Envision a creative future
Expand your creative capabilities
Engage with creative individuals
Evolve as a creative artist
Discover your potential and prepare for your creative future
at Youngstown State University.
YSU’s Department of Art in the College of Creative Arts and Communication recognizes that each student is unique with individual talents, goals and passions as artists and designers. Our program is designed with a focus on you and your future. Building a strong foundation is key. Faculty work with you personally as you progress through the program to help you translate your goals into reality. This personalized college experience helps you develop your niche and position yourself for the countless opportunities in today’s creative industries after graduation.
WHY THE DEPartMENT?
The Department of Art at YSU prepares students to become artists, designers, art educators or art historians. As part of a cultural milieu, students will witness a wide variety of styles, philosophies and histories. They will be exposed to various techniques, processes and experiences in the development of a commitment to their work, their community and to the outside world. Expanded visual horizons as well as exposure to various histories will enable students to look both within themselves and outside in a broader cultural context.
BECAUSE WE FOCUS ON YOU
Education in the arts is paradoxical. Art making and the study of art require skills training as well as perceptual awareness. Participation in the process is the primary means of education. Students and faculty alike are immersed in the quest for knowledge and creative self-realization, whether it is in the form of computer graphics, printmaking or the study of art from the past.
The Higher Learning Commission accredits Youngstown State University in an accreditation that includes all undergraduate and graduate programs. In addition, the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), an organization whose membership includes 250 schools out of approximately 2,000 art departments nationally, accredits the Department of Art.
City of You Campaign
Wins Marketing Award
A multifaceted marketing campaign for the city of created by Youngstown State University faculty member R.J. Thompson, has been named best in its category by the Ohio Economic Development Association.
Thompson, an assistant professor of graphic and interactive design, said the campaign replaces Youngstown’s Rust Belt reputation with a positive, inclusive public image as a city “where anyone can build a future for themselves.”