President's Corner

Dr. Jacqueline Chanda joined the Kansas City Art Institute July 1, 2011, as the college's 23rd president. Her formal inauguration took place Aug. 24, 2011, during the college's 14th annual convocation.

Pride in achievements of students, alumni, faculty

One measure of our institution is to be found in the accomplishments of our students, alumni and faculty. Below is a list of achievements in which all of us take pride:

Fulbright Award: Diana Heise, who teaches digital filmmaking at KCAI, won a 2012 Fulbright Award in Creative and Performing Arts.

USA Fellows: Akio Takamori ('76 ceramics) received a $50,000 USA Fellow grant from the United States Artists Foundation in 2011. He became the third graduate of the KCAI ceramics program to be named a USA Fellow. Sarah Jaeger ('85 ceramics) won the award in 2006, and Richard Notkin ('70 ceramics) was a USA Fellow in 2008.

Independent Games Festival Student Showcase winner: Ian Snyder, a junior majoring in printmaking and creative writing, was one of eight students from around the world to be named a Student Showcase winner for the 2012 Independent Games Festival.

Student Academy Award: “Dried Up,” an animated film by Jeremy Casper (’09 animation), Isaiah Powers (’09 animation) and Stuart Bury (’10 animation), won a Student Academy Award in May 2010 in the 37th annual Student Academy Awards competition hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Point of view: Artists finding jobs and career satisfaction

Dr. Chanda writes about how KCAI is contributing to Kansas City's creative economy and how artists are finding jobs and career satisfaction in an op-ed article published Dec. 14, 2011, in The Kansas City Star.

Inaugural address

Download the text of Dr. Chanda's inaugural address.

Dr. Jacqueline Chanda

About Dr. Chanda

Before joining KCAI in July 2011, Jacqueline Chanda was the academic dean of the Institute for American Universities and director of the Aix Center in Aix-en-Provence in France. She is a member of the International Council of Fine Arts Deans, the National Art Education Association and the College Art Association, among other organizations. She has taught undergraduate courses in teaching art methods, drawing, learning strategies, art methods for elementary teachers, art history, criticism, aesthetics and art appreciation (online and face-to-face), as well as graduate courses in history of art education, research methods and issues in art education, curriculum for art history, advocacy and political action in art education, qualitative research in action and art history. As a researcher, she has explored cognitive and pedagogical issues related to art history instruction in art education, cultural influences of African art and technology and learning. Over the years she has received numerous travel and research grants from the institutions on whose faculty she has served, as well as from the U.S. Department of Education; the Texas Commission on the Arts; the Ohio Arts Council; the Battelle Endowment for Technology and Human Affairs; the NAEA; and the Getty Institute. Articles by Chanda have appeared in the Journal of Aesthetic Education, the International Journal of Education through Art and the Multimedia Electronic Journal of Computer-Enhanced Learning, to name just a few. 
 
Learn more about Dr. Chanda from a news release that announced her appointment in February 2011.