UNTCVAD: A Leading Institution with 29 Degree Programs and Prestigious Ph.D. in Art Education

UNT's College of Visual Arts and Design is one of the nation's most comprehensive visual arts schools at a public university, offering 16 undergraduate and 13 graduate degree programs and concentrations in areas ranging from art history to communication design to new media art. The college includes several institutes and centers, including the renowned Texas Fashion Collection, and three art galleries to showcase student and professional work. Considered one of the best art schools in the South and Southwest, the College of Visual Arts and Design offers the first and only Ph.D. program in art education in Texas and the top-ranked program in Communication Design for Graphic Design.

As of the spring 2024 semester, the College of Visual Arts and Design has 2,459 students enrolled. With 29 degree programs, the undergraduate art programs have been part of the UNT curriculum since 1893-84. Master's degrees were initiated in the 1930s, with the first M.S. degree in art awarded in 1937, and UNT's Department of Art became its own school, the School of Visual Arts, in 1992. The College of Visual Arts and Design was formed in 2007.

• General fine arts program ranked 10th in Texas by Best-Art-Colleges.com
• College of Visual Arts and Design ranked 10th in Texas, 66th in the South by Best-Art-Colleges.com
• Produces one of the highest numbers of university-certified art educators in Texas
• UNT ranked 3rd as a best online university in Texas by EdSmart.org
• UNT ranked 6th as a best value online university in Texas by TexasOnlineColleges.com

Undergraduate Program Rankings

• Communication design program ranked first in Texas, first in the Southwest and sixth in the nation among public schools and colleges, Animation Career Review, February 2020
• The Graphic Design concentration in Communication Design is recognized as a Top Design School for 2022, 2023 and 2024 by GDUSA Magazine.
• Fashion design program ranked seventh in the nation by Fashion-Schools.org
• Interdisciplinary art and design studies program ranked 14th in the nation for best value by CollegeFactual.com
• Visual art studies program ranked third in Texas, 26th in the South by Best-Education-Schools.com

Graduate Programs

• Master's in design program with a concentration in interaction design ranked 38th in the nation by ValueColleges.com
• Graduate fine arts program at public and private institutions ranked 42th in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and 21st among public institutions
• CVAD has the only accredited Ph.D. program in Art Education in Texas

Faculty and Staff

By providing access, welcoming diversity, and strengthening our collaborations with our many educational, business and community partners, CVAD's faculty and staff work to prepare students for the challenges they will meet in our changing world. Our dedicated faculty and staff members help build new partnerships across the globe while focusing on helping students to succeed. Our faculty include distinguished researchers, scholars, and artists who are mentors, innovators and leaders. Our staff includes experts in information technology, higher education and administration.

Facilities | Gallery of Building Images

Located in the expanded and renovated four-story art building, the College of Visual Arts and Design provides a world-class space for the college's unique resources and award-winning programs in art education, art history, design and studio arts.

The 238,000-square-foot building's open concept inspires creativity and encourages people to stay, sit and collaborate. Sky bridges and wide hallways offer plenty of light and space for pop-up exhibitions. Floor-to-ceiling windows bring the outdoors inside and reveal the creative work happening in classrooms.

A sweeping front porch on the building's east side serves as a gateway to the UNT and Denton communities, an open invitation to come and experience the college's world-class facilities. The UNT CVAD Art Gallery's expansive windows face streets and sidewalks revealing the works of renowned and emerging artists, while the central courtyard offers a place to enjoy a wide range of events from outdoor fashion shows to film screenings and student work installations.

CVAD Galleries at UNT

The building's three original galleries with new features and improvements include curatorial and installation projects by students and nationally and internationally accomplished artists.

Formerly the Lightwell Gallery, the Paul Voertman Gallery is a student-run gallery located on the first-floor atrium of the UNT Art Building. The Paul Voertman Gallery hosts weekly rotating exhibitions of undergraduate student works and is known for hosting both impromptu and formal performances, critiques and discussions. This gallery is named for the late Paul Voertman, a life-long arts patron and Denton business owner whose belief in arts education and UNT has made a lasting impact.

The Cora Stafford Gallery features two spaces, showcasing M.F.A. thesis exhibitions and the annual Voertman Student Juried Exhibition. The gallery is named after Cora Stafford, an imaginative and enlightened leader who was a faculty member and art department director from 1921 to 1965.

The CVAD Gallery focuses on the visitor experience, with exhibitions of curatorial and installation projects by nationally and internationally accomplished artists.

Location

While a metropolitan area offers many job opportunities, entertainment, culture, shopping and professional sports, a college town offers a peaceful haven for study and research. UNT has the advantages of both. The university is in Denton, Texas, a city in and the county seat of Denton County, Texas. With a population of about 138,500, it is only 36 miles north of Dallas-Fort Worth, the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area. Denton is known for its active arts, music life, and events such as the North Texas State Fair and Rodeo, Denton Arts and Jazz Festival. Denton also averages 0 inches of snow per year. CVAD is an organization member of the Greater Denton Arts Council.

Highlights

  • The College of Visual Arts and Design has a reputation for excellence that has helped UNT’s arts program become foremost among public universities in the Southern region and respected nationally.
  • The college offers the only doctoral degree program in art education in Texas.
  • The College of Visual Arts and Design is one of the largest producers of university-certified art educators in Texas.
  • The College of Visual Arts and Design is home to award-winning programs in art education, art history, design and studio arts.
  • Graduate fine arts program at a public university ranked 21st in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

Alumni 

  • Jesús Moroles, sculptor and winner of a 2008 National Medal of Arts, the highest honor given to artists by the President of the United States 
  • Diedrick Brackens, was featured in Made in L.A. 2018 at the Hammer Museum 
  • R’Bonney Gabriel, fashion designer, Miss Universe 2022
  • Emily Lew Fry. executive director of interpretation at the Art Institute of Chicago
  • Stacey Lizotte, The Allen and Kelli Questrom Center for Creative Connections Education Director at the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
  • Tracy Bays-Boothe, associate director at the Museum of Craft and Design
  • Andrea Karnes, curator of modern art at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. 
  • Dana Tanamachi, graphic designer and design contributor to the covers of TIME, HOW and O magazines
  • Michael Faircloth, fashion designer–designed for former first lady Laura Bush
  • Shirin Askari, fashion designer–season six Project Runway contestant
  • Rance Jones, painter represented by Forum Gallery, New York City
  • Cory Say, art director, lettering artist and illustrator for Hallmark
  • José Suaste, chief creative officer, Fluent360 agency, Chicago

New Departments

The Department of Art History and the Department of Art Education were established as autonomous departments in CVAD in 2020. 

Faculty in the Department of Art History continue to be recognized through numerous, external fellowships/awards/grants for both research and teaching. They are recipients of NEH, Fulbright, Kress Foundation, Graham Foundation, Getty, Mellon, Terra Foundation, Humanities of Texas and Howard Foundation fellowships, to name a few. 

New Facilities

The College of Visual Arts and Design expansion project includes a new, four-story, 133,000 square-foot addition, and a renovation of the 84,500 square-foot existing building. These buildings are connected by a courtyard and sky bridges. The college’s new home base is a stunning series of world class facilities including:  

  • 19,000-square-foot multi-purpose courtyard, with landscaping and seating, at the heart of the building
  • New gallery with extensive back-of-house research and study space
  • 181 spaces for the delivery of educational programs. 
  • Texas Fashion Collection archival, teaching and exhibit spaces

UNT Art Annex

Home to 40 studios for M.F.A. students and the Studio Art Ceramics program, the 25,242-square-foot building includes three beautiful entrance surrounds that are the effort students and faculty.

Inside this new state-of-the-art facility, you will find a kiln yard with 15 electric kilns, seven gas kilns, one atmospheric kiln with plans for more, one raku kilns, and two Blaauw kilns. The administrative and other teaching spaces include two offices for our faculty, an office for our visual arts technician, plus classrooms for wheel-throwing and hand-building. The ceramics fabrication lab includes a 3D printer, plaster room, dry and wet-glazing labs, two project spaces, and a lecture-and-critique space. There’s also a substantial industrial dust-collection system installed to protect the health and welfare of building occupants.

CVAD Galleries

The CVAD Galleries at UNT comprise three galleries that support the educational mission of the College of Visual Arts and Design and the university, enrich the aesthetic environment, and serve as a cultural resource for the public. Two galleries, the Paul Voertman Gallery and the Cora Stafford Gallery, are dedicated to CVAD student and curricular exhibitions.

The CVAD Gallery hosts exhibitions by nationally and internationally renowned artists and designers, including Ashish Gupta, Matthew Ritchie, the Kongo Astronauts, Vernon Fischer, Emmy Bright, and Cey Adams, as well as thematic exhibitions by prominent scholars and curators including Nada Shabout, 2020-2021 UNT Regents Professor of Art History and recipient of the 2020 Kuwait Prize for Arts and Literature and Liza Quiñonez of Street Theory, contemporary art and design agency, to name a few.

Institutes and Centers

The Texas Fashion Collection is one of the most acclaimed educational resources at the UNT Denton campus. With nearly 20,000 historical and designer garments and accessories, the collection represents 250 years of fashion spanning five continents.  While the TFC is known for its couture garments by Cristobal Balenciaga, Hubert de Givenchy, and Oscar de la Renta, holdings also include pieces by home sewers, dressmakers, and lesser-known designers who helped shape the world of fashion. These diverse perspectives and approaches to making offer inspiration for students, designers and researchers from myriad fields. 

  • The Texas Fashion Collection’s holdings include nearly 20,000 garments and accessories – the largest archive of dress artifacts in Texas.
  • TFC artifacts have been worn by a variety of famous figures, including actress and fashion icon Audrey Hepburn, American First Lady Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson, and civil rights activist and performing artist Lena Horne.  
  • In 2023, the National Endowment for the Humanities funded a collection assessment and conservation training for TFC staff through a Preservation Assistance grant – a major vote of confidence in the importance of the TFC’s holdings and the professionalism of its staff.
  • In partnership with the UNT Digital Library, the TFC offers free public access to over 66,000 images of its world-class holdings.

The Jo Ann (Jody) and Dr. Charles O. Onstead Institute for Education in the Visual Arts and Design

The Onstead Institute develops, supports, and sustains innovative art and design practices and processes for K-12 education through a program of research, project administration, and public dissemination of information. It functions as a platform that fosters programs, collaborative initiatives, faculty and graduate student research, and resources at the leading-edge of art education. The institute generates and shares curricular materials; provides opportunities for students and arts professionals to develop their leadership skills and engage in professional development enhancement; and creates singular artmaking experiences for K-12 students.

The institute is housed within the College of Visual Arts and Design — one of the most comprehensive arts and design programs at a public university and considered one of the best art schools in the South and Southwest. By partnering with CVAD faculty and students — as well as with schools, museums, galleries, cultural arts organizations, and others — the institute generates a diverse array of projects and programs. These include Arts Professional Fellowships, The Virtual Learning Studio, Education as Experimentation, The Wandering Wardrobe, Student Artmaking Workshops and The Onstead Institute Dissertation Award.