Mission Statement
The primary mission of the Department of Art and Design is to integrate a university liberal education with professional training in art.
We contribute to the liberal education of all students by providing classes in art history, art appreciation, and visual design, which foster appreciation and critical awareness for the visual arts. To prepare art majors for professional careers in art, we offer programs in art history, teacher education and professional studio disciplines (including graphic design, illustration, drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, and ceramics), through which we emphasize studio skill, critical thinking, and exposure to multiple aesthetic approaches.
We provide cultural enrichment and serve as advocates for the visual arts by presenting faculty and student art exhibitions and lectures for the University and surrounding communities. We contribute to the scholarship of the discipline through publications, presentations, commissions, and exhibitions of original creative research.
Goal Statement
The Department of Art and Design at Southern Utah University:
- Enriches cultural awareness to the campus as a whole through the education, exploration and the creation of visual arts.
- Provides our majors with a strong foundation of skills, techniques, multiple aesthetic approaches, and the ability to think and write critically thus ensuring that our seniors are prepared to enter the highly competitive areas of art history, professional studio art, educators of art and graduate programs.
- Cultivates aesthetic diversity for the campus, the community and the region at large by providing lectures, exhibitions and workshops that relate to teaching, creation, history, and the marketing of visual art.
Objectives
- Compliment and enhance the undergraduate experience for all students on campus by providing tools, facilities, and training in the areas of two and three-dimensional visual art.
- Aim students toward successful careers in art history, art education, professional studio art and graduate programs.
- Contribute and maintain the University's and community's exposure and involvement in the many faceted areas of the visual arts.