Document details

Alain Littaye: Can you tell us when you began your career at Walt Disney Imagineering and what you did before joining Disney?

Pat Burke: I started at WED in 1972, just after Walt Disney World had opened and I had graduated from the University of Northridge in Fine Arts. I was having a one-man graduate art show, and somebody from Disney’s WED Enterprises heard about it and came to take a look. I had classic as well as contemporary two-dimensional art, photos, prints, ceramics, and sculptures in plastics, as well as electronic-activated sculptures that worked with music. WED was looking for people who could work with a wide range of materials, as well as sketch and paint. From age eight to seventeen, I had taken private art lessons in most mediums from an instructor from Chouinard Institute in Los Angeles. I did everything but music in his classes that helped prepare me for a college art major. Art education was my minor, and I believe that helped me later when working in the field for Disney.

[…]