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A film is projected on the side of a wooden framed canvas, and people are seated in the background.

About the department

Department of Art

About the Department

At Cornell, the study of art is an education in creating objects, images, spaces, and experiences that reflect intellectual judgment, philosophical understanding, knowledge of the history and traditions of the visual arts, and ethical principles that engage the often bewildering complexity of contemporary culture.

Projected artwork in a darkened gallery space

Sopheak Sam (M.F.A. ’25) presents work for a student group show in Olive Tjaden Gallery.

Degree Programs

Upcoming and Ongoing Events

  • Three people performing on a small stage in front of a projected picture in front of a small audience.

    Oct 18–Jan 10

    M.F.A. in Image Text Virtual Information Sessions 2025–26

    Learn more about the M.F.A. in Image Text from codirectors Nicholas Muellner and Catherine Taylor, former faculty guest speakers, and current students.

    Admissions

  • Abstract painting

    Nov 15–Mar 6

    Erika Ranee: I Don’t Like to Draw

    Art Visiting Critic and Fall 2025 Teiger Mentor in the Arts Erika Ranee presents paintings that merge abstraction and autobiography, redefining drawing as an intuitive, liberating act of mark-making and memory at Brattleboro Museum and Art Center.

    Beyond AAP

  • a white banister with light filtering through

    Dec 11–Feb 4

    AAP Engagement Impact Grant Virtual Informational Sessions

    Attend an informational session about the AAP Engagement Impact Grants available to faculty and students in spring 2026.

    Workshop

  • A sheep with two prominent horns.

    Jan 19–29

    Josi Valle Ellis: Dreaming shelter for the long night

    View an art exhibition centered around a free-standing wool tent-garment—a shepherd's mantle constructed of locally-raised felted sheep's wool, inspired by traditional Eurasian designs that function as shelters—a cave of dreams for the imaginal production of renewed relations to place.

    Exhibition

Student Experience

  • student developing an image at a work station
  • book and papers on a desk
  • student examining objects on a pink-lit gallery floor
  • student sketching in charcoal on a gallery wall
  • students putting up work in a bright gallery space

Jason Gama Bezerra De (B.F.A. ’24) working in the alternative processes lab in Tjaden Hall.

Andy Li looking at the work of Hyunjin Park (both M.F.A. ’25), part of the M.F.A. group show over and over, Tjaden Gallery.

Artists Tim Green and Oliver Stern (both B.F.A. ’24) draw on canvas lining the walls of the Olive Tjaden Gallery during a five-day live drawing performance and exhibition titled Cave Painting 2.

As artist-educators, we assume a unique and critical role in connecting some of the most complex aspects of art practice to pedagogy. We do this, understanding that the next generation of artists live in a world that is both fraught with compounded crises and full of opportunities for engagement, intervention, and for making lasting change.

Paul Ramírez Jonas, Professor and Chair of the Department of Art

Latest News and Faculty Work

Stories Teiger Foundation Gift Advances AAP’s Teiger Mentor in the Arts Program

Cornell AAP announces funding to continue the Teiger Mentor in the Arts program, which brings a remarkable slate of internationally acclaimed faculty artists to the college, including Spring 2026 Teiger Mentor Mary Mattingly.

Stories Groundwork: Cultivation Rooted in Art and Action

People planting flowers and trees with gardening tools.

At the intersection of art, ecology, and community, students enrolled in a course led by Associate Professor Jen de los Reyes explore research and practice that moves beyond the studio and into Ithaca's local ecologies.

Stories Tribute to Europe’s Lost Synagogues Is an Artist’s Labor of Love

Split image of the illustrated cover of Lost Synagogues of Europe alongside a portrait of the artist standing indoors beside framed artwork.

Cornell AAP alumna Andrea Strongwater (B.F.A. '70) is profiled for her 15-year artistic and historical effort to document 77 destroyed European synagogues as an act of cultural memory and architectural preservation.

Stories Sacramento International Airport Commissions Art Chair Paul Ramírez Jonas to Create Permanent Public Installation

Using 1,252 perforated metal panels each measuring 3'x11', Paul Ramírez Jonas, Chair and Professor of Art in Cornell's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, has unveiled his plans for a large-scale installation which will cover three sides of Sacramento International Airport's new six-story parking garage.

In the Media On Printmaking and Place

ArtShow — Art Visiting Critic Julianne Hunter joins host Craig Stover for a conversation about her creative practice, experimental techniques in and outside of the print studio, and how an evolving sense of place influences both her process and the meaning her work carries.

Announcements Announcing the 2025 Boston Artadia Awardees

Sopheak Sam (M.F.A. '25) was named one of the 2025 Boston Artadia awardees, recognizing their emerging artistic practice among a distinguished group advancing contemporary visual arts in the Greater Boston region.

Project Forge Project Convening: 2025 Confluence Fellows

A group of people pose together in a conference room with large windows overlooking an autumn landscape, seated and standing around long tables.

As a steering council member for the Forge Project, a Native-led non-profit organization advancing Indigenous leadership in arts and culture, Cornell Associate Professor Jolene Rickard (Art, History of Art and Visual Studies, and AIIS-American Indian and Indigenous Studies) hosted 2025 Confluence fellows at the Johnson Museum. This international gathering of Indigenous writers, makers, and scholars was co-coordinated with Dr. Sarah Biscarra Dilley (Forge Director of Indigenous Programs) and Dr. Léuli Eshraghi (Curator of Indigenous Practices, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal).

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