When Raymond Barclay, Senior Vice President for Enrollment Strategy, Innovation, and Partnerships, first stepped onto MICA’s campus, he wasn’t looking for a permanent role. A veteran of higher education leadership with experience at major universities and liberal arts colleges across the country, Barclay had been invited to Baltimore as a consultant. His charge: help faculty think creatively about academic program planning and innovation.

What he discovered at MICA was something different, something he hadn’t encountered in decades of working with colleges across the nation.

“I was welcomed in as a partner in the problem-solving work we needed to pursue,” he recalls. “As a new consultant, you don’t always get that kind of openness. But here, there was a real fluidity, a willingness to co-construct solutions.”

That initial experience with faculty collaboration was enough to convince Barclay that MICA was truly unique. When the opportunity arose to join the institution permanently as Senior Vice President for Enrollment Strategy, Innovation, and Partnerships, he knew the answer. “If that’s the culture—openness to innovation and partnership—I can really get things done here.”

At the Intersection

For Barclay, MICA stands apart in three distinctive ways: its embrace of intersections, its commitment to making, and its culture of experimentation.

“Many art schools focus primarily on technical competency,” he explains. “At MICA, students experience the intersections of disciplines and approaches. That hybrid experience, paired with intellectual rigor, allows them to deconstruct forms and approaches in holistic and comprehensive ways. It creates a kind of intensity in the truly unique training.”

That intensity is fueled by a deep commitment to making what Barclay calls “an increasingly rare opportunity” in an era dominated by AI and remote learning. “At MICA, students still put their hands on materials. They experiment. They engage directly in the act of making, whether in fine arts, design, or the humanities. That tactile, immersive experience cuts across every discipline.”

The third pillar is experimentation. “MICA prides itself on sustained studio experiences that allow students to iterate, take risks, and push their work in new directions,” he says. “That culture emboldens students. It’s not just tolerated; it’s expected.”

Together, these three elements form what Barclay describes as MICA’s creative intensity, a phrase that captures the energy he sees animating classrooms and studios across campus.

A Culture That Moves Forward

Barclay’s career has been shaped by strategy. With training in statistics, analytics, and academic planning, he’s as comfortable building enrollment models as he is designing academic programs. But what excites him most is the freedom to pair that technical expertise with foresight, i.e., the ability to look ahead and anticipate what’s next.

“At MICA, I’ve been given license to do that,” he says. “We can learn from the past, employ tools to be more efficient, and also experiment with proof-of-concept work. That combination—learning, experimenting, scaling—is powerful. And it’s the culture here that makes it possible.”

He points to MICA’s willingness to dismantle silos and build programs around interdisciplinary hubs. Majors, he notes, are becoming “almost a thing of the past.” Instead, MICA is structuring curricula around central anchors—like Design + Innovation and Creative Media—that serve as planets, with specialized disciplines orbiting like moons.

“It’s a model that allows flexibility and agility,” Barclay explains. “We can respond to rapid changes in industry, technology, and culture. I haven’t seen this anywhere else as vibrant as I see it here.”

The impact of that model is already visible in the student body. High schools blending arts and STEM programs are producing graduates eager for hybrid learning experiences. MICA, with its historical roots in engineering and design as well as fine arts, is well-positioned to meet them. “We’re rediscovering those roots and expressing them authentically alongside fine arts,” Barclay says.

At the same time, the college has deepened its commitment to students with financial need and to those still exploring their identities. “MICA has become a beacon,” Barclay says. “We welcome students who don’t always fit norms around identity, who are figuring out who they are and how they want to express themselves. That diversity enriches the classroom experience and makes teaching and learning stronger.”

Baltimore and Beyond

For Barclay, MICA’s distinctiveness isn’t confined to campus. He believes its role in Baltimore and the broader region is central to its identity.

“MICA doesn’t purport a charity model in its community work,” he stresses. “It’s not about parachuting in for projects. It’s a strategy that takes place, culture, and context seriously. We’re thinking systemically about how to sustain our work with Baltimore and how to play a regional role in the creative economy.”

That approach positions MICA as more than an art school. Through initiatives like the Center for Creative Impact (focused on social innovation), the Design & Innovation Hub (commercial innovation), and the Ratcliffe Center for Creative Entrepreneurship, MICA is becoming a driver of economic development, social innovation, and workforce transformation.

“No other art and design school is taking such a comprehensive approach at the academic vision level,” Barclay says. “We’re not just being invited to the table because we train painters. We’re being invited because we’re thought leaders in shaping the creative economy. That’s where we want to be in the next 100 years—leading the work, not following it.”

This echoes MICA’s founding mission two centuries ago, when it was created not only as a school but as a force for Baltimore’s economic and cultural development. “Our history was about being part of the economic drivers of the community,” Barclay notes. “That’s still who we are. That’s still in our DNA.”

Fearless Experimentation

As MICA celebrates its Bicentennial, Barclay sees a future defined by boldness. His advice to the next generation of students and leaders is simple: stay fearless.

“Fearlessness in experimentation is what defines MICA,” he says. “That creative intensity—the willingness to push, to risk, to innovate—that’s what drives outcomes in the classroom and what will keep us at the forefront nationally and internationally.”

If the last 200 years established MICA as a pioneering art and design school, Barclay believes the next century will position it as a leader in transdisciplinary design education, social and commercial innovation, and the creative economy. “To thrive—not just survive—we have to be in that space,” he says. “And we will be.”