The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, 1968-2008

1968-2008

Author: David Walczak and Monika Reuter Series: Campus History

Title: Book honors 40 years of Art Institute Author: John Thomason Publisher: Get Local Date: 12/16/2008 From three graduating programs to 17, from 25,000 to 75,000 square feet, from 55 students to 3,000. The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale Is your Fort Lauderdale restaurant clean? - Click Here. has expanded quite a bit since its original incarnation in 1968, and its ongoing success can be credited to a word we've heard a lot this year: change. Like anything else, universities must adapt to the changing climate or risk extinction. Whether it's embracing technological advances, giving a platform to progressive student-artists or adding state-of-the-art majors and eschewing moribund ones, the university has kept its pulse on the new. "We're not afraid to experiment and explore," said Dr. David Walczak, chair of general education at the institute. In addition, he credits the school's success to the fact that 90 percent of the university's students work in their chosen field within six months of graduating, which goes hand in hand with change. "We try to get students into the workforce as soon as possible," Walczak said. "We're market-driven. We produce students the market wants to hire." Walczak would know. Along with his wife, Art Institute sociology professor Monika Reuter, he wrote the book on subject. "The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale: 1968

In September 1968, the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale opened its doors on the beach where Las Olas Boulevard meets the Atlantic Ocean. With an enrollment of 55 students, the school offered three diploma programs: commercial art, fashion illustration, and interior design. The year 2008 marked the school's 40th anniversary, and today more than 3,000 students are enrolled in 17 different programs awarding bachelor's and associate's degrees and diplomas. Having moved to its new location on Seventeenth Street near the Intracoastal Waterway in 1986, the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale is currently one of the largest and most respected institutions of its kind. The school is owned and operated by the Education Management Corporation, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which has opened more than 42 schools across the United States and Canada.

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