Charleston, SC Economic Development

Art Institute of Charleston - You've come a long way, baby

Mar. 31, 2008
Charleston Regional Business Journal
By Kathleen Dayton
A year ago, The Art Institute of Charleston launched classes at 24 North Market St. with 59 students. Today, the career-focused school is instructing more than 300 students, adding curriculum and seeking space for expansion.

By fall, it may be close to capacity in its current facilities in The Carroll Building. The school celebrates its first birthday April 1 with enrollment far outpacing its initial projections.

“I think we’re probably 150 percent to 200 percent beyond where we thought we’d be,” said Richard Jerue, president of the school. “It’s worked beyond our wildest expectation.”

Jerue said 75% of the school’s growth is in the art and design area, with the rest of its students studying culinary arts.

‘Unique character’

“I think it speaks to the unique character of Charleston,” Jerue said. “Not only is it a wonderful hospitality city, but it is a wonderful art and design city. The more you think about it, if you could go to an art, design and culinary school anywhere in the country, why not Charleston, a city that has the wonderful historic environment and the extraordinary hospitality community, and a place that’s 15 minutes from the beach.”

The school’s newest program is in fashion and retail management, which begins March 31. The school also offers courses in culinary arts, culinary arts management, interior and graphic design, Web design and interactive media and photography.

About half of the school’s students are local and the other half come from outside a 100-mile radius, currently representing 15 states.

“Our job is to make sure some of the graduates stay in Charleston,” Jerue said. “We have a staff that will be focusing on the Charleston area to help place our students and find them jobs. We’re bringing the kind of students to the area (with) skills that are really important to the Charleston community.”

‘Too good to be true’

Mickey Moran, a graphics arts student, studied fine arts in San Francisco and worked as a bartender for 20 years before trying to refocus his career on his passion, art.

“I was going through a pre-midlife crisis,” Moran said. “I wanted to do something I loved to do, but there was no art school here. Then I saw a big billboard for the Art Institute and I said, this is too good to be true. I also needed to choose something that I could make a living at.”

Moran will be among the school’s first graduates this fall and will spend his next two quarters working in his chosen field with potential employers.

Marilyn Burstein, dean of the Art Institute of Charleston, said the school’s Career Services department helps graduates find employment in their career fields within six months of graduation.

About two-thirds of the school’s students are traditional students who have either just graduated from high school or who have transferred from other colleges and universities. The other third are older and seeking second careers. The network of more than 30 Art Institutes throughout North America strives for a 90% job placement rate for graduates and some schools have a 100% placement rate.

“I’m sure with our culinary industry here, we’ll see figures similar to that, simply because of the demand in the area,” Burstein said. “Most of our programs have an internship available to the student. The purpose is to get them out there in the real world and have employers know whom our students are and what they can do. When students go out for an internship they’re ready to work, not just there to get coffee. If a student is having a wonderful internship experience and the employer feels the student really has what they’re looking for in a employee, we’re hoping at times that internship can just roll right into an entry-level position for the graduate.”

Warren Albuna of Savannah, Ga., is studying culinary arts at The Art Institute of Charleston, even though his sister lives in Atlanta and had told him about the Art Institute located there.

Culinary capital

“Charleston is like the capital of culinary cuisine for the South,” Albuna said. “For a small city, there’s a magnitude of restaurants and the product they have here is awesome.”

The small-city aspect was not something that initially attracted The Art Institutes, which is headed by Pittsburgh-based Education Management Corp.

Charleston is the smallest metropolitan area in which The Art Institutes has opened a new school, Jerue said. It was Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr.who first approached Jerue about locating an Art Institute in Charleston in order to fill the void left by Johnson & Wales University, which moved its school from Charleston to Charlotte, N.C. in 2006.

“I guess my initial reaction was somewhat pessimistic, the reason being that we had never opened an Art Institute in a city the size of Charleston,” Jerue said. “We were really concerned about whether or not Charleston would have the population base that would really draw enrollments.

“The mayor was dogged in his pursuit. He would not take any doubt or no for an answer. The more we met with the mayor and the leaders of the Charleston hospitality community, the more we were willing to say, ‘This might work.’”

Growth will continue

Charleston offers an outstanding background of culture, beauty and rich regional attributes for creative people who want to study and work here, Riley said.

“We knew an Art Institute campus in Charleston would be successful and the results speak for themselves,” Riley said. “We know that this growth will continue.”

As the school grows its enrollment it is also growing its course study. The Art Institute of Charleston this spring added a bachelor’s degree in Fashion and Retail Management that will cross a variety of disciplines including retail management, fashion design, buying and merchandising, fashion publicity and business ownership.

“We believe a bachelor’s degree in Fashion and Retail Management will answer a significant employment need in the Charleston area, which has a thriving fashion market,” Jerue said.

The Art Institute of Charleston also has applied to the S.C. Commission of Higher Learning for approval to offer a bachelor’s degree program in digital filmmaking.

“If we get approval for that, we’ll have to build a film studio of some sort,” Jerue said. “If we get approval, we hope to start our first class in October.”
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