The department seeks to prepare both undergraduate and graduate students for professional careers in the creation and interpretation of the Visual Arts. Deeply related to this focus is a commitment to elevate and sustain the study of the arts as both a necessary mode of understanding and a dynamic expression of human experience as it relates to an increasingly complex global society. To accomplish this goal, students must develop technical skills related to a variety of artistic media as well as develop a comprehension of the creative impulse and the spirit that motivates it.The faculty of the Department of Visual Arts and Art History, through its own significant research and creative activities, fosters the preservation of artistic legacies with an interest in originality and innovation within artistic and research practice.