Founded in North Cyprus in 2017, Arkin University of Creative Arts and Design (ARUCAD) is a thematic art university that is wholly dedicated to the fields of art, design, and communication. ARUCAD’s goal is to become one of the most reputable universities in art education, whereby its students continuously improve their creative productivity through interdisciplinary and cross-cultural programs based on traditional, modern, and contemporary art teaching and learning, whilst adhering to the inseparable link of theory and practice.
Respect for ecological, recycling, and health and safety issues, in addition to equality in gender, racial, and religious values will be practiced throughout the teaching/learning environment. ‘Learning whilst producing, producing whilst learning’ is an education model that aims to connect experience, critical thinking, and practice in order to generate greater- thinking artists and designers.
Mission
ARUCAD aims to fill the perceived absence of world-class art and design education in Cyprus and the Mediterranean region, thereby fulfilling contemporary needs and requirements. Through its interdisciplinary, cross-cultural programs the University raises the bar in standards in the fields of art, design, and communication, with the intention of contributing to cultural and intellectual life, locally, regionally, and globally. Its approach highlights the fluid, transitive, and hybrid nature of art, design, and communication today.
ARUCAD is an ambitious incubator of teaching and learning excellence where students will be trained to conduct high-level research; articulate theories and practice of visual production; recognize and appreciate creative excellence of the past and present; become sensitive to gender, racial and religious difference; comprehend issues of ecological, environmental and ethical visual art production in the hope of generating quality, original works. To this end, ARUCAD provides state-of-the-art facilities, a world-class library, and esteemed artist-designer educators.
ARUCAD is committed to bringing the University and the wider public together. Collaborative projects between academia and art businesses such as art galleries, museums, and production houses, will be on-going throughout the student’s program. These will be monitored and organized by the institution’s Lifelong Learning Centre, which will inform the public in the fields of art, design, and communication through its Certificate and Outreach Programmes.
Vision
ARUCAD’s vision is to become the educational hub of assorted cultures in Cyprus and the Mediterranean region, which will transcend the historical local bias favoring scientific knowledge over visual, creative thinking. It had long been an objective of the founder to establish a private university whereby the establishment of concepts of artistic quality and competence and the works of art-design-communication would impact those living in Cyprus and the Mediterranean region through high-quality education and research.
The underlying principle and the primary goals of higher education as envisaged by ARUCAD is to integrate the arts with modern life, blending art’s interdisciplinary nature with concepts such as relational aesthetics, post-production, aesthetic activism, and communication. This is a radicalization of conventional attitudes towards art’s role in society, as ARUCAD believes art and society are one.