Hello, I am John McIntosh.

I am delighted to declare my interest in supporting your efforts to develop a viable and growing life in the arts and culture. 

My professional career has been dedicated to advancing computer imaging technologies in traditional (non-digital) environments. I have managed and developed programs at the American Film Institute, Digital Domain, the School of Visual Arts and most recently, ShanghaiTech University. My responsibilities include program and curriculum development, industry relationships, faculty and student recruiting and of course, fundraising.

At the American Film Institute (AFI) I was hired to expand the technology training programs into the graduate film school curriculum. Within a year we were able to establish a computer lab for title design and visual effects. The computer labs were donated by a computer manufacturer which enabled digital visual effects to be created with the best practices of collaboration of the director, cinematographer, editor and digital artist. 

My work at the premiere visual effects studio, Digital Domain was to help schedule, train and structure a major new software integration into their production pipeline. This required building a training facility, collaborating with producers and management support the time required to train for the artists and, coordinating with the software company to provide the support to Digital Domain 

At the School of Visual Arts (NYC) I was hired to create a full-time undergraduate program in animation and visual effects. I founded the BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects program that has became one of the premiere programs in the United States. This production based program released over sixty short films and animations each year. The student films are featured in film festivals internationally with distinctions from the Academy of Motion Pictures and other awards each year. As their work was recognized, their skills became highly sought after and our alumni now work in major studios in the US, Canada, UK, India, Singapore and Japan. A critical aspect of our success at SVA was our outreach to the studios in NYC. We partnered with each studio to insure they were aware of our educational mission and invited each studio to contribute by regularly inviting them to visit our facilities and meet our students.

As the Vice Dean of the School of Creative Arts my work in Shanghai, was to add the A in STEM programs to create a robust presence of ART change STEM to STEAM. This was a great challenge in a Chinese technical institute but the enthusiasm we received from graduate and undergraduate fellows and students was overwhelming. We established a foundations of art and creativity curriculum as well as a film writing program in conjunction with USC School of Cinema. We proposed a program in Scientific Visualization with MIT and launched a data visualization department that served to create illustrations representing research projects as they were presented of publication.

I have enjoyed the challenges of working with studios, colleges and training centers in China, Cuba, Colombia, Korea, Zimbabwe and most recently as a Fulbright Specialist, Tunisia. Each country has a unique set of social, economic and industry challenges but, the enthusiasm for creativity and art is universal. The thrill of producing the highly complex projects is that (regardless of the budget) every production requires the unbridled energy and openness to sharing and seeking opportunities to collaborate of their supporters and participants.