Artistic Rise of OCAD

When it opened its doors in 1876, the Ontario School of Art was a single classroom in downtown Toronto with 14 students. Now, 150 years later, Ontario College of Art & Design University has become a sprawling Toronto institution, exceeding 4,000 students annually.

“More than 25,000 artists and designers have come to OCAD University to develop their skills, broaden their perspectives and test their ideas,” says Ana Serrano, the school’s president and vice-chancellor. “As we celebrate our 150th anniversary, we celebrate the impact our students, faculty and alumni have made in the past and we know will continue to make in the next 150 years.”

That impact has been significant. Six of the original members of the Group of Seven, for example, attended or worked at OCAD U.

Beyond the classroom, OCAD U alumni and faculty have created quintessential Canadian iconography; these include Hans Kleefeld’s Tim Hortons logo and Burton Kramer’s CBC broadcast logo, as well as the No Name branding designed by Don Watt. Even the caribou on our 25-cent coin and the Bluenose on our dime were designed by an OCAD U alum, Emanuel Hahn.

The university’s legacy has also manifested through Toronto’s physical landscape. Opened in 2004, the Rosalie Sharp Centre for Design — described as a “playful checkerboard in the sky” — is now an iconic fixture on the city’s skyline.

As OCAD U looks to its future, the school is focused on issues including sustainability, the legacy of colonialism, the impact of climate change on art and design, and the need for adaptive learning.