment is in our DNA. We take pride in seeing career possibilities in all the creative work we do. Here, you’re immersed in a make-to-know environment as you're mentored by a faculty of working professionals who bring industry experience and connections into the classroom.

Strength Through Diversity

Diversity in our community and curriculum remains a fundamental value and ongoing priority at ArtCenter. Through our Center for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, we’re diversifying our faculty and course offerings while actively developing a slate of programming and outreach designed to inform under-represented communities about the vast potential for careers in these fields. We’re also developing innovative educational models to create new pathways into art and design tailored to students’ needs, location and resources.

Branded Design Challenges

Work alongside top-level designers from your favorite brands through Sponsored Projects, our successful partnership program where corporations collaborate with our students on relevant, real-world design challenges, from recreating iconic products without plastic to crafting vehicles of the future.

Design for Social Good

Designmatters, our social impact program, offers courses that allow you to delve into the world's most pressing problems — from climate change to health inequities — and design solutions you'll see put into action. Thanks to Designmatters’ global footprint, ArtCenter was named the first art & design college designated a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) by the United Nations..

Established Professional Pipelines

All recent graduates have their work featured in our Grad Show, an event held three times a year at the Pasadena Civic Center that draws industry leaders from across Southern California looking to hire from ArtCenter’s deep talent pool of new grads.

Accelerated Degree Opportunities

Our specialized curriculum empowers you to take specialized courses in your chosen field of study from Day One. And you’ll have the opportunity to complete your undergraduate degree in three years instead of four should you choose to attend classes year-round.

Average age of new undergraduate students

Learning to Create in the World's Creative Capital

You’ll also experience life in Los Angeles, a city offering unparalleled opportunities in the fields of film, entertainment, advertising, art, automotive design, digital media and more. You’ll benefit from our established pipelines to internships at nearby companies and organizations (Tesla, Google, NASA/JPL, Disney and Netflix) as well as world-class museums and galleries (LACMA, The Broad Museum and Hauser & Wirth). Oh, and when you need a break from the studio, miles of coastline and hiking trails are within easy reach here in SoCal, where the average temp is a sunny 70°F.

Global Alumni Network

Best of all, when you graduate you’ll enter a global alumni community of accomplished artists and designers as committed to changing the world through their art and design as you are.

Annual Days of Sunshine