Chuck Parker

• Name — Art Directors Guild • Num Members — 2,966 • Num Members Year — 2025 • Leader Title — President • Leader Name — Dina Lipton • Full Name — The Art Directors Guild • Founded — 1937 • Location — United States • Parent Organization — International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees • Affiliations — AFL–CIO, IATSE • Abbreviation — ADG • Nickname — IATSE Local 800 • Merged Into — Local 816 (Scenic, Title & Graphic Artists), Local 847 (Set Designers & Model Makers), and Local 790 (Illustrators & Matte Artists) • Headquarters — 11969 Ventura Blvd. 2nd Floor Studio City, California, 91604, United States • Leader Title2 — National Executive Director • Leader Name2 — Joel Cohen • Website — www.adg.org

The Art Directors Guild was originally named the Society of Motion Picture Art Directors (SMPAD), which was founded by 59 Art Directors on May 6, 1937, at a meeting at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. After World War II, many "below the line" industry labor organizations, including SMPAD, signed on with the IATSE for overall union representation. SMPAD became more active, grew in membership, and expanded opportunities as television developed. In 1967 the Society included "television" to their name before settling on its current moniker, the "Art Directors Guild" in 1998. The Art Directors Guild included only men until 1971. Production designer Polly Platt was the first woman inducted into the Guild, in 1971. Toby Carr Rafelson was the second woman inducted.

The creation of its own local (formerly known as Local 816) in March 1949 marked the first time the Hollywood Scenic Artists and Title Artists had its own local representing its unique needs. Previously, the members were part of Local 644 of the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) working in film and theater. The overwhelming majority of Local 644's membership, however, had been made up of set painters and paperhangers and included set designers as well. It was not until the dissolution of the CSU after a long series of bitterly contested strikes that the scenic artists were able to organize exclusively. Those artists had been pioneers in their field, responsible for devising and developing the methods used to create representational scenery unsurpassed anywhere in the world. The size and strength of the local grew with the inclusion of television contracts in the early 1950s. Television, at that time, was in effect an extension of live theater and required a lot of painted two-dimensional scenery instead of the three-dimensional sets used in film. As the nature of television scenery changed, the responsibilities of the television scenic artist broadened to include those of the set painter. Local 816 was the only local in the entertainment industry that worked in all three major areas of the business: film, television and theater. In January 2003, the 850 members of ADG merged with the 650 member Scenic, Title and Graphic Artists to form the Art Directors Guild & Scenic, Title and Graphic Artists.

The Art Directors Guild established its Hall of Fame in 2005 to honour the contributions of significant past production designers and art directors. The Hall of Fame inducts new members annually, with the first group formally inducted at the 9th Annual Excellence in Production Design Awards ceremony on February 12, 2005.

As generative AI tools proliferated across the entertainment industry from 2023, the Art Directors Guild took an increasingly assertive stance against their adoption. When parent union IATSE ratified a new Basic Agreement with the AMPTP in July 2024 that included limited AI protections, the ADG's Set Designers Council recommended a "no" vote, arguing the contract's AI language did not go far enough, reflecting broader anxiety among illustrators, concept artists, and matte artists — the crafts most directly threatened by image-generation tools. In June 2026, when director Martin Scorsese endorsed AI company Black Forest Labs's generative image model Flux for storyboarding, the Guild issued a statement accusing him of "turning his back on the human artists who throughout his career have helped him create his most memorable works" and calling it "a betrayal of the collaborative nature of cinema."

Local 800 has four main craft classifications: • Art Directors (including Production Designers) • Scenic, Title and Graphic Artists • Illustrators and Matte Artists • Set Designers and Model Makers In addition, the ADG has recently included previs artists into their membership. Individual crafts represented by the ADG: • Production designers • Art directors • Assistant art directors • Set designers • Graphic artists • Illustrators • Matte artists • Model makers • Scenic artists • Previs artists

• The ADG Excellence in Production Design Awards are presented annually by the Art Directors Guild to "recognize excellence in production design and art direction in the film and television industries". • The ADG Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to individuals who have been outstanding in the four crafts of the Art Directors Guild. • The William Cameron Menzies Award recognizes individuals who have contributed extraordinary achievements in production design or visual storytelling that reflect Menzies' innovative legacy.