Laguna College of Art + Design (LCAD) has appointed Steven J. Brittan as its next president, college officials announced in a press release Monday.
Brittan will arrive in Laguna Beach next month after a five-year tenure as president of Studio Arts College International (SACI) in Florence, Italy. He was previously a teacher and board member at the Italian college.
“We engaged in an intensive global search for the role, finding several qualified, talented individuals,” said Terry Jones, chair of the LCAD Board of Trustees. “But Steve stood out among the others for his breadth and depth of experience, as well as his compatibility with LCAD’s institutional values and artistic identity.”
Brittan brings more than 30 years of leadership and experience in art and design, within academia, government, and corporate commercial sectors. As principal of nationally recognized architectural firms, he led the design of major building and urban development projects. He’s also worked in venture capital, mentoring young entrepreneurs and innovators.
Former LCAD president Jonathan Burke retired last December, ending a 40-year career at the college and a 10-year tenure as its chief executive. In the final months of his presidency, Burke said he would focus on the planning phase for a new Student Center, which will be designed to support students with unique learning challenges. The project hasn’t broken ground yet.
In June, the SACI Board of Trustees announced it would permanently close the Florence art and design college because of financial challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. International travel restrictions, repeated lockdowns, and the emergence of new variants forced students to cancel their study abroad plans for over a year, making it unlikely that there would be large enough classes to make the Fall Term 2021 viable, according to a statement published on SACI’s website. Brittan has attracted harsh scrutiny from some alumni for his role in the closure.
During his tenure as SACI’s president, he established interdisciplinary partnerships for students studying abroad with the Italian fashion industry in collaboration with the Ferragamo Foundation, clothing manufacturer Dainese, and EarthDNA. The consortium was later expanded to included several U.S. universities and colleges, including Parsons New School, University of Southern California, Maryland Institute College of Art, College for Creative Studies, and LCAD.
Brittan holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from Harvard University and served as an assistant professor at Rhode Island School of Design, Columbia University, and Harvard University. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of Cape Town.
In a press release, Brittan expressed his excitement to propel the successes of LCAD’s faculty, staff, and students.
“Creative problem solving is particularly important in these challenging times with global climate change and the global pandemic,” he said. “The educational environment must reflect an ecosystem of diversity, equity and inclusion for true creativity, productivity, and positive change to coexist.”
This story is developing and will be updated as necessary.
Steve Britain drove SACI into the ground, ran away with his tail between his legs although there could have been many ways to save the school. He closed the masters program, made decisions for the university which ultimately made it go bankrupt, and took the convenient excuse of COVID to escape without even offering the chance for faculty and staff to clean their offices! He is a total disgrace as a director and President, and was the reason an almost 40 year old institution was closed, and not even an apology was uttered, no accountability taken, and the value of the artistic degrees of thousands of people changed due to his lack of clear leadership and responsible planning. This article fails to mention all of his financial and business failings as well as the reason why he’s run away back to America, leaving behind the disaster he created in Florence, and conveniently blamed on the pandemic, even though it was well known he had created problems for the school before that. Good luck to LCAD but the fact this man can easily get this position reeks of corruption, favors and nepotism among the wealthy, while people in Italy, including faculty and staff and even small local businesses, as well as all the students who attended SACI, have and continue to suffer because of his recklessness.
Seconding Meaghan’s comment. Steve destroyed the reputation of one of the most respected American schools in Italy. I am ashamed to list SACI as my alma matter because of the way he ran the school, and he has left dozens of employees back in Italy in a dire financial position because of his inability to run a school. It’s a shame.
Good luck to LCAD! The new President was Saci’s last, and Saci Is now closing down after 40 years!!! You Will hopefully be reserved a better treatment.
It is pretty surpringing to see that the only manager who was unable (or unwilling) to save the best art school in Florence, Italy – a major destination for Study Abroad, has been appointed as President at Laguna College.
All the other programs in Florence are now back in business, while SACI (Studio Arts College International) a 46-years old art program, has been closed and 35 staff and Faculty fired. It could have easily been saved with some efforts and committment from its Leadership.
“Creative problem solving” does not appear to be one of Mr. Brittan best assets.
We have read the article published above, announcing the appointment of Steve Brittan as director of LCAD, and have noted numerous inaccuracies and omissions regarding the past of SACI’s former president. For the sake of truth, we would like to clarify the following:
1) Steve Brittan is the only director who has decided to close the program he was asked to direct, SACI, from among the more than fifty in Florence, thus ending 40 years of high-level educational experience in the field of art, leaving more than thirty staff and faculty out of work and leading to understandable fears about the loss of value of the qualifications of graduate students. We point out that all other educational institutions in Florence are about to resume their activities in Fall and that for 2022 Spring Term insiders expect a significant increase in enrolments.
2) It is not true that Steve Brittan has established nor expanded interdisciplinary relationships with most of the institutions mentioned in the article. All the partnerships mentioned in the article, possibly with the exception of LCAD, are to be considered the work of previous directors and, above all, our much regretted dean David Davidson and date back well before Mr Brittan’s arrival.
3) It is not true that Steve Brittan is responsible for establishing interdisciplinary relationships with Ferragamo, a relationship conceived and implemented by the two faculty members of SACI Maria Antonia Rinaldi and Camilla Torna, respectively directors of the MA in Art History and of the MFA in Communication and Design.
We, the teachers and staff members who have been made redundant by SACI’s management decisions, conclude this brief note by hoping that Mr Brittan takes greater care writing his professional CV in the future and good luck to the school he has apparently been called upon to manage.
We have read the article published above, announcing the appointment of Steve Brittan as director of LCAD, and have noted numerous inaccuracies and omissions regarding the past of SACI’s former president. For the sake of truth, we would like to clarify the following:
1) Steve Brittan is the only director who has decided to close the program he was asked to direct, SACI, from among the more than fifty in Florence, thus ending 40 years of high-level educational experience in the field of art, leaving more than thirty staff and faculty out of work and leading to understandable fears about the loss of value of the qualifications of graduate students. We point out that all other educational institutions in Florence are about to resume their activities in Fall.
2) It is not true that Steve Brittan has established nor expanded interdisciplinary relationships with most of the institutions mentioned in the article. All the partnerships mentioned in the article, possibly with the exception of LCAD, are to be considered the work of previous directors and, above all, our much regretted dean David Davidson and date back well before Mr Brittan’s arrival.
3) It is not true that Steve Brittan is responsible for establishing interdisciplinary relationships with Ferragamo, a relationship conceived and implemented by the two faculty members of SACI Maria Antonia Rinaldi and Camilla Torna, respectively directors of the MA in Art History and of the MFA in Communication and Design.
We, the teachers and staff members who have been made redundant by SACI’s management decisions, conclude this brief note by hoping that Mr Brittan takes greater care writing his professional CV in the future and good luck to the school he has apparently been called upon to manage.
I taught full time at SACI for 36 years. I was also the 2-D Area Head, and the Faculty Representative to the Board. I retired just two semesters before the pandemic. But I have many friends and colleagues who I admire and respect, and who have suffered greatly from the closure of SACI. I don’t know what is more worrisome: The new President of Laguna College, or the apparently superficial “World-wide” search for the position by the Laguna College of Art Board. I personally have participated in this type of vetting. So I ask if they interviewed faculty and staff? Did they look at the 990s (available on the IRS website) for the financials of these past 5 years? Did they read the many local Italian newspaper articles relative to the announced closing of SACI? Have they read the publicly published relative information by the Trade Union representing the faculty and staff? It is true that the fragile financial situation predates Brittan’s 5-year presidency (it certainly wasn’t only the pandemic that caused the closing of the school – one of the only two study-abroad related programs of the 40 in Florence). But it is also important to recall his prior 10-year tenure on the SACI Board. So directly, or indirectly, the ‘buck stopped there’! But worst of all, the total lack of leadership. He literally abandoned his own faculty and staff. He abandoned them in his failure of communication/exchange, and after the Board and he absorbed their severance contributions to pay the school debts. He abandoned his faculty and staff, along with Dean Leo Rowland, and Board Chair Stephen Rosefield. What is done is done. he has been selected to be the new President of Laguna College of Art. But for the sake of the institution, put your ‘antennae’ out…and let they be fine-tuned.
Like any business that relies on customers, schools rely on students. Italy was the epicenter of a global pandemic. No wonder the school closed with no American students allowed to study abroad. No brainer! The apparently disgruntled employees here seem to be blaming management for the impact they personally have suffered as the direct result of a global disaster. It might be human to try to blame somebody, but finger-pointing is not facts.
Sounds like there are disgruntled people here. Shame that something so positive can be twisted around this way. It seems that SACI Florence’s loss is Laguna Beach’s gain. We all need to give the new president a chance to shine. He clearly brings with him a portfolio of outstanding achievements in diverse areas of art and design.
Writing as an alumnus of SACI. The two previous comments are coming from a point of no knowledge, (aka ignorance), and while they are probably well-meaning and intending to dispel what they perceived as negativity, they are actually dismissing people’s real experience and actual knowledge as mis-directed bitterness. If you know nothing, better to ask questions then jump to conclusions and make (false) accusations – the very thing these comments were condemning.
Responding to some of the comments above: Calling SACI staff and faculty disgruntled after they lost their job? Rather than name-calling, ask what went wrong? The only school in Florence that closed, out of over 30 US Higher Education Institutions in the city?
SACI board and president sadly did not treasure their greatest asset, their faculty and staff, who were an excellent team, extremely capable, hard working, long-term employees, dedicated and competent.
What makes the closing of SACI so terribly hard to accept, is that neither board nor president communicated with those directly involved: faculty and staff, consortium schools, students and alumni. For months there were no responses to any questions. President and board ignored and deceived all.
To blame the pandemic is misleading: It was a terrible decision to close down the MFA programs in the fall of 2019, a ruling which preceded the pandemic by several months. Equally terrible was the verdict to cancel all Fall 2021 courses in March, a mere 3 weeks after opening recruitment, when the program could already boast over 50 applicants. Some feeder schools in fact were notified of the cancellation of the term before they received notice to recruit.
Brittan’s achievements listed in this article are illusory. A fuller, more in-depth research should have been made. Clearly, he gets away with it and LCAD enables him. Wishing your institution best of luck while those in Italy clean up the mess that was left behind.