Hasta La Ideas

Last we checked in with the Art Center College of Design, all was not well in Pasadena. Everyone—students, faculty, alumni, staff, and trustees—seemed to have something to gripe about, from the planned Frank Gehry-designed design research center to the widespread changes wrought by the school’s fourth President, Richard Koshalek, who was replaced last fall by interim president Frank L. Ellsworth. Today the college announced a permanent replacement, appointing Lorne M. Buchman (at right) president and CEO. Buchman was “unanimously selected by the Board following the enthusiastic recommendation of a committee of faculty members, students, trustees, and staff that conducted an international search over the past ten months,” noted the Art Center in a press release.

Buchman previously served as the provost and then president of California College of Arts and Crafts, where he spearheaded the 1994 strategic plan that led to the creation of its renowned San Francisco campus, so you know he’s handy with a capital campaign. In his most recent position as president of Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center, Buchman led a plan to transform from a graduate school to a multidisciplinary university. Meanwhile, Buchman will bring a different kind of drama to the Art Center: he’s a trainer theatre director and scholar as well as the author of a book on filmic adaptations of Shakespeare‘s plays. Can Buchman quiet The Tempest at the Art Center? For now, it’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream—he doesn’t take office until October.

Previously on UnBeige: