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Mission and Goals

Explore. Create. Contribute.

Our mission is to educate socially responsible leaders in the fields of art who explore and create significant ideas. These globally-engaged citizens help shape society, inspire future generations, and share the value of the arts as an essential part of life.

  • We welcome ambitious and motivated students, and foster their curiosity and freedom to experiment along their creative and intellectual paths.
  • We offer diverse opportunities to experience, learn, and create within a rigorous and supportive environment that prepares students for successful professional lives.
  • We are an internationally-recognized teaching institution that balances a high level of research with intense and relevant student/faculty engagement, including interdisciplinary, entrepreneurial, and international experiences.
  • We provide high-quality facilities including current technology, and rich, original collections in our Art Museum and galleries that complement our four degree programs.
  • We are a community — engaging our division, the university and beyond with inclusive and innovative programs and creative research.
  • We offer a unique set of programs that study the arts from varying perspectives, balancing the traditional with contemporary ways of making and understanding.
  • We are a Department of Art within the context of a liberal arts institution, giving our students life-long skills of communication, writing, and critical thinking, to prepare them for success in college and beyond.

Student Groups

National Art Education Association (NAEA) Student Chapter

Officially affiliated with the National Art Education Association, this student organization, which is comprised primarily of Art Education majors, is oriented toward the goal of enhancing a student's professional identity as an art teacher for grades kindergarten through 12. Members of this group sponsor local activities such as art auctions, art shows, lectures by nationally-recognized leaders in the field of art education, and field trips to Ohio and National Art Education Association conferences. The goal of this organization is to develop a sense of professionalism within our future art teachers.

Visual Arts Club (VAC)

This student organization is open to any student interested in the visual art world, the contemporary art world in particular, and the production of visual art. Although comprised primarily of studio art majors, majors in other areas have assumed active roles in this organization. The Visual Arts Club supports a program of enrichment that extends art learning beyond the studio and classroom. Students in this organization have regular meetings during the school year, sponsor visiting artists and guest lecturers/critics to campus, sponsor a student art exhibition, and take field trips to major art centers such as New York and Chicago. This community of students uses this organization to perpetuate the professional goal of being a practicing artist.

NASAD Accreditation

Miami University art and design majors/programs and the Department of Art are accredited through the National Schools of Art and Design. NASAD is the premier accrediting body for arts schools/colleges. Our last site visit was in 2006-07, with an upcoming visit in 2019. As stated in our full review document dated November 8, 2007:

"The NASAD Commission on Accreditation, at its October 2007 meetings, voted to continue Miami University in good standing."

The full-review document is available upon request 513-529-2900.

Contact Us

Department of Art
124 Art Building
Oxford, OH 45056