Emily Carr University: student tips for surviving life on campus

Best place for a nap: Student Wellness Lounge, also known as the Oasis
Best cheap lunch: Social Practice Kitchen (by donation; every Monday students make vegan dishes for the community)
Best hangover breakfast: Budgies Burritos
Favourite campus food: Chorizo and egg bowl
Favourite watering hole: Red Truck Beer Company
Perks of living in this town: Caring community within the school. Amazing craft breweries and the most diverse range of food, including the best salmon.
Where to live: Mount Pleasant
Best place to study: The new library is beautiful and suitable for studying and finding inspiration
Worst place to study: It’s impossible to read in the sculpture studio, unless you have a pair of headphones
Best live music venues: The Emerald, the Lido, the Cobalt Cabaret
Weirdest tradition: We don’t have one. Help us create one?
Best spectator sport: Ping-pong
Best campus event: Coffee Night
Most original social event: The annual Halloween party, because art students make the best costumes
Best cultural event: Different gallery and exhibition openings. Free wine and cheese, anyone?
Best giveaway: Concepts and ideas! Students also exchange artworks and donate leftover materials.

READ: Emily Carr University of Art + Design | Vancouver, B.C. | Founded 1925

University Insider: Sahand Mohajer, 22, Film, Video and Integrated Media

Moving into our brand spanking new campus in 2017, it felt at first like we might lose our school’s character and the creative vibes that were part of it. After all, this was a new location and a new building with no previous occupants. But after one semester at the new Emily Carr campus, I am happy to assure you that the current students are preserving our school’s character. It took only one month of being in the new campus to start encountering art in every corner, with pamphlets and postings covering the walls inviting students to submit artworks to different festivals and publications. Even the profound little drawings on bathroom walls and classroom desks are making a comeback. After all, this is who we are: makers.

With fewer than 2,000 students, Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECUAD) is one of the smallest universities in British Columbia. But size clearly doesn’t matter. We are one of the most top-ranking art universities in the world, and a recipient of a Red Dot Design award, which places ECUAD within the top ten design universities in the Americas and Europe.

The list of ECUAD and its alumni receiving prestigious awards is endless. So there is a lot of honour in being enrolled at Emily Carr University. Yet you won’t find conventional school pride. For example, there is no official school merchandise. Even if there was, not many people would wear it, because we are individuals! Some of us even make or alter our own clothes. There are no team sports (artists are only good at sports with no pressure), but to make up for it, Emily Carr is a hub of cultural and artistic collaboration. Joining Emily Carr’s film program has meant having access to a large studio and cutting-edge film equipment. Yet the biggest resource are my peers and collaborators who are willing to help with my projects.

Extras
Students are constantly producing artworks and artifacts in the wood shop, painting studios, 3D printing labs, the film studio, ceramic studios or darkrooms. There are several areas of the university allocated to exhibiting art throughout the year. These exciting exhibitions, as well as the annual student art sale, are open to the public. The beloved Grad Show is held at the end of each school year, which often includes meeting industry insiders and receiving some attention from the press. It’s a hoot!
Equally enriching as exhibiting your art is critiquing it. At Emily Carr, classes are designed so that prior to your professor grading your work, the whole class discusses and interprets it. This is frightening at first, but as the class spends more time with your masterpiece, the conversations become more intimate.

Local Vibe
Vancouver is no New York, but it has an exciting future. It’s not known as being the cultural centre of the world, but there are plenty of lectures, artist talks and gallery openings.

The Skinny
For a better sense of the artistic ECUAD community, see instagram.com/ecu_studentlife, ecuadstudentexhibitions.com or facesofemilycarr.tumblr.com.