2022 Recap at ARC Academy
On the eve of the brightest holidays, before we indulge in a well-deserved rest with our families, we look back at the past year.
In 2022, the third class of ARC Academy graduated and we welcomed the fourth one.
Developing ARC Academy into an international educational institution is a goal we are working hard towards. In 2022, Bulgaria, Romania, and Ukraine students started their studies with us. We’ve also turned our attention to the cinema with the new VFX & Animation program. We are also launching Game Programming next year, preparing programmers for the game industry.
Driven by the idea of helping students start their studies at ARC Academy more confident and prepared, we have organized a Pre-Program for all who apply early. In 2023, we will continue with this initiative. It includes 14 online classes and is free for all students who apply by February 28.
Thanks to our partnerships with Creative Assembly, ReDefine, Chibi Phoenix, and EGT Digital, we’ve secured scholarships for some of the Academy’s most outstanding candidates.
We found new like-minded people outside Bulgaria as well. With AMC Ro Studio, we spent a week in Krapets, where we organized the Seaside Sculpt Jam – an intensive workshop for 3D artists from Bulgaria and Romania.
With them, we also did a master class for the students of CINETic UNATC, Bucharest. At the invitation of the Romanian Game Dev Association (RGDA), we participated in the Dev Play international conference. We were part of Sofia Game Night with a lecture on the future of the industry in Bulgaria.
A special place among our partners has taken America for Bulgaria foundation, with which we have been cooperating since the first day of ARC Academy to provide quality and innovative education.
In the past year, we continued our initiatives among schools in Bulgaria. We expanded our school game club in three directions – Game design, Concept art, and Programming.
Our team gladly accepted the mentorship of students from Teenovator – a project to develop the startup culture of high school students. We were guests of progressive schools where we met the students with professionals from the game and film industries. In the summer, we organized two academies for students – illustration and game programming.
Within several educational exhibitions in Bulgaria and Romania, such as Integral, Unify, etc., we spoke to over 200 young people interested in video games, film, and digital arts.
We initiated a survey indicating that 80% of parents have a positive attitude towards the game industry and think their children can build a career in it. This encouraged us to start the conversation with parents about the professions of the future and the place of children in them.
As a logical next step, we created ARC Online – a series of courses in the professional fields of Concept art, 3D Art and Animation, which help people interested in the topics to take their first steps towards a career in these fields.
The list has gotten long, and it’s time for Christmas parties, so we’ll stop here.
We wish you happy holidays!
The ARC Academy team
