Fred Lazarus IV, president of Baltimore’s Maryland Institute College of Art since 1978, has announced his retirement, effective May 2014. Lazarus is the longest-serving president of a four-year college in Maryland.
Under his leadership, MICA’s enrollment doubled as it became a nationally recognized institution for undergraduate and graduate fine arts programs. In the past three years, Lazarus oversaw the addition of new graduate programs in design and the digital arts, constructed new campus facilities and renovated existing ones, and accepted the school’s largest incoming class to date.
Lazarus also achieved a tenfold increase in the campus’s footprint, raised $100 million, created three research centers and added 18 academic programs. US News & World Report currently ranks MICA’s MFA graduate programs among its top 10 nationally.
“In every way possible, he has transformed the way academia approaches art and design education, and the way that artists and designers integrate into and affect society at large,” Fredye Gross, chair of the MICA board, said in press release. “He is truly an education pioneer. MICA, and everyone who loves art, owes him a debt of gratitude.”
