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Jen Beeman, What’s the Stitch?
Jen Beeman ’09 dishes on her popular blog and pattern company, Grainline Studio. Jen Beeman ’09 began Grainline Studio as a side project from her work as a freelance patternmaker: a blog where she could explore the ups, downs, ins and outs of designing and sewing her own clothes. When she released her first sewing…
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Scot O’Hara and Dale Boyer, By The Books
Scot O’Hara MFA ’95 and Dale Boyer honored their late friend Judith Handschuh MFA ’96 by publishing her novel. One of Scot O’Hara’s MFA ’95 most vivid memories of his friend Judith Handschuh MFA ’96 is a classic Chicago tale. On a frigid Chicago winter night, O’Hara and Handschuh made the trek from dinner to…
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Celebrating 125 Years: An Introduction
This 1972 poster for Columbia depicts 540 N. Lake Shore Drive, the school’s then-headquarters, as a hive of creative energy and self-expression. Lined up like the frames of a comic strip, the windows showcase students and faculty in artistic pursuit: filmmakers, orators, painters, musicians and more. Above all this action, the headline reads: “A Today…
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Questions for President Kwang-Wu Kim
DEMO: You became president of Columbia in 2013. What has surprised you about the college? PRESIDENT KIM: A wonderful surprise was coming to understand more of the history. In particular, I was struck by how much of what is in the [2015] Strategic Plan doesn’t just point the college forward but connects it with its…
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1890-1927: Founding and Beginnings
As Chicago prepared for the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, two orators and educators wisely chose the Windy City as the home of a new public speaking college. From the ashes of the 1871 Great Chicago Fire rose skyscrapers, the elevated train and a vibrant culture shaped in the world’s fifth largest city—setting the stage…
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1927–1944: Columbia in Transition
1927–1944: Columbia in Transition Columbia College of Expression went through a period of great change following the deaths of its founders. The media landscape of the time was changing as well. The birth of radio created a completely new way to communicate, and Columbia had to respond. Columbia College of Expression had been operating for…
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1944-1960: Postwar Boom
In the mid-20th century, Columbia became a hub for veterans eager to enter the rapidly growing fields of radio and television. Columbia adapted to the demand for broadcast training, laying the foundation for today’s media arts college. In 1944, Columbia formally separated from Pestalozzi Froebel Teachers College. Radio Department Chair Norman Alexandroff took over as…
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1961-1992: Renewal and Expansion
The Columbia of the ’60s was the ultimate underdog. With flailing enrollment and few resources, the school could have folded. Instead, President Mike Alexandroff turned it into a thriving, accredited college with a reputation for breaking the mold of what arts education could be. When Mirron “Mike” Alexandroff took the reins as president in 1961,…
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1992-2015: Continued Growth
An ever-increasing focus on the student experience and a permanent home in the South Loop continued to transform Columbia through the new millennium. Today, the college thrives as a hub of creativity and talent. By the early 1990s, Columbia was well on its way to shedding its commuter school identity and emerging as an innovator…