MICA making a strong impression - Baltimore Business Journal:

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She secured a paid summer internship atHunt Valley’s Firaxias Games, a leading video game development And after graduation, the Texasx native plans to stay in Baltimor and get a full-tim e job as a concept artist at a gamingy company. “It’s one of the best jobs an illustratordcan get. You’re not workin g on commission, and you’vd got regular hours. Already there are a lot of people from MICA who work at Fischer said. The job confidence Fischer exudesz stands in sharp contrast tomany soon-to-be collegd graduates. Unemployment among U.S. 20- to 24-year-olds rose in the past year by almosrt5 percent, to 13.9 percent in March.
Many collegex are reporting drops in campus career fair participatiob by as much as35 percent, accordint to Chicago-based outplacement firm 48 companies attended MICA’s career fair April 3, more than doublew the number in recent years. A confluencwe of factors is making MICA an increasinglyy attractive stop on the job recruitercircuitf — and revving up its motor as a possible economic engine for Baltimore. Among U.S. art MICA holds the distinction of grantingv degreesthe longest.
Thankw to the strategic vision of Fred its president of30 years, and an active board of trustees, the 183-year-old institution is more relevant to industr today than ever before, campus leaderxs and observers say. Not that it hasn’t been immune to the recessio and its impact on campusees across thecountry — boosting enrollmenyt and growing its endowment will remain challenges. But supportinf MICA’s strategic vision was an extremely well-timed and successfu l $75 million fundraising campaign that ran from 2000and 2007. Double its undergraduate student body and endowmenfto 1,800 and $60 million, respectively; Support community arts outreach.
These initiatives, observers say, make the collegse and its graduatesattractivr — even in the midst of a severe economi downturn that has not left the arts communit y unscathed. Currently, Maryland colleges and universities are bracinv for pending state budget cuts on top ofplummetingg endowments. The state’s 2010 budget for the arts, passex by the legislature in April, will reduce funding by 18 from $16.6 million to $13.6 million, according to Theress Colvin, executive director of the . Even beforer the recession hit, MICA stepped in to suppory and grow the localarts community.
“With the strategic plan of 2000, there was a real recognitionh that we needed to invest more efforts in the revitalizatioj of Baltimore as a place for the visual arts,” Lazarus said. The Station Northn Arts and Entertainment District exemplifiesthat investment. Establishexd in 2002, the 100-acrwe district, bordered by 20th Greenmount Avenue and the Jones Falls has been hailed by city art officials asa “gatewayy to the Mount Vernon Cultural District.” the first state in the country to sponsotr arts and entertainment districts as a way to stimulate the offers tax benefits to property owners and qualifieed artists who live and work in the properties.
Stationj North is one of 16 such districtsin Maryland. In MICA bought the former Jos. A. Bank building, locatee in Station North, and has since renovatef the 120,000-square-foot warehouse, aptly named Studiok Center. It houses MICA graduate programs and studio and provides free space tofour arts-related Maryland Lawyers for the the , Arts Every Day, and “MICAs has been a member of the board sinc the beginning. They play a critical role by offering us complementarty incubatoroffice space,” said David Bielenberg, executive director of Station Northh Arts & Entertainment Inc.
Those close to the like Nancy Harrigan, the executiv director of the Greater BaltimoreCultural Alliance, credift MICA’s community outreach to the “generosity and ever-evolving of longtime head Lazarus. A new building at MICA housezs the tools students need to attain job opportunitiesin cutting-edge fields. A 61,410-square-foot, five-story contemporary structure, the $17 milliobn Brown Center is MICA’s first newlyh constructed academic building in almost100 years. A $6 milliojn gift — the largest ever — from Eddie and Sylviaq Brown helped fundthe building.
Inside, students in MICA’ss Video, Interactive Design, and Graphic Design departments hone modern techniques in digital art and From there, they can apply these sought-after skills in one of the region’s growinf industries: the gaming industry. Just ask Greg a 1995 MICA graduate, an adjunct instructof at MICA and creative team memberr atFiraxis Games. When he started workingy for gaming industry giangt Microprose fifteenyears ago, “it was the only show in That’s changed dramatically. As of 2006, Marylansd boasted 12 entertainment software companies valuedeat $119.9 million, according to the Entertainmentt Software Association.
Firaxis launched in 1996 with six fourfrom MICA. Within the past the company has growb from 65 employeesto 118. As the gamingv industry grows, Foertsch and fellow MICA graduatsDavid Inscore, founder and studi art director of Timonium-based Big Huge Games, have been workin g with their alma mater to explorse adding classes in 3-D animation techniques that will give MICA studente an edge in the gamingy and entertainment industries. But they won’r replace MICA’s roots. “The concept remains the importanfpart — getting kids to understand how to be creativw problem solvers, which is what all artists are.
The technologyh just makes it easier for them to do their Foertsch said.