New semester brings additions at LCAD

Laguna College of Art & Design has a new library, a new exhibit, two new curriculum tracks and 23 new students to start the New Year.

“Enrollment for the spring semester is 440 full-time students from 23 states and 18 countries,” LCAD President Jonathan Burke told the City Council at the Jan. 24 meeting.

The semester started Jan. 16.

Entertainment Illustration is being offered in the illustration major, which focuses on storyboarding, visual development for live-action television, film and animation, environmental design for performance venues and theme parks, and digital matte painting for live-action film and animation.

Action Sports Design in the graphic design major concentrates on print, packaging, video, websites and visual merchandising applicable for companies like Hurley, Nike and Volcom.

Burke announced that art by college staff and students who participated in the summer study abroad program is exhibited in City Hall through March 9, and he reported that faculty member Mia Tavonatti recently won the largest art award in the country — the 2011 ArtPrize — for her 13-by-9 foot glass mosaic.

“The piece will be installed in the new St. Kilian’s Catholic Church in Orange,” Burke said. “We’ve all seen her work. She created the mosaic on the front of Laguna Drug on Broadway.”

Burke also announced an exhibition of animation art by Chris Sanders that began Jan. 26 and will run through Feb. 13.

Sanders was an animator on “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lion King,” and “Mulan.” He co-directed “Lilo & Stitch” and “How to Train Your Dragon.”

A reception was scheduled for Thursday, at which Sanders was to sign his new book.

The college’s new library will be dedicated Wednesday, Burke said.