Kenneth Carls
Ken Carls earned a BFA in Graphic Design at UIUC and MA in Graphic Design from Kent State University. He began his career as a packaging designer in Chicago, before taking a teaching position in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During his tenure at UIUC, he headed the Graphic Design program, and before ending his academic career in 2005, he served three years as the School’s Interim Director and one year as Associate Director.
As a resident in the arts community of Saugatuck-Douglas, Michigan, Carls has been deeply committed to the advancement of that area’s arts and cultural not-for-profits. He has served on the boards of Saugatuck Center for the Arts, the Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society, and Ox-Bow, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s century-old summer art school on the shore of Lake Michigan at Saugatuck. He has served as grants reviewer for the Ohio Arts Council and has juried exhibitions for the Holland Area Arts Council and the Department of Art, Art History, and Design at Michigan State University.
Although Ken’s professional focus throughout his career was graphic design, since leaving academia, he has concentrated on art making. Several extended periods of living in Europe, and the continuing urban/rural contrasts created by his Illinois farm upbringing and maintaining residences in both Southern California and West Michigan, have shaped his unique perspective and vision — and his varied artistic expression. Ken’s work has been shown in exhibitions in Illinois, Michigan, and California, and he has received numerous awards.
Upon his retirement, he established the Kenneth R. Carls Endowment which will in perpetuity provide support for international travel for undergraduate students in the School of Art and Design.