Recognizing that artists want to start their own studios, Ringling College of Art and Designs introduces a Business of Art and Design minor degree program next fall.

The new BA program's courses include:

• Organization and Management
• Business Technology Applications
• Accounting Principles
• Marketing Art and Design
• Behavior of Creative Businesses
• Social and Consumer Psychology
• Financing Art and Design
• Art and Design
• Business Law
• Managing Human Resources
• Project Management
• Art and Design Entrepreneurship
• Strategic Planning for Art and Design

In business courses, students will focus on case studies in industries such as arts management, advertising, video production, and art-and-design entrepreneurship. Studio experiences will teach them to think creatively, understand how artists work and comprehend the role of art and design in the contemporary marketplace.

To see if there was interest in the minor degree, Melody Weiler, Ringling's VP for Academic Affairs (l) and its President Dr. Larry R. Thompson first created the program and the classes were immediately oversubscribed.

Candidates for admission to the Business of Art and Design major will need to demonstrate (1) general education competency, (2) a strong interest in business and (3) a history of creative activity and accomplishment. While students are not expected to measure up to the level of artistic achievement required for admission to a specific studio program, they must demonstrate strong interest in the arts, a creative spirit, and an eagerness to work tolerantly and enthusiastically with creative individuals.

Manfred Ragossnig of Vienna, Austria created Patient for Class 5 at Animation Mentor, an online animation school. All Animation Mentor images � Animation Mentor.

To find out more about Ringling and the new B.A. program, visit www.ringling.edu or phone 800-255-7695 (U.S. only) or 941-351-5100.

Go to Animation School Wherever You Are
Another IPAX member school, Animation Mentor, based in Berkeley, California, teaches students all over the world via the Internet. Launched in March 2005 by animators Carlos Baena, Bobby Beck (president/CEO) and Shawn Kelly, the school's curriculum is 100% dedicated to character animation and teaches the art of animation the way the founders wished they could have learned it when they were in school.

The Animation Mentor program consists of six different classes (terms) of 12 sessions each for a full course of 18 months. It is a feedback-driven, online program that is based on the studio production system and pairs animation students with working professionals (mentors). The mentors act as teachers to students from more than 50 countries all over the world.

"Animation Mentor has closed the gap between the working world and the educational process and [prepares] graduates for the cyclical world they will encounter before landing a permanent studio home," notes Beck. "With the help of my partners and our amazing team of mentors, Animation Mentor remains in close touch with the ebb and flow of the animation business, with creative trends, new tools, technologies and more."

Like the students, mentors come from all over the world, from studios such as Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, DreamWorks/PDI, Sony, Tippett and Zoic in California, House of Cool and Nelvana in Canada, Reel FX in Texas, and Blue Sky in New York. It's possible for a student in Germany to learn basic principles like squash and stretch from an animator in California, and principles of body mechanics from an animator in Canada in the next class.