COVID-19: Emily Carr University holds online grad celebration for class of 2020

Emily Carr University of Art + Design is honouring its graduating students in this year of the pandemic with a special online website.

At the class of 2020 site, grads can post special celebratory frames around their social-media photos, view congatulatory videotaped remarks by Emily Carr community members, watch a speech by university president and vice chancellor Gillian Siddall, and peruse the lists of graduating students.

The grad lists are categorized by degrees (two master's and three bachelor's) and disciplines.

Emily Carr University, named after the famed artist in 1978, was founded in 1925 and was the first institution in B.C. to grant degrees for performing and visual arts.

The university moved from its recent Granville Island location to its new site in Mount Pleasant in 2017.

Frederick Varley, an original member of the Group of Seven, served the institution as head of its drawing and painting department for seven years, starting in 1926. At that time, Emily Carr was known as the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts.

Alumni include Attila Richard Lukacs, Jack Shadbolt, Neko Case, and Douglas Coupland.