The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is a private art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, it is regarded as one of the oldest art colleges in the United States.
MICA is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD), a consortium of US art schools. The college hosts pre-college, post-baccalaureate, continuing studies, Master of Fine Arts, and Bachelor of Fine Arts programs, as well as young peoples' studio art classes.
History
Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts
The Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts was established by prominent citizens of Baltimore, such as Fielding Lucas Jr. (founder of Lucas Brothers - office supply company), John H. B. Latrobe (lawyer, artist, author, civic leader), Hezekiah Niles (founder of national newspaper Niles Weekly Register) and Thomas Kelso.
Other leaders and officers in that first decade were William Stewart (president), George Warner, and Fielding Lucas Jr. (vice presidents), John Mowton (recording secretary), Dr. William Howard (corresponding secretary), as well as James H. Clarke and D.P. McCoy (managers), Solomon Etting (local merchant/political leader), Benjamin C. Howard, William Hubbard, William Meeter, William Roney, William F. Small, S.D. Walker, John D. Craig, Jacob Deems, William H. Freeman, Moses Hand, William Krebs, Robert Cary Long Jr. (architect), Peter Leary, James Mosher, Henry Payson (founder of First Unitarian Church), P. K. Stapleton, James Sykes and P. B. Williams. The General Assembly of Maryland incorporated the institute in 1826, and starting in November of that year (Tuesday, November 7, 1826), exhibitions of articles of American manufacture were held in the "Concert Hall" on South Charles Street. A course of lectures on subjects connected with the mechanic arts was inaugurated, and a library of works on mechanics and the sciences was begun.
The school operated for a decade at "The Athenaeum" (the first of two structures to bear that name, a landmark for educational, social, cultural, civic and political affairs) at the southwest corner of East Lexington and St. Paul Streets facing the second Baltimore City/County Courthouse between North Calvert and St. Paul Streets. This first Athenaeum was destroyed by fire on February 7, 1835, along with all of its property and records. The fire was caused by a bank riot due to the financial panic following the collapse of several Baltimore banks.
In November 1847, Benjamin S. Benson and sixty-nine others (including many of the original founders of the former institute), issued a call for a meeting of those favorable to the formation of a mechanics' institute, which resulted in the reopening of the institute on January 12, 1848.
The first annual exhibition was held at "Washington Hall" in October 1848, followed by two more. The 1848 officers were John A. Rodgers – president, Adam Denmead – first vice president, James Milholland – second vice president, John B. Easter – recording secretary, and Samuel Boyd – treasurer. The institute was reincorporated by the state legislature at their December session in 1849 and was endowed by an annual appropriation from the State of Maryland of five hundred dollars. In 1849, the Board of Managers extended the usefulness and broadened the appeal of its programs to ordinary citizens by opening a School of Design and an additional Night School of Design was extended two years later in the new hall and building, under William Minifie (from the Faculty of the old Central High School of Baltimore) as principal of the reorganized institute. Classes resumed in rented space over the downtown Baltimore branch of the U.S. Post Office Department in the "Merchants Exchange".
The City Council in 1850 passed an ordinance granting the institute permission to erect a new building over a reconstructed "Centre Market", laying the cornerstone on March 13, 1851, with John H. B. Latrobe, and son of national architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, (1764–1820).
In 1851, the institute moved to its own building, built above the old Centre Market on Market Place (formerly Harrison Street) between East Baltimore Street (to the north) and Water Street (to the south) alongside the western shore of the Jones Falls. Centre Market continued to be known in the city as "Marsh Market" after the former Harrison's Marsh from colonial times. The building covered an entire block and had two stories built on a series of brick arches above the market, with two clock towers at each end. The second floor with the institute, housed classrooms, offices, shops and studios and one of the largest assembly halls/auditorium in the state.
During this period the institute added a School of Chemistry, thanks in part to a bequest from philanthropist George Peabody, (1795–1869), (for which the Peabody Institute and George Peabody Library is named) and B.& O. Railroad president Thomas Swann, along with a School of Music. Night classes for Design are added for men who work during the day, but would like training in Architecture and Engineering at night. In 1854, a Day School of Design opened for women—one of the first US arts programs for women. In 1860, the Day School for men opened, and in 1870, the Day school became co-ed.
For 79 years the institute remained in the location above the Centre Market, and its "Great Hall", large enough to accommodate 6,000, attracted many famous speakers and lecturers. It hosted events and shows related to the arts, and as one of Baltimore's largest halls, it hosted important events to the city and the region. In 1852, it hosted both of the national political conventions to nominate presidential candidates Winfield Scott and his opponent Franklin Pierce (who was later elected 14th president of the United States).
During the American Civil War, the institute was briefly an armory for the Union and a hospital for soldiers wounded at the Battle of Antietam. On April 18, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln gave his famous speech known as the "Baltimore Address" (or "Liberty Speech") during a Sanitary Fair held in the Great Hall to benefit Union soldiers and families.
On February 7–8, 1904, the Centre Market and the Maryland Institute burned down along with 1,500 other buildings in downtown Baltimore during the Great Baltimore Fire. Temporarily, classes moved to spaces above other covered municipal markets in the city, while construction was ongoing in two locations. Michael Jenkins donated the future site of the "Main Building" on Mount Royal Avenue near the new Bolton Hill neighborhood in the northwest, which opened in 1908. It was to house the School of Art and Design, and the City of Baltimore offered the old site and funding to rebuild the Centre Market as a location for the Drafting school and "mechanical arts".
Upon opening, the Main building had spaces for pottery, metal working, wood carving, free-hand drafting and textile design, as well as a library, galleries and exhibition rooms. The galleries and exhibition rooms were important, because at the time of construction, Baltimore had no public art museum (institutions such as the Walters Art Gallery were not founded and opened for regular public viewing until 1909 and acquired by the city in 1934, and the Baltimore Museum of Art, in 1914).
In 1923, the institute's galleries hosted the first known public showing of Henri Matisse's work in the United States, brought from Europe by sisters Claribel and Etta Cone. In 1928, the new Centre Market building, now known as "The Market Place" building, offered a course in Aeronautics theory and drafting following the great excitement and increase in interest in the industry following Charles Lindbergh's flight over the Atlantic Ocean to Paris.
Maryland Institute, College of Art
The institute legally changed its name to the "Maryland Institute, College of Art" in 1959, and the "Market Place Building" was razed to make room for the extension south of the Jones Falls Expressway (Interstate 83). The consolidation of MICA to the Mount Royal campus was furthered by the purchase of the Mount Royal Station, a former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) train station, in 1964. In 1968, MICA was forced to close due to the Baltimore riot of 1968, which broke out two days after the April 4 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee.
From 1972 to 1975, MICA was graced with the presence of artists and critics of the period, including composer John Cage, poet Allen Ginsberg, photographer Walker Evans, master printer Kenneth E. Tyler, painter Elaine de Kooning and art critic Clement Greenberg.
In the following years, MICA expanded along Mount Royal Avenue, adding the "Fox Building" in 1978, the "College Center" (now the "Art Tech Center") in 1986, a renovation of the "Main Building" in 1990, "The Commons" (added 1992), "Bunting Center" (1998), the "Meyerhoff House" (2002), the "Brown Center" (2003), the "Studio Center" (2007) and "The Gateway" (2008). During that time, the college focused on increased interaction with the international art world—offering study abroad programs and residences in numerous countries around the world.
The school's logo was redesigned in 2007 by Abbott Miller of Pentagram and is said to be a "visual reference to the architecture" found at the 1907 Main Building and 2003 Brown Center.
Academics MICA offers various undergraduate degree, graduate degrees and certificates including B.F.A., M.A., M.A.T., M.B.A., M.F.A., M.P.S. Some of the degree programs are partially online or fully online. The school has accreditation from Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) since 1967, and National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) since 1948.
In the Fall 2017 term, there were 433 part-time faculty and 178 full-time faculty, with an 8 to 1 student-to-faculty ratio.
Students and alumni
In Fall 2017, the total student enrollment was 2,128, with 1,824 undergraduate students and 379 graduate students hailing from across the US and foreign countries. The student body in Fall 2017 was 75% female and 25% male. MICA has an acceptance rate of 62% in 2017.
86% of B.F.A. graduates who take jobs immediately after graduation are working in art related fields; 23% of MICA's B.F.A. graduates pursue graduate study immediately after graduation.
From 2009 to 2017, 14 MICA graduates received Fulbright awards for study abroad and five students earned the Jacob Javits Fellowship for graduate study. Since 2003, two alumni have received the national Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship and three Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholars chose to study at MICA. Additionally, four alumni were awarded Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grants.
Facilities MICA's campus is a mixture of buildings from different periods of Baltimore's development.
Main building
The Main Building houses painting and drawing studios, undergraduate photography department, foundation department, two departmental galleries, undergraduate admissions and the President's Office.