Recording Arts Chair John Murray Comments on the Final Hours before Flashpoint Academy Opens

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Making history...

It was an emotional morning as the entire faculty, staff, and administration of Flashpoint Academy gathered together at our new home, 28 North Clark Street, for one final meeting before opening day. Through the welled-up eyes, thank you's, and appropriate applause for all those who have done so much hard work to make Ric Landry's dream a reality, there was an underlying vibrancy and excitement the likes of which I have never felt before in 17 years of education and 25 years in the audio industry. It was truly moving and I am so proud to help carry the torch of that vision to the people it was meant for, the students of Flashpoint, The Academy of Media Arts and Sciences.

In less than 48 hours, the inaugural class will not only walk into the best media arts college in the world, they will engage in what Paula Froehle rightly describes as the changing face of media arts education. We have said it many times in many ways, but come Monday it will begin—total immersion, learning-by-doing, hands-on, PRODUCTION-IN-ACTION. September 17, 2007 will be a defining moment on the timeline's of film, game, visual effects, and audio training, and soon it will be hard to imagine how it was done before Flashpoint.