Graduate Certificate in Arts Education and Community Engagement

at Centennial College - Story Arts Centre Campus Canada

The Lifestyle Media program is a one-of-a-kind graduate certificate offering designed to train specialized media professionals who are at the hub of lifestyle media.
In this media program's courses, you'll effectively collaborate with real-world industry partners, clients and audiences to produce quality content for web, social media and traditional media platforms. You'll also gain the skills necessary to work entrepreneurially using contemporary digital media platforms and technologies to market yourself as an independent brand.
Lifestyle communicators are subject-matter experts who are able to take their passion and depth of knowledge to reach behind-the-scenes and share these worlds with audiences that want to both learn and be entertained. Successful lifestyle communicators influence trends and tastes and can become trusted sources of reliable information.

Program Highlights

• The interdisciplinary Lifestyle Media curriculum will include writing, visual communications, social media and entrepreneurship.
• You'll gain the ability to develop sector-specific expertise in areas such as fashion, beauty, food and health.
• There will be a strong focus on social media and web production, including analytics and measurement.
• You'll participate in an industry field placement in an area of your interest.

Centennial College's Music Industry Arts and Performance (MIAP) program turns your passion for popular, world or indigenous music into an exciting and lasting career in a wide range of fields relating to music.

This unique advanced music diploma program, offered at the School of Communications, Media, Arts and Design, takes three years to complete. During this time, Music Industry Arts and Performance course work helps you to:

• Nurture musicality and creativity
• Raise awareness of a variety of music cultures
• Build knowledge of music-related technologies
• Develop business and entrepreneurial skills

Professional musicians mentor you during private lessons and ensemble rehearsals. This hands-on experience is further enhanced by a six-week field placement in the final semester that provides practical experience in the real world.
You choose a stream of study in the third year of this college music program that allows for specialization. You may join either the music creation and business stream or the music creation and technology stream.

As a graduate of the Music Industry Arts and Performance program, you will be a versatile, culturally aware musician and singer with the technological and business savvy necessary to work in the music industry of today and tomorrow.

Please note: This program requires you to have and use a mobile computing device (i.e. laptop, tablet) that meets or exceeds the recommended hardware requirements.

Program Highlights

• No other music program offers the blend of performance, creative, contextual, business and technology courses found in Centennial College's Music Industry Arts and Performance program.
• You have many opportunities to perform and record, which enhances your readiness.
• You learn how to make money in the music industry of today and tomorrow.
• The program's practical, hands-on approach plays a big role in preparing you for a sustainable, music-related career.
• The advanced diploma that is earned reflects high standards of learning.

Centennial College's Sports Journalism program is a unique graduate certificate offering that will prepare you for a career in the ever-changing world of sports media. During your time in this Toronto sports journalism program, you'll learn the best practices for the field in a diverse and gender-inclusive environment with peers just as dedicated to and as passionate about sports.

From covering local athletes and professionals to telling the stories behind the games, players and fans, you'll develop specialized talents in:

• Sports writing (print, TV, radio, online, social media)
• Broadcast (producing, on-air performance, chase and field producing, radio hosting, updates)
• Digital (using editorial publishing tools, blogging, video, audio, Storify, etc.)
• Social media (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.)
• News journalism that meets the changing needs of sports coverage (courts, police, etc.)
• Advanced interviewing techniques
• Sports beat journalism
• Print and online imaging
• Hosting in-studio and in the field
• Newspaper and online layout

You'll also have the opportunity to participate in the program's annual trip to baseball spring training, where you'll be able to apply skills and build confidence. Meanwhile, an industry field placement in a sports media organization in Canada or around the world will complement your training.

The Product Design and Development program is the only one of its kind in Canada and provides you with the unique understanding to develop high-tech, ecological and socially responsible products from concept, to design, to production.

Combining the strengths of Centennial College's School of Communications, Media, Arts and Design and the School of Engineering Technology and Applied Science, this innovative product design and development program's courses bring together hands-on learning in product and industrial design, and product development with product lifecycle management (PLM). Through interdisciplinary, collaborative group projects, you develop creative design problem-solving abilities and innovative strategies by applying all stages of the visual design process.

You acquire a wide range of skills in this advanced diploma program, including idea generation, creative problem solving, drawing, model-making, the creative design process, 3D CAD advanced computer modelling, rapid prototyping, product development (CAE analysis, reverse engineering technology, materials selection, quality testing, product costing and optimization), product lifecycle management and cross-platform multimedia communications. You also develop a strong sense of the functional and aesthetic principles of design, as well as a solid understanding of the technical and business aspects of product development.

Centennial's Product Design and Development program meets the growing need for graduates with a strategic vision of interdisciplinary product design and an understanding of all stages of the product lifecycle, who are ready to work in a variety of exciting careers related to consumer product development, electronics, furniture, transportation and more.

Please note: This program requires you to have and use a mobile computing device that meets or exceeds the recommended hardware and software requirements. 

Program Highlights

• During your time in the program, you study and work in classrooms and labs that are equipped with the latest tools and industry-standard software.
• The program provides a practical, hands-on and entrepreneurial approach that prepares you for a sustainable career.
• Opportunities exist to collaborate with students in other programs at the Story Arts Centre. This is a unique opportunity to network, learn and work with industry professionals.
• Opportunity to work with ACCEL, Centennial’s in-house business incubator, to bring your ideas to market.
• Gain industry experience through STORYWORKS, a course that provides the opportunity to work with real-world clients of all kinds.

The Script to Screen – Advanced Television and Film program at Centennial College offers a comprehensive, in-depth and hands-on understanding of what goes into developing and producing quality feature films and TV shows.

This multidisciplinary two-semester post-graduate program — facilitated by the School of Communications, Media, Arts and Design in the hub of Toronto's film and television district — will be especially beneficial for writers, directors, producers, editors, actors, and other film and television craftspeople who want to expand their industry knowledge.

The major focus of the first semester will be on creating, pitching, outlining, developing, drafting and polishing production-ready short film scripts. During the second semester, you'll have the opportunity to prepare, perform in, shoot and/or post a number of these productions.

Additionally, Script to Screen – Advanced Television and Film will see you deconstructing classic films, television shows and scripts of all genres. The program will also provide advanced instruction from industry professionals in your major and minor areas of craft interest, along with extensive employment information.

Program Highlights

• The Script to Screen – Advanced Television and Film program is unique among the few other post-graduate film and television offerings currently available in the Greater Toronto Area.
• Instead of immediately streaming you into master classes, the first semester will ensure you obtain a solid working knowledge of the various roles people have when working on a film or television production.
• The amount of included foundational lessons will allow you to better collaborate, improvise, problem-solve, and empathize with your fellow cast and crew members.
• The program will focus on dramatic filmmaking, comedy and several other genres. It will not, however, include documentary filmmaking.
• At a time when student films continue to be key to gaining a foothold in the business, the time and effort devoted to script development in Semester 1 and production and post-production in Semester 2 will result in higher quality student films than are customarily produced.

In Centennial College's three-year Journalism program, you gain the skills you need to navigate and succeed in a changing industry. By going from the classroom to the newsroom, you come to understand the multifaceted and fast-paced journalism industry, which focuses on interesting people, places and things.

In this advanced diploma program you:

• Cover a variety of topics while developing the critical foundation skills you need for the industry.
• Apply your newsroom skills to an award-winning community newspaper, a news website and radio-television news, all of which makes you versatile and industry-ready as soon as you graduate.
• Develop new multiplatform skills for the evolving world of news reporting.
• From covering breaking news to exploring human interest stories, as a journalist you will be responsible for reporting events, interviewing newsmakers and examining the issues of our times.

Please note: This program requires you to have and use a mobile computing device that meets or exceeds the recommended hardware and software requirements. 

Program Highlights

• You experience one-on-one interaction with faculty members in an ultra-modern, professional newsroom.
• The Story Arts Centre campus, where the Journalism program is facilitated, offers you access to publishing, broadcast and Internet facilities.
• Hands-on, real-world experience is available through award-winning community media, including the East York Observer newspaper, Freshly Pressed magazine, the Toronto Observer news website, radio and television newscasts available online.
• With a stellar faculty, whose combined credits include NBC News, CBC News, CTV News, OMNI, The Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, National Post, Globe and Mail and more, your journalism training is relevant, demanding and highly effective.
• You connect with excellent faculty, mentors and guest speakers and get to partake in exclusive field trips.
• Through the field trips and your field placement, you have the opportunity to make exclusive news media connections.

Centennial College’s Theatre Arts and Performance program is your open door to a groundbreaking professional career in theatre. You will develop your technical skills, nurture your artistic voice, and make crucial industry connections.

Classes in acting, movement and voice will expand your artistic range across different styles of classic and contemporary performance, including live and on-camera. Build your audition skills, learn how to get an agent, and create your own dynamic demo reel.

You’ll also gain experience as an actor-entrepreneur through independent “storefront” productions, pushing your creative boundaries to the front-line of theatre innovation, with the tools to succeed in Canada’s vibrant theatre scene.

Upon graduating, you’ll be ready to run your own theatre company or develop your career as a professional actor, director, stage manager, producer or instructor, in Canada and on the world stage.

Please note: This program requires you to have and use a mobile computing device that meets or exceeds the recommended hardware and software requirements. 

Program Highlights

• Train in various styles of acting, for classical and contemporary scripts, written and improvised work, traditional and movement-based staging practices, live and on-screen, etc., under the instruction of industry-leading professionals
• Focus on entrepreneurship and networking prepares graduates for sustainable careers in theatre arts
• Opportunities to collaborate with the other students in photography, film and television, music, dance and art programs at the Story Arts Centre

The Art and Design Fundamentals program nurtures your artistic talents, and develops your creative, practical and entrepreneurial skills in visual art and design — whatever your level of expertise.

The studio-based, hands-on curriculum of the Art and Design Fundamentals courses is taught by practicing artists and designers who help you to develop traditional, digital and multimedia skills. The program's goal is to help you prepare a successful portfolio of artwork required for admission to specialized programs and to open up new possibilities and career choices in the diverse visual arts industry.

In this art program, you:

• Get hands-on exposure to drawing, design, colour, 3D modelling and design, visual culture, video making, digital illustration, photography and rapid prototyping.
• Build a comprehensive portfolio of artwork while working one-on-one with faculty.

Once you complete the program, you will be prepared to succeed in a variety of post-secondary communication arts and design diploma and degree areas, including animation, game arts, digital visual effects, product design, industrial design, architecture, interior design, fashion design, illustration, graphic design, digital media art, art direction, art management, creative advertising and fine arts.

Program Highlights

• Leading practicing artists, designers and educators have crafted the Art and Design Fundamentals program at Centennial College.
• Small class sizes and a dynamic working relationship between faculty and students allows for lots of one-on-one instruction and feedback.
• The Portfolio Development course sees you work on self-directed projects that focus your future career, with individual guidance from instructors.
• The Professional Practice course offers client-based community projects that emphasize experiential learning and allow you to develop your entrepreneurial skills.
• Throughout the Collaboration Studio Course, you have the opportunity to work on collaborative projects with other students at the Story Arts Centre to gain real-world experience.
• Artists and professionals who need to improve or update their skills in art, design and digital multimedia are offered a flexible curriculum, if class size allows.
• Faculty members help each student individually to take the next step in their career path.

Arts Education and Community Engagement is a two-semester Graduate Certificate program designed to ladder students into careers in arts education and community arts.

Students will learn how to design arts educational programming that is pedagogically sound and that meets the needs of diverse communities.  Students will apply best practices of community arts work and will be trained to facilitate arts-based social justice initiatives. Students will also learn about a variety of careers in arts education and community development through research, mentorship, and field placements.  Graduates of this program will be equipped to manage a professional career in arts and learning, and to incorporate community-engaged arts work into their existing creative practice. 

By modelling innovative pedagogy, this program teaches students to innovate for themselves. By partnering with leading arts organizations, this program facilitates connections and opportunities within the sector. By emphasizing global citizenship, social justice, and cultural competency, this program helps students locate these concerns at the heart of their creative and educational practice.

Program Highlights:-

• Learn to plan and implement arts education and community programming that responds to the needs of a group of learners, in multiple settings, and in collaboration with other artists or organizations.
• Participate in a seven-week field placement where you will directly support the programming of a partnering organization or artist in a supervised community environment.
• Attend classes close to downtown near the creative, cultural heart of Toronto at our Story Arts Centre campus and in the Performing Arts Commons at Daniels Spectrum.
• Opportunities to collaborate with the other students in photography, film and television, music, art, theatre and dance programs at the Story Arts Centre
• Unique opportunity to network, learn and work with industry professionals

You’re sitting at home, flipping through the channels on a lazy Sunday morning. You pause on a commercial for a new cartoon that will be premiering the following week and a smile creeps across your face. As you continue to watch the commercial, your smile gets wider as a sense of pride puffs your chest out a little. The commercial ends and you turn off the TV to take in the moment.

You just witnessed the very first commercial for a show you helped to produce, and you can’t help but feel elated.

Children’s media is a key component to the Canadian entertainment industry. With rapid growth of the market, the demand for trained professionals is growing with it. Luckily, Centennial College offers a one-of-a-kind program that allows you to build and develop just the right skills to enter this line of work. The Children’s Media program provides you with hands-on experience, and prepares you for various career paths in the industry.

In only 3 semesters, you will build the capabilities to create content for children’s media, as well as learn how to manage and market various products. You’ll learn and master the true art of storytelling and put it to work with script writing. Video production and project coordination will come by as second nature after you complete your first two semesters at Centennial College.

Your final semester is where all your skills get to shine during your work-placement period. This is your opportunity to find the area of children’s media that speaks to you! Whether it be in licensing and merchandising, or in the writer’s room, the Centennial College Children’s Media program will put you on the right path to getting there.

• While in the program, you will receive front line experience in:
• Creating a brand plan
• Starting and developing content for a YouTube channel
• Working alongside a client relevant to the industry – Scholastics Canada being just one of the clients who partner with the students
• And so much more!

This will allow you to enter the workplace with a variety of experience in different sectors and completely understanding what to do in any situation. Graduates of this program have been known to be hired into the field within six months to a year of graduation, and two alumni received daytime Emmy nominations in 2018!

That moment you felt earlier after watching your first tv commercial will become a daily experience, and that experience will lead to so many more magical moments. With the Centennial College Children’s Media program, there are endless possible ways of how you can create the best moments for someone’s childhood.