BPA, The Art Center in Los Angeles
After completing a Transportation Design degree (BPA) in 1962 from The Art Center in Los Angeles, Jack Hanna was hired by General Motors Styling. Jack was on the design team for the GM Autorama Pavilion of the famous 1963 New York World’s Fair. He continued his career at the GMC & Chevrolet Truck Design Studio, Oldsmobile Design Studio and Special Projects studio.
He left GM Styling to attend graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he earned an MFA in Industrial Design in 1970. His thesis project was published in Progressive Architecture magazine. He taught in the Department of Art & Design at UI for two years and then accepted a teaching position at Cornell University. His design teaching experience broadened with visiting appointments in the Industrial Design Program of Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario in 1974, and at Montana State University-Bozeman 1978.
Jack accepted a tenure track appointment in the Interior Design program of the University of Houston in 1978, and made Houston his permanent home. He was promoted to associate professor and spent many years serving as area coordinator for the Interior Design program. He served as Interim Chair of the Department of Art at two different times, including one during the major renovation of the Fine Arts Building. He was awarded a College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Teaching Excellence Award in 2005.
When the Interior Design program was phased out, Jack continued to bring his love of drawing to students by teaching drawing courses within the Painting curriculum of the School of Art. In his Intermediate Drawing studios he blends a variety of media and projects with some figure drawing. He also teaches specialized perspective and rendering courses and a freehand sketching class in the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture at UH.
Jack maintains an active professional career as an illustrator for architecture and exhibit design firms. Current projects include illustrating a Tennessee horse center lodge and the Audubon Hollow townhome development in Houston.