The Yes-anding of a University

By now, the improvisational concept of “Yes, and” has permeated American startup culture and the C-suite, and for good reason: Comedy improv has a lot to teach those who wish to innovate products and services, to enhance communication and ideation skills in fresh new ways. At a fundamental level, improvisational comedy and new enterprises share an enthusiasm for the future: In improv, you trust that your acting partner will accept and add to your scene; in a new startup, you have an earnest belief that the world needs and will benefit from your ideas.

The spirit of “Yes, and” has always animated SCAD, the university I founded in 1978. Of course, we had no name for this kind of thinking, as Second City and the Upright Citizens Brigade hadn’t yet brought this performance technique into the popular imagination. Back then, we just called it optimism.

The very idea of SCAD was invented in Atlanta, a city known for its entrepreneurial bravado. “Let’s start a college for the arts,” I said to my family back in 1977, when I was an elementary schoolteacher. “And let’s do it in Savannah!” I must have sounded a little zany to my parents. Who in their right mind would try to launch a new university in quaint, old Savannah?

My parents proved themselves to be reliable and trustworthy scene partners, supporting and encouraging my optimism at every turn. “Let’s do it,” they said, donating most of their retirement savings to fund this wild vision of a professionally focused arts college. I hugged their necks like a good Southern daughter, gathered up everything I owned, and moved from the bustling metropolis of Atlanta to sleepy but historic Savannah. I was about to learn all about the power of “Yes, and.”

When I expressed my desire to launch our new enterprise in this old armory that smelled of soot and gunpowder, some families would’ve said, “Um, what?” But mine said, “It’s beautiful” (read: “Yes, and”). Like expert improvisers, my parents amplified upon my original idea, making the lonely four-hour drive down from Atlanta to Savannah every weekend to help with the restoration of the property.

In the 1970s, the Armory, like much of Savannah, was falling apart. But I understood the vital role our surroundings play in shaping our lives and earnestly felt we could transform the Armory into a home for creation. Something in that old building spoke to my heart. It was love at first sight.

In 1979, our roles were reversed and I had the opportunity to “Yes, and” my parents for once, when they announced their decision to move to Savannah. “Great!” I said. “You can work here!” We hired them both, May and Paul Poetter, our first benefactors, to lead the admission and business offices, respectively. In 1997, when my parents retired a second time, SCAD officially renamed the Armory, the building they helped purchase, in their honor. Today, it is known as Poetter Hall.

Like a great jazz pianist, a good comedy improviser starts with a basic melody and creates a whole new sound. So, too, “Yes, and” teaches us how to expand and improve upon existing ideas. In the case of SCAD, within a few years of opening our doors, we were quickly running out of space. Should we build new structures, outside the city core, where space was more plentiful? Or should we repurpose Savannah’s derelict downtown architecture, as we’d done with the Armory, reimagining a historic but neglected property with beautiful art and design?

What we’d accomplished with the Armory affirmed the power of our young university’s optimism, and we believed we could capture that magic again. In the years since, SCAD has yes-anded more than 100 historic properties around the world, simultaneously affirming their historic value while amplifying their beauty and wonder to create the world’s most visually and architecturally distinctive university.

In Atlanta, SCAD has rehabilitated a former NBC affiliate television studio into the SCAD Digital Media Center, a digital technology wonderland.

Two miles down Peachtree Street from the SCAD Digital Media Center stands another university rehabilitation, the old Peters Mansion, which now functions as the SCAD Atlanta Writing Center.

Among our 34 properties at SCAD Lacoste, in the Provence region of France, the university has yes-anded a farmhouse once owned by the Marquis de Sade into student housing that ELLE DÉCOR magazine called “breathtaking.” It’s hard not to agree.

On the shores of the South China Sea, SCAD yes-anded a British colonial courthouse into the home of SCAD Hong Kong, a building recognized with a UNESCO Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation.

SCAD’s optimism and “Yes, and” attitude extend far beyond the university’s architecture and into the very heart of the mission (emphasis mine): “The Savannah College of Art and Design exists to prepare talented students for professional careers, emphasizing learning through individual attention in a positively oriented university environment.” This focus on individual attention means that SCAD educators, like a great performance troupe, know how to listen and how to ensure every voice is heard.

For example, in 1984, our students expressed interest in starting a new club soccer team. None of us had ever heard of an art school with a focus on athletics, but why not? Healthy bodies make for healthy minds. We yes-anded the idea with enthusiasm, and today, SCAD offers 11 different sports, with national titles in equestrian, swimming, and lacrosse.

Soccer, the university’s first athletic team, was first coached by SCAD Professor Emeritus Lew Tate. The sport is still going strong, 33 years later, in The Sun Conference of the NAIA.

In the late 1980s, a few fibers students came into my office one day and asked if SCAD might offer a course in fashion design. Yes, and … SCAD is now widely recognized as offering one of the world’s leading fashion programs by Business of Fashion, Fashionista, Huffington Post, and others.

Early on, SCAD students and faculty members expressed a desire for more time to engage in focused study sessions and fieldwork, and SCAD rearranged the schedule to hold only four days of class meetings each week. Ever since, Fridays are devoted entirely to extra help sessions and field trips.

People often ask, “Paula, what’s next for SCAD?” I always give them a puzzled look. Who knows? The work of SCAD is a grand adventure, an unfolding narrative powered by openness to new ideas, a passion for continual improvement, and a heart to empower and hear every voice. Any startup would benefit from that spirit. Our university surely has.

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Paula Wallace is the president and founder of SCAD, the most comprehensive art and design university in the world, offering more than 100 graduate and undergraduate degree programs that integrate classic fine art foundations and a rigorous humanities curriculum with advanced technology and professional preparation for creative careers. Wallace is the author of The Bee and the Acorn, a memoir about her life in education, and The Architecture of a University, a photography book about the distinctive and historic built environment of SCAD.