Charles White

Every day, Charles White welcomes Otis College students as they file into Ahmanson Hall on their way to classes, their studios, or one of several labs housed within. White’s visage comes courtesy of one of his former students, Kent Twitchell (’77 MFA Fine Arts), and Twitchell’s life-size pencil drawing, Portrait of Charles White, which is reproduced on a wall of Ahmanson’s lobby.

Several members of the extended Otis Community are featured in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) exhibition, Black American Portraits, which is on view through April 17, 2022.

Otis College of Art and Design is pleased to announce a full, four-year scholarship program named for influential American artist and educator, Charles White (1918-1979). The Charles White Art and Design Scholarship celebrates the legacy of the artist and serves to honor his enduring influence as an Otis faculty member from 1965 until his passing in 1979.

Sometimes the discoveries we make through social media can be unexpectedly auspicious. When Director of Alumnx Relations Hazel Mandujano (’03 BFA Fine Arts, ’10 MFA Graphic Design) was scanning Instagram on February 3, an Instagram story post by Other Books, a bookshop and collaborative space in Boyle Heights, caught her eye.