Art Institute of Charleston prepares for tasty debut

t took three years to get here, but The Art Institute of Charleston is on its way.

During a Sept. 25 event at downtown Charleston’s Doubletree Guest Suites celebrating the institute’s arrival, Richard Jerue, The Art Institute of Charleston’s president, said culinary and design classes, the institute’s specialties, probably will begin in April 2007.

A 50,000-square-foot space in the Carroll Building on East Bay and Market streets is being renovated to house the institute. By the time the space is ready for occupation, anywhere from 50 to 100 students will be enrolled, with two-thirds of them studying culinary arts, Jerue said.

About three to five years after moving into the Carroll Building, when enrollment reaches a projected 1,000 students, the institute will look for larger accommodations, Jerue added.

There will probably be about 16 to 18 students per instructor, Jerue said.

The Art Institute of Charleston will offer culinary arts and management instruction and courses in media arts, including graphic design, interior design, interactive media design and photographic imaging. Associate and bachelor’s degrees will be offered.

Other courses, such as fashion marketing, might be added if the local employment market is sizeable enough to justify them, Jerue said.

Creative community

The Art Institute of Charleston joins Pittsburgh-based Education Management Corp.’s more than 30 other Art Institutes located across North America. The schools are private institutions.

The Art Institutes serves two clients, students and employers, Jerue said.

Of The Art Institutes’ 2004 graduates who were available for employment, 89.4% were working in their fields of study within six months of graduating, earning an average salary of $28,504, according a statement from The Arts Institutes.

“Our community will gain immeasurably by having this blue-chip, internationally acclaimed institute,” Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. said.

Jerue, who was already familiar with Charleston before assuming the presidency of the forthcoming institute, said he and Riley have known each other since the late 1980s. The two worked together to persuade Education Management Corp. to open an arts institute in Charleston.

The Art Institutes is a perfect fit for Charleston, which is “a spectacular hospitality city and a glorious art-and-design city,” Jerue said.

He added that The Art Institute of Charleston could establish a synergy with Trident Technical College’s Culinary Institute of Charleston and the College of Charleston’s Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management.

With the arrival of The Art Institute of Charleston, Riley said the void left by the departure of Johnson & Wales University, which moved to Charlotte, N.C., has been filled.

In terms of providing education to support the local hospitality industry, Charleston is in a “far better place and far better position” than when Johnson & Wales was here, Riley added.

Dennis Quick covers hospitality and tourism for the Business Journal. E-mail him at [email protected].