Back To School; Laguna College Of Art & Design Post Baccalaureate

LAGUNA BEACH, CA — In everyone's lives, changes occur. For Lisa Mansour, a local artist, she regularly studied with professionals while focusing on raising her three daughters in Laguna Beach. Like Ballard, she was also accepted to LCAD’s BFA program in Drawing & Painting but transferred to its Post-Baccalaureate program. Today, she begins her second year of exhibiting and selling her painting of ballet dresses at the Sawdust.

"Mansour's two biggest fans - her now adult daughters - hounded her to make this dream come true," according to an LCAD spokesperson.

Betty Shelton, who heads the post-baccalaureate program, said that this program gives serious artists a first step to pursuing a professional career or pursuing a terminal degree in their field.

Approximately one-third of students continue into LCAD’s MFA program in Painting, while two-thirds pursue a professional career.

“In the absence of these programs, a number of people who would be great artists would give up because they may not want to go through a second bachelor’s degree or have the skill for an MFA program,” Shelton said. “Our curriculum helps students develop conceptual and narrative skills to use their unique voice in their work.

LCAD Post Baccalaureate is attractive to students who earned a bachelor’s degree in fine art or a related major and are ready for a serious course of study. Just as with its other majors, LCAD screen applicants through a rigorous portfolio review.

Mansour started LCAD Post Baccalaureate the same year her oldest daughter started university and then matriculated the same year her youngest daughter graduated from Laguna Beach High School.

Throughout the program, Mansour rigorously painted series of works until she found her voice as an artist and realized a 20-year dream that she shared with her three daughters.

“Every year we went to the Sawdust, my girls would ask, ‘when are you going to do apply, mom?’” she said. This past summer, Mansour participated in her first Sawdust Festival and is already at work preparing her next body of work for summer 2019. Her work was also exhibited at LCAD Gallery as part of the 2017 Study Aboard program.

Both Mansour and Ballard enjoy the perks as LCAD Post-Baccalaureate alumni who can audit one course per semester at LCAD.

As current and former members of the Laguna Beach Arts Commission, they inspired current Laguna Beach arts commissioner and friend, Suzanne Mellor to apply to the program. The three now share a studio space in South Laguna Beach.

For more information about LCAD’s Post-Baccalaureate program in Drawing and Painting, please contact Betty Shelton, chair at bshelton@lcad.edu or Renee Johansson at rjohansson@lcad.edu.