About

Students in the Art Department at Radford University explore a variety of artistic media and disciplines. Undergraduate students may pursue a particular area of interest within the following concentrations: studio art, graphic design, art education, or art history and museum studies. Graduate students pursue advanced technical and conceptual studies in studio art. Course descriptions and information about various degree options are provided in the undergraduate and graduate catalogs.

Art faculty are professionally active, exhibiting their work in galleries and museums, presenting papers at academic conferences, and writing articles and books. Departmental facilities, located in three buildings, provide a diverse environment for studio classes, art history lectures, technology demonstrations, and graduate studios. Digital classrooms and photography labs are found down the hall from traditional and computer studios. Graduating students exhibit their work in the Radford University Art Museum, the home of changing exhibitions of photography, painting, and other art created by local and nationally known artists.

DEPARTMENT OF ART MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the Radford University Art Department supports the overall university strategic plan of promoting excellence in teaching, research, creativity, and service. The art programs achieve these goals by building and extending a knowledge and skill base of creative and scholarly research and experimentation from which future developments in the creation and understanding of the visual arts emerge. Learning occurs within a studio context consisting of a rigorous critique methodology involving process, production, and representation. The importance of traditional skills as the foundation for further experimentation enables students to begin the process of forming an identity as artists, designers, art educators, and art historians in the world of art. In keeping with the current Scholar-Citizen Initiative of the university, the Art Department’s goal can be summarized by three words: create – connect – contribute.