UNiTed and Supporting Those in Need

The rapid changes in our students’ academic experiences have forced the university to adjust in ways we could never have anticipated. Now, more than ever, standing united and supporting those in need is vitally important. We understand that this is an unsettling time for everyone, and we sincerely thank you for your desire to help our emerging artists, designers, scholars, and the university.

We appreciate your dedication and commitment to our students!

Earning a degree from UNT, a Tier One research university, can be life-changing! At the College of Visual Arts and Design, we are passionate about partnering with alums and friends to make education attainable and exceptional for our students. As a leading research university renowned nationally and internationally, UNT is recognized for its scholarship in all fields — from fine arts to technology, humanities to life sciences, and music to entrepreneurship. The College of Visual Arts and Design is committed to creating and advancing innovative research, art, design and scholarship. UNT’s official Carnegie classification is an R1 Doctoral University with the highest research activity, Carnegie’s top classification for research universities.

When you give to UNT, you support the unique experiences that help our students soar. Thank you for investing in our future and making a difference in CVAD for the creative leaders of tomorrow. 

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Ways to Give

We have identified two funds that best serve the College of Visual Arts and Design during this time of need. With various giving options, you can support these efforts by making a one-time or recurring gift.

The Dean’s Excellence Fund

The Dean’s Excellence Fund provides immediate, essential support to our students. This fund serves as a vital resource to help our students and campus respond to opportunities and challenges as they occur. When you support the Dean’s Excellence Fund, you support the college's strategic vision by allowing the dean to have flexibility in directing resources to the college's priorities during this difficult time.

Which program would you like to support?

To make your support of students a reality, please email Felicia Lewis, senior director for development and fundraising.

Annual Event: CVAD Celebrates!

The celebration of visual arts and design students, alums, faculty, staff, board members, prospective students and friends of the college is an annual event. Sponsorships help to pay for various aspects of the event, student expenditures and some underwriting of the event. Read more about the inaugural CVAD Celebrates! event on the CVAD News and Views website.

Student Art & Design Supplies

A place for students to obtain a paintbrush, T-square or tracing paper — or any other needed art supplies that often cost each student a minimum of $100 every semester — and more depending on their program requirements. Students are welcome to give their left-over supplies or take what they need.

Software Subscription Gifts

Your gift supports a student by providing the annually required software available through a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud. Read more about this special program for UNT students on the CVAD News and Views website. To support a student's software needs, please get in touch with Felicia Lewis, senior director for development and fundraising, at 940-369-8042.

Software for an Undergraduate for Four Years: $225
Software for a Graduate Student for Three Years: $170

CVAD Advancement Board Scholarship

The CVAD Advancement Board Undergraduate Scholarship is funded by board members and is dedicated to helping students pay for college. Kicked off by CVAD Advancement Board member Marilyn Archer with the foundational gift, this is a scholarship that will increase over time so that funds will be available in perpetuity for students with demonstrated need.

CVAD Galleries

Your gift to the Galleries benefits all three galleries in the UNT Art Building! It supports the educational mission of the College of Visual Arts and Design and the university to enrich the aesthetic environment and serve as a cultural resource for the public.

Texas Fashion Collection

The Texas Fashion Collection’s world-class holdings include nearly 20,000 historical designer garments and accessories spanning more than 250 years of fashion history! This unique archive connects researchers with a variety of dress artifacts — ranging from elite Parisian haute couture to humble paper patterns used by home sewers — each example activating the past to inspire new thoughts and new designs for the future.

Support student learning opportunities by sponsoring a $1,000 internship stipend, fund garment conservation starting at $1,500, or give any amount to offset the cost of archival boxes and mounting supplies.

Creative U, High School Summer Arts Program at UNT CVAD

Your gift of $820 supports a rising junior or senior student who has documented financial need. Read more about this CVAD’s Summer Camp program on the CVAD News and Views website.

The College of Visual Arts and Design Scholarship Fund

More than 75 percent of UNT students qualify for financial aid yearly. During these times of uncertainty, the College of Visual Arts and Design Scholarship Fund makes a difference in whether our students can continue pursuing higher education. Scholarships will genuinely make a significant impact on the lives of our students and their families. See the list of students who benefitted from the generosity of our donors: 2022-23 Continuing Student Scholarship Awards.

Specify the scholarship or area your gift will support!

Jaclyn Williamson Design Scholarship Fund

In memory of 2011 Communication Design alumna Jaclyn Williamson, this scholarship benefits students majoring in a CVAD Department of Design program. To donate, please follow the link to the Jaclyn Williamson information web page, the Jacyln Williamson Design Scholarship Endowment web page or contact Felicia Lewis, senior director for development and fundraising, at 940-369-8042.

Art Education

Your gift will support our undergraduate and graduate students in Art Education as they engage in their interdisciplinary exploration and engagement of local, regional, national and global research topics.

Our students conduct research in the curriculum — art content, and pedagogy, art teaching methods for pre-K through 12th-grade teachers, studio art in the community and higher education venues, and art museum education.

You can assist in their delivery of educational experiences to the Denton schools and community as part of their research and studies. Art education students also welcome your financial support for their transformative internships, study abroad experiences, and research presentations at local, national, and international arts and education conferences.

Art History

Assist our undergraduate and graduate students as they engage in their interdisciplinary exploration of local, regional, national, and global research topics. They also welcome your support of their transformative internships and study abroad experiences.

Design

Your support of our Design programs can provide a myriad of opportunities for our students, and you can designate your gift to the program of your choice! Your generosity supplements our students’ financial needs to be competitive in developing their portfolios, defraying competition entry fees, creating websites, helping with travel expenditures to attend conferences, participating in study away and abroad opportunities, buying design supplies, and conducting research.

Design Programs: Communication Design: Graphic Design and User-Experience Design, Fashion Design, Interior Design and our graduate programs, M.A. and M.F.A. in Design.

Foundations program

Assist our undergraduate students

Interdisciplinary Art and Design Studies

The Interdisciplinary Art and Design Studies, IADS, major is the fastest-growing program in CVAD. It currently has about 200 majors who specialize in one of three tracks: Open, Arts Management, or Design Management.

This degree program allows students to pursue interdisciplinarity as a field of academic inquiry, which allows students to discover the diverse cultural discourse communities and opportunities for creative inquiry specific to their professional pursuits. They often take classes in anthropology, film, communications, psychology, art history and sociology.

IADS students are encouraged to seek at least one internship at CVAD. This is an important time in which they translate their academic learning into experiential knowledge. Interning students are expected to keep a log of the 240 hours they work during the semester producing a journal of activities and reflections twice during the semester.

A majority of the IADS student internships are unpaid. CVAD strives to supply these students with approximately $2,000 for an internship semester, which translates into $8 x 15 hours/week in a 16-week semester.

Your donation will encourage students to work in this pragmatic and foundational way.

Studio Art

Your support of our Studio Art programs can provide myriad opportunities for our students, and you can designate your gift to the program of your choice! Your generosity supplements our students’ financial needs to be competitive in developing their portfolios, creating websites, helping with travel expenditures to attend conferences, participating in study away and abroad opportunities, buying art supplies, and conducting research.

Studio Programs at the B.F.A. and M.F.A. levels: Ceramics, Drawing and Painting, Metalsmithing and Jewelry, New Media Art, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture

Other Ways to Give

Annual Giving

When you give to the college annually, you make a difference in the lives of students, faculty, and staff who study, teach, and work to strengthen the college. These acts of generosity help ensure that a UNT education remains affordable and within reach for our deserving students.

Visit the Annual Recurring Gift to CVAD web page available through the Division of University Advancement.

Matching Gifts

Many employers sponsor matching gift programs and will match their employee's charitable contributions. To make your gift go even further, find out if your company has a matching gift policy by searching for your employer’s name.

Learn more on the Matching Gifts web page.

If your company is eligible, request a matching gift form from your employer and send it completed and signed with your gift. We will take care of the rest.

Estate and Planned Gifts

Donors who choose to establish planned gifts to benefit the college help secure the future of UNT.

Working with our planned-giving experts, you can make an outright gift or defer your giving through a bequest. You can even take advantage of a charitable gift annuity or other life-income gifts that enable you to establish a legacy now and still provide you with an income during your lifetime.

Learn more about Planned Giving to align your legacy with UNT today!

Questions?

Felicia Lewis smiling, long auburn hair, glasses

Please get in touch with Felicia Lewis, senior director of development and fundraising, at 940-369-8042.

University of North Texas
University Advancement
1155 Union Circle #311250
Denton, TX 76203-5017

 

Thank you for your dedication and commitment to our students!

 

The Largesse of Many Donors Made CVAD’s Transformation Possible | Advancement Board

In October 2019, the University of North Texas College of Visual Arts and Design celebrated its expanded and renovated $70 million state-of-the-art facilities, thanks partly to dedicated donors who supported this visionary project.

Large, four-story brick Art Building, sunny day, vivid blue sky

The 238,000-square-foot, four-story, open-concept building features named spaces that honor the friends of UNT who are leaving a lasting legacy in the College of Visual Arts and Design.

  • Cora Stafford Gallery
  • D. Jack and Gail C. Davis Conference Room
  • Gloria and Bruzzy Westheimer Texas Fashion Collection Research Gallery
  • Milnes Advising Center
  • Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Auditorium
  • Jo Ann (Jody) & Dr. Charles O. Onstead Institute for Education in the Visual Arts & Design 
  • Paul Voertman Gallery
  • Ray and Georgia Gough Design Research Space
  • Samson Family Critique Space
  • Susan J. Gabbard Art Education Classroom

Our donors stepped up in a big way on this project; their generosity helped transform CVAD's artistic initiatives into a world-class space where UNT students and faculty will thrive for years.

CVAD facilities seamlessly marry new construction to the existing building, allowing almost all of the college’s award-winning programs to be housed in the same space. Now one of the world's most technologically advanced art facilities, CVAD’s new home enables UNT’s community of artists, designers and scholars to develop and grow into the creative leaders of tomorrow.

The building’s fabrication labs foster innovation with 3D modeling and printing capabilities, multi-axis routers and digitized textiles equipment. And the New Media Art program — a discipline that combines new technology with traditional art forms — now has access to a digital studio adjacent to a full-scale photography studio.

The courtyard, sky bridges and floor-to-ceiling windows allow passersby a view of UNT’s innovative creativity, and visitors who come inside will be treated to galleries featuring a wide variety of works by renowned, emerging and student artists.

UNT’s community of artists and scholars is incredibly grateful for the donors who collaborated with us to provide critical support for program initiatives benefitting from this one-of-a-kind space. The building’s design is intended to encourage curiosity, and it is hoped the community always will feel invited to see the work this project has made possible.