Lawyer-Mathematician Heads Booming Art School
SARASOTA, Fla., May 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- He's a lawyer and mathematician amidst hundreds of creative types.
It's a strange juxtaposition, but it seems to work for Dr. Larry R. Thompson. He is marking his 10th year as president of Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, FL. In the past three years, the 77-year-old college has expanded from six majors to 14, and from 800 students to more than 1200 today.
But he's motivated by more than growth. He talks fervently and frequently about harnessing the nation's creative energy, such as the creativity all around him, because "if we can infuse the world of business with it, we can jump-start our economy."
Another of his goals is to bury what he calls "the myth of the starving artist."
Toward those goals, Dr. Thompson launched a first-in-the-nation program called "The Business of Art and Design." It's a four-year curriculum that he is convinced will produce the business leaders of tomorrow. Says Dr. Wanda Chavez, lead faculty member of the new program, "the art and design degree is in some ways the quintessential business degree.
"It's the first to integrate the study of business and the study of studio art and design -- marrying the right and left brain into one practice," says Dr. Chavez.
Ringling College is located at 2700 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota FL 34234. Telephone 941/359-7594. Email clange@ringling.edu. FOR PHONE OR OTHER INTERVIEW, PLEASE CONTACT Ron Smith, rts941@verizon.net, or 888/730-6630.
SOURCE Ringling College of Art and Design
It's a strange juxtaposition, but it seems to work for Dr. Larry R. Thompson. He is marking his 10th year as president of Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, FL. In the past three years, the 77-year-old college has expanded from six majors to 14, and from 800 students to more than 1200 today.
But he's motivated by more than growth. He talks fervently and frequently about harnessing the nation's creative energy, such as the creativity all around him, because "if we can infuse the world of business with it, we can jump-start our economy."
Another of his goals is to bury what he calls "the myth of the starving artist."
Toward those goals, Dr. Thompson launched a first-in-the-nation program called "The Business of Art and Design." It's a four-year curriculum that he is convinced will produce the business leaders of tomorrow. Says Dr. Wanda Chavez, lead faculty member of the new program, "the art and design degree is in some ways the quintessential business degree.
"It's the first to integrate the study of business and the study of studio art and design -- marrying the right and left brain into one practice," says Dr. Chavez.
Ringling College is located at 2700 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota FL 34234. Telephone 941/359-7594. Email clange@ringling.edu. FOR PHONE OR OTHER INTERVIEW, PLEASE CONTACT Ron Smith, rts941@verizon.net, or 888/730-6630.
SOURCE Ringling College of Art and Design
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