RMCAD’s newest Bachelor of Fine Arts programs—Fashion Design and Commercial Photography—are being spearheaded by the enthusiastic leadership of chair members Darlene C. Ritz and Randy Brown. Both come well equipped to lead their respective departments: Ritz with first-rate industry experience as a private label designer in New York and Tokyo, and Brown as a renowned photographer with assignments for AP, Time, USA Today and Sunset Magazine within his portfolio.
Ritz is working to ensure course development for the Fashion Design program is “one that pays attention to what students will need to know as designers and fashion industry professionals. The skills learned here are the skills students will need to be employed.” Through local and global industry partnerships, program educators are encouraged to model professional standards, inspire innovation and foster student growth.
Development of the Commercial Photography program places special emphasis on the industry’s rapidly changing technology and the demand for increasingly communicative narratives. Brown states, “[m]y primary motivation is based on the fact that our Commercial Photography graduates will be using their skillsets to create iconic photographs that will help define contemporary visual culture…anyone can take pictures, professionals, however, make photographs.”
Enrollment in both programs has already exceeded projected numbers and is continuing to grow—a nod towards the infrastructure of excitement and innovation that has been an integral component in developing these new BFAs.