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Art and Design

The SUNY Oswego Department of Art and Design aims to provide serious students of art with the tools needed to create foundations for the future.

The department seeks ambitious students who wish to gain knowledge through hands-on experiences, combining art history and contemporary developments within the field to understand the past and speculate upon the future.  

The State University of New York at Oswego is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).

By working with art history, studio art, graphic design, illustration, and interaction design, students are given opportunities to expand their artistic horizons, define and use current methodologies and firmly grasp the importance of their work in multiple aspects of modern society. Students and faculty boldly explore the tangible and the rhetorical dimensions of art.

At Oswego, students can elect degree programs that include the bachelor of arts (BA) in art, with tracks in studio art, art history, graphic design, illustration, and interaction design. The bachelor of fine arts (BFA) in studio art has two tracks students can choose from, one in fine arts and one in illustration. The department also offers BFA degrees in graphic design and interaction design. Students earning a BFA degree can stay for the master's in art teaching (MAT) in art education. There is also the opportunity to earn a minor in art, art history, photography, graphic design, illustration, museum studies, arts management, or expressive arts therapy.

CNY Arts in Higher Education Consortium Member

Mission statement

The goal of the SUNY Oswego Art Department is to see that our students are given the tools they need to build the foundation for their future careers in the art world. With help from our caring faculty, students will receive a high-quality education encompassing graphic and studio arts, art history and social contexts. Through experience- and classroom-based learning, we prepare students for careers that will challenge and inspire them. By promoting both intensified individual study and team collaboration, we enable our students to decide how they best learn, and how to work with multiple departments and on inter-media productions. We in the Art Department firmly believe that by teaching our students how to take charge of their own projects, and thusly their own lives, they will be better equipped to inform others and create new and better visions of tomorrow.

An exhibition in Tyler Art Gallery

Tyler Art Gallery

Exhibits are interdisciplinary in nature so the gallery’s programs are relevant to a wide range of campus and community interests. Emphasis is placed on representing a wide range of artistic voices and points of view. In addition, Tyler Art Gallery serves as a teaching gallery to provide opportunities for students and community members to have direct encounters with professional works of art.

Tyler Art Gallery

Visiting Artist Series

A series of visiting professionals talking about their work, careers, and their experiences ‘making it’ in the arts.