Hartford Art School Alumni

The potency of civic art inspires Aviva Kapust, Hartford Art School alumna and executive director of the Village of Arts and Humanities in Philadelphia, to infuse creativity in one of the country’s most disinvested urban cities.

“Making art in this environment, you work with people’s trauma,” she says. “You work with their issues, their baggage, their dreams, their wishes, and their limitations. You work with their brilliance. You have to want that. We forget that the materials of art aren’t strictly film, clay, or paint—the tools are people and the structures that connect us. We have a responsibility to that, and it’s not easy.”

Tim Cohan currently works as an associate partner at Pentagram, the world’s largest independent design consultancy, where he and his team have tackled one of fiction’s dearest realms: the magical world of Harry Potter. Of all the types of design projects that visual communication design (VCD) graduates tackle, branding and logo work are some of the most common.

“You can be an independent designer, but big projects take big teams,” he says. “The better you are at collaborating and speaking up for yourself, the better you’ll do.”

Nick pushed his illustration work into the field of virtual/augmented reality, and recently developed a unique method to share VR/AR work without an external viewing device.  His projects incorporate this VR/AR method in a manner that engages and connects often disparate groups within the community.

“The Hartford Art School provided me with the flexible framework to expand my skill set and to turn my passion into a career. The program allowed me to build a path that was specifically catered to my needs and goals which was of the utmost importance.”

Kara Kirkland turned her passion for creating sculptural costumes into a position as a production assistant position and costume designer on multiple Netflix originals and Amazon’s Mr. Robot.

"Hartford Art School encourages internships so I began interning to learn more about costumes. In the winter term of my senior year, I began interning in New York for the costume designer at Sesame Street."