The popularity of the professor of studio art was more than evident when the campus of Sheridan College, where the two institutions have a joint program in fine arts, announced it was honouring Smith with the dedication of the Annie Smith Art Centre in Oakville, Ontario. Along with the establishment of a scholarship in Smith's name, the event also honoured the 25th anniversary of the first graduating class of UTM's art and art history program. Smith was also the driving force behind a collaborative fine art program, the first of its kind between a university and community college in North America. Sheridan and UTM also recently launched Centre for Communication, Culture and Information Technology. The centre, which opens in 2003, will provide a cross-disciplinary education for college and university students in fine arts, the humanities, social sciences, anthropology, computer science, psychology, animation and graphic design.
Graduates receive a degree from the university.
Smith, a pioneer in this type of cross-disciplinary education, says that integrating art and art history will produce a more rounded graduate. Smith publishes nationally and internally on art education in academic journals and maintains a prodigious lecture schedule speaking at academic conferences throughout Canada and abroad. She has been recognized for her achievements, earning numerous international awards. It's about the thought processes, the experience and the creativity that brings about the art. When UTM was publicizing the Annie Smith Scholarship fund, the three-time cancer survivor asked the university to make clear that it was not a memorial fund, that she and the bear are still very much alive.