Art Center College of Design in Pasadena gets $1 million grant

The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena has been awarded a $1-million grant to help defray the cost of its south campus expansion on Raymond Avenue, the school announced this week.

Art Center President Lorne M. Buchman said in a statement that the grant from the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation “signals to the community the growing importance of the creative professions to the economy and our world.”

The Art Center purchased the former U.S. Postal Service property at 950 South Raymond Ave. in 2012 for $6.15 million to expand the south campus, which is expected to open by September in time for the 2013-14 academic year, said college spokeswoman Teri Bond.

The acquisition was fully funded by donations and grants, most of which came from alumni, she added.

Including the latest gift, the Parson Foundation has sent $2.8 million in grant money to the Art Center since 1981, an acknowledgment that the college is among a group of “cornerstone institutions” that “demonstrate excellence in all that they do,” according to a statement from the foundation’s chief executive, Wendy Garen.

--Jason Wells, Times Community News

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