Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design was founded in 1925 and is one of British Columbia’s oldest post-secondary institutions and one of the world's leading arts institutions. Emily Carr encourages and enables all students to achieve the highest intellectual and creative potential and to achieve beyond their expectations. They have created a culture which demands disciplined thinking, supports curiosity, challenges existing ideas and helps to generate new ones. At the same time, they invite students to prepare themselves for life after school. Their curriculum is flexible, personal, multi-disciplinary and based on the learning needs of students. Emily Carr Institute is dedicated to fostering an educational environment that is professional, practice-oriented and at the same time rooted in history and critical theory.

Their objectives are to promote a learner-centred environment focused on the Arts and Design and to facilitate the development of a milieu of creative engagement, innovation and professionalism. Emily Carr also aims to demonstrate professional excellence in all of their areas of specialization and to celebrate and support the importance and centrality of creative practices in all of the arts, media arts and design. Going further, they aim to achieve diversity within their curriculum and equity in all student and staffing activities and accountability within every part of the institution; and, to be a leader in the development of new academic programs that respond to the emerging needs of students and society, are both integral to Icograda's strategy.