Why the
School of Art?
Let Your Passion Find Its Focus.
How do you make a decision as enormous as where to study for school? Yes, it’s about the faculty, the facilities, the campus, the academic programs, the project opportunities. But it’s also about your goals, your values, your dreams.
Students arrive at the School of Art full of passion, ideas, and energy. With our expert faculty, intensive mentorship, hands-on training, and diverse theoretical study, we transform passion, ideas, and energy into focused mastery.
Our research-driven comprehensive programs have been consistently ranked among the top art schools in the country. The School of Art is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).
If you’re ready to turn your passion to a life path, the School of Art can guide you there. Here’s how we do it.
- Benefits
- Our Work & Stories
- Careers
- Financial Aid
- Programs & Degrees
- Take a Tour
- Apply
Benefits
As a nationally-ranked program, the School of Art prepares undergraduate and graduate students to be innovators and change-makers in careers in the arts and beyond.
Faculty: Our world-class professors, scholars and artists will work to sharpen your focus, gain insight, and become uniquely competitive in your professional career.
Facilities: The School of Art has extensive facilities for student and faculty use, unique to each discipline. We offer well-equipped classrooms, studios, and student gallery spaces that make the School of Art a vibrant place to create, study and grow.
Places: Tucson is uniquely situated at the cultural intersection of Southwest Indigenous, Mexican and American heritage. Surrounded by surreal landscapes and steeped in rich artistic traditions, there’s no shortage of wide open spaces to find what inspires you. The New York Times recently ranked Tucson No. 15 on its “52 Places for Travelers to Visit in 2023” worldwide.
Inspiring Work and
Stories of Success
Our Work: Delve into the diversity of creative and scholarly thought, expression and technique by our students, faculty and alumni as they push boundaries and explore new territories.
Stories: Read how our students, faculty and alumni are making a difference at the School of Art, in the Tucson community and across the nation and world.
Careers
“What Can You Do With an Art Major?”
I can’t tell you how often I get this question. It is passion that draws us to the arts, and those who know that passion can’t imagine a world without it. However, the desire to pursue an education in the arts is often tempered by practical considerations. Images of the artist as isolated and destitute permeate our culture, and so it is hard to overcome the anxiety that this is what awaits us upon graduation.
However, there is good news! Despite what the cliches suggest, the data shows that those who pursue a major in the arts fare quite well. Their unemployment rate is almost the same as the average for those with a college education (about 4% — much lower than those without a college degree), and, what’s more interesting, their satisfaction with the careers they’ve chosen tends to be higher than for those those from other majors.
Graduates from the School of Art here have gone onto a range of prominent careers in the arts. However, it is worth keeping in mind that art majors acquire a set of highly desirable skills even if they move into a career outside the arts. For example, a prowess with visual communication (we live in a world where image is everything), creative problem solving, critical thinking, dealing effectively with ambiguity, problem solving through experimentation, inventing new ways to work within existing systems. In short, art majors possess the ability to take any given situation and look at it not for what it is, but what it could be. Any employer would put these qualities high on a list of things they look for in an employee, and these are all things that come second-nature to a student in the arts. In fact, in a recent survey of 1,500 CEOs that was conducted by IBM, creativity was ranked as the No. 1 quality needed for successful leadership. Who better understands creativity than art majors?
Thus, it is no surprise to learn that our graduates have seen great success in careers outside the arts as well as inside.
So when asked what you can do with an art major, the true answer is simple: anything you want.
– Colin Blakely, Director, School of Art
Jobs in the arts our alumni hold:
Art Director/Coordinator
K-12 Art Teacher
Art History Educator
Visual Arts Educator
Exhibition Curator
Freelance Artist
Freelance Designer
Freelance Illustrator
Interior Designer
Marketing Communications Manager
Multimedia Specialist
Marketing Communications Manager
Museum Education Specialist
Museum Director
Museum Registrar
Museum Preparator
Photographer
Photography Technician
Strategic Design Manager
Tattoo Artist
Videographer
Jobs outside the arts our alumni hold:
Editorial Assistant
Event Planner
Forester
Freelance Writer
Lawyer
Merchandising Specialist
Office Manager
Sales Professional
Software Developer
Summer Camp Director
Talent Agent
Technical Publications Specialist
University Administrator
Web Developer
Financial Aid
We wholeheartedly believe that art education ought to be accessible to all with the passion to pursue it. As a student or prospective student, you can receive financial guidance from the University of Arizona’s Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid, as well as the School of Art’s own financial aid. We provide waivers, scholarships, and other types of financial aid so you can focus more on your artwork and less on dollar signs.
Learn MorePrograms & Degrees
The School of Art offers its students a dynamic array of studies in Art History, Art & Visual Culture Education and Studio Art. Discover our nationally ranked programs.
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