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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

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  • Apr 20–24

    Sheila Novak: Singing Sap

    View the culmination of Sheila Novak’s M.F.A. at Cornell University in an exhibition that centers site-based, arboreal, and culinary practices alongside social engagement, psychological healing, and familial archival digging.

    Exhibition

  • A drawing of a large purple circle with a curtain of purple and yellow shading descending from it.

    Apr 20–24

    Marissa Cote: The Moon Went With Her

    View an exhibition that materializes visions of queer utopia through weaving, quilting, clay, and assemblage.

    Exhibition

  • A poster with speckled pieces of paper and the exhibition information.

    Apr 27–May 1

    Yun Hsiang Wang: 日花仔 jit-hue-á / A Slow Parting

    View an exhibition that draws on traditional Taiwanese funerary rites, particularly the rituals observed during the first seven days after death, and reflects on the thresholds between life and afterlife, memory and forgetting, presence and absence.

    Exhibition

  • Colorful letters spelling out daydreaming

    Apr 27–May 1

    Group Exhibition: DAYDREAMING

    View an exhibition by 11 advanced practice students that explores how studio practice provides a way to reconcile the hidden, the out of place, and different states of incompletion.

    Exhibition

  • A drawing of a mountainous landscape with a lake and two moons.

    Apr 27–28

    B.F.A. Senior Thesis Presentations

    Join the 25 graduating students in the Cornell B.F.A. program for individual talks about their artistic practices as they present the work they have made over the past year, including their thesis projects.

    Lecture

  • A bright multi-colored background with black text

    May 8–31

    Cornell M.F.A. ’26 Group Show: I Happen to be Rock

    The 2026 M.F.A. in Creative Visual Arts cohort presents a group exhibition that brings together distinct practices in dynamic conversation as the seven artists explore questions of identity, collectivity, visibility, repair, queer construction, memory, and the horizon of what might still be made possible.

    Beyond AAP, Exhibition

  • A poster with details about the event.

    May 11

    Jolene Rickard: Gretchen Taylor Millson Distinguished Lecture

    Associate Professor Jolene Rickard (Art, History of Art and Visual Studies, AIIS–American Indian and Indigenous Studies) presents the 2026 Gretchen Taylor Millson Distinguished Lecture at UCLA, an annual series that invites a distinguished woman artist or art historian to give a lecture in honor of alumna Gretchen Millson.

    Beyond AAP

  • Large building framing a brick clock tower on a sunny day on a college campus

    Jun 6

    Reunion 2026

    Mark your calendars and celebrate with old and new friends at the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning during Cornell Reunion Weekend on June 6, 2026.

    Function

  • Aerial view of first-year students and AAP Ambassadors forming AAP on the Arts Quad with Sibley Dome in view.

    Jun 26–Aug 14

    Undergraduate Admissions Summer Events 2026

    Register for an in-person information session at Cornell AAP or drop in for a casual conversation with an admissions officer.

    Admissions

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

Latest News and Faculty Work

Book Love in a Time of Allegory

A book cover featuring a man in a blue t-shirt looking into a mirror.

The latest book by Art Senior Lecturer and Codirector of the M.F.A. in Image Text and ITI Press Nicholas Muellner asks how we can still feel, desire, and imagine in an age of relentless realism.

Exhibition Mud + Corn + Stone + Blue

Woodcut print of a figure outside a building.

This traveling group show, which includes work by Art Assistant Professor Oscar Rene Cornejo, traces major conflicts that have scarred Central America since the 1960s and explores how their histories are entwined with that of US agriculture through the corn industry.

Announcements

multiple glass pillar sculptures on pedestal

Explore Fall ’26 Classes for Non-Majors at AAP

Expand your disciplinary boundaries and enroll in courses that cultivate connection and catalyze actionable research. Options range from fundamentals to deep dives across architecture, art, city and regional planning, real estate, and design technology.

Stories Philosophy and Art Faculty Win Guggenheim Fellowships

A woman with wavy brown hair and a blue geometric pattern shirt, standing in an art studio.

Two Cornell faculty have been awarded Guggenheim Fellowships this year, including Assistant Professor of Art Leeza Meksin, who shares details on her site-specific installations and future plans with the Cornell Chronicle.

Stories Cornell Faculty and Staff Honored for Community-Engaged Innovation

Space Needle lit up at night over Seattle

Awarded by Cornell’s Einhorn Center, Art Professor Keith Obadike was recognized for using his role as director of undergraduate studies to foster a culture of community-engaged practices across the AAP curriculum.

Announcements 15 Scientific and Technical Achievements to be Honored with Academy Awards

Jeff Budsberg (B.F.A. ’04, ’07) was part of a team recognized for their contributions to the stylized animation toolset at DreamWorks Animation.

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

Tug boat pushing a dirt-filled barge covered with grass and trees.

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.

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