Chair's Message

Welcome to the Department of Art & Design at CSUSB!

Our Visual Arts Center boasts some of the best art and design facilities in the 23 campus CSU system, and beyond. Students can both put pencil to paper to sketch a live figure or put on a VR headset to virtually ‘sketch.’ These two ends of the spectrum aptly illustrate the breadth and depth of what this department has to offer, from the most essential but time-tested materials to the latest in cutting edge technology. In between you will find myriad ways to bring your creativity to life: throwing clay on a wheel, applying paint to canvas, brainstorming about logos and fonts, refining user interfaces, animating text and images, gathering molten glass, learning how best to teach art, capturing a fleeting image on film, expanding on the art historical canon, arranging pixels on a screen to create compelling branding and graphic identities, and countless others. Our faculty are leaders in their respective fields and bring their real-world knowledge to our classrooms, studios and labs. Elsewhere on this website, you will find comprehensive listings of our facilities, team members and our course offerings; I encourage you to explore those pages.

Despite weathering a worldwide pandemic, our department’s mission has remained constant: to foster personal and artistic growth by promoting intellectual inquiry as we encourage and inspire our students to be the best creative minds they can be. Students that graduate from our various degree programs go on to become successful artists, designers, curators, entrepreneurs, influencers and educators. Many find work in local and regional museums, design firms, K-12 schools, art centers and studios, and many chart their own path to success. No matter what title we ascribe to their chosen career path, we are confident that the Department of Art and Design has helped lay the groundwork for a lifetime of creative inquiry.