The Carnegie Mellon School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

is a degree-granting institution and a division of the

Carnegie Mellon College of Fine Arts The College of Fine Arts (CFA) at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania oversees the Schools of Architecture, Art, Design, Drama, and Music along with its associated centers, studios, and galleries. The Coll ...

. The School of Art was preceded by the School of Applied Design, founded in 1906. In 1967, the School of Art (then known as the Department of Painting & Sculpture) separated from the School of Design and became devoted to visual fine arts. The School of Art grants a four-year Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a three-year interdisciplinary Master of Fine Arts degree. It has more than 200 undergraduate students and 18 graduate students. In 2016 U.S. News & World Report ranked the graduate program first in time-based & new media art, and sixth overall.

History

In 1906

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

added the School of Applied Design to the recently founded Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1911 the School of Applied Design became the Department of Painting and Design, and over the next 40 years it absorbed programs in sculpture and design from throughout Carnegie Mellon, and went through multiple renamings. In 1967, Carnegie Tech merged with the

Mellon Institute of Industrial Research The Mellon Institute of Industrial Research is a former research institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, which is now part of Carnegie Mellon University. It was founded in 1913 by Andrew Mellon and Richard B. Mellon as part of the ...

to become Carnegie Mellon University. That same year a separate Department of Design was formed and the modern incarnation of the School of Art emerged, with an emphasis on visual fine arts.

Academic programs

The undergraduate program offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts with concentrations in four major fields: drawing,

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, printmaking, and

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employe ...

; Electronic and Time-Based Media;

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

installation Installation may refer to: * Installation (computer programs) * Installation, work of installation art * Installation, military base * Installation, into an office, especially a religious (Installation (Christianity) Installation is a Christian li ...

and site-specific work; and contextual practices. All undergraduate students take two years of foundation studio in various 2D, 3D, and time-based media, alongside art history and theory courses. A unique feature of the program is the inclusion of Concept Studio courses, alongside foundation studios, that emphasize non-medium specific approaches to artmaking. Advanced upper-level coursework is completed in one of the four aforementioned concentrations. Students must complete either a self-generated year-long project or series of projects in their senior year to fulfill their Senior Thesis. The School of Art offers three interdisciplinary bachelor's degrees: a Bachelor of Arts and Humanities (BHA), a Bachelor of Science and Arts (BSA), and a Bachelor of Computer Science and Arts (BCSA). These degrees require fulfillment of full coursework from two selected majors, one in the School of Art, and one in the other respective college, as well as BXA General Education and course requirements in the forms of seminars. The Master of Fine Arts program is a three-year interdisciplinary studio-focused program, with an emphasis on "contextual" art practices that manifest themselves in non-traditional ways, from institutional critique to public interventions and culture hacking. Graduate students work closely with faculty advisors throughout the three years, but are encouraged to take coursework outside of the School of Art. The MFA program requires a substantial written thesis. The program is small and highly selective, admitting 6 students per year. The School of Art places a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary work and encourages undergraduate and graduate students to engage with the broader Carnegie Mellon community. The College of Fine Arts houses th
Studio for Creative Inquiry
directed by artist and faculty member Golan Levin. The STUDIO provides artist residencies, artist grants, technical resources, and hosts lectures and conferences, bringing students from the School of Art, Human-Computer Interaction, Computational Design, and other programs throughout the University, into conversation. The Carnegie Mellon School of Art further benefits from the surrounding Pittsburgh art scene, which includes museums like the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Andy Warhol Museum, and the

Mattress Factory The Mattress Factory is a contemporary art museum located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was a pioneer of site-specific installation art and features permanent installations by artists Yayoi Kusama, James Turrell, and Greer Lankton. The museum' ...

. Students can also cross-register for classes offered at Pittsburgh Filmmakers, as well as through the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

's extensive

Art History Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

and

Creative Writing Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary ...

programs.

Current and recent full-time faculty

* Bob Bingham *

Jon Rubin Jon Rubin is a contemporary artist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Projects Fruit and Other Things ''Fruit and Other Things'' (2018-2019) is a project created in collaboration with artist Len ...

* James Duesing * Kim Beck * Golan Levin * Susanne Slavick * Suzie Silver
Imin Yeh
*

Devan Shimoyama Devan Shimoyama (born 1989 in Philadelphia) is a contemporary African-American visual artist best known as a painter that uses mixed mediums in their work. Shimoyama's work is inspired by Black, queer, and male bodies from a personal perspective. T ...

* Andrew Johnson * Carol Kumata * Joseph Mannino
Ali Momeni
* Paolo Pedercini * Richard Pell * Martin Prekop * Melissa Ragona * Angela Washko * Clayton Merrell
John Carson
* Charlie White, Head of School

Notable alumni

Mel Bochner Mel Bochner (born 1940) is an American conceptual artist. Bochner received his BFA in 1962 and honorary Doctor of Fine Arts in 2005 from the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University. He lives in New York City. Life Bochner was born in Pittsbu ...

(A, 1962) *

Jonathan Borofsky Jonathan Borofsky (born December 24, 1942) is an American sculptor and printmaker who lives and works in Ogunquit, Maine. Early life and education Borofsky was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Carnegie M ...

(BFA, 1964) * Mia Brownell (BFA, 1993) * Virgil Cantini (BFA, 1946) * Elizabeth Carpenter (1976) *

Jacob Ciocci Jacob Ciocci (born 1977) is an American visual artist, performance artist, musician, and professor. Along with sister Jessica Ciocci and friend Ben Jones, he was one of the three founding members of Paper Rad, an artist collective active from 2000 ...

(MFA, 2005) * Peter Coffin (MFA, 2000) *

Don Celender Don Celender (1931 – March 3, 2005) was an American conceptual artist and professor. Celender, who began producing art in the late 1960s, used surveys extensively in his work. He would send questionnaires to members of the public, academics, ar ...

(BFA, 1956) *

John Currin John Currin (born 1962) is an American painter based in New York City. He is best known for satirical figurative paintings which deal with provocative sexual and social themes in a technically skillful manner. His work shows a wide range of in ...

(BFA, 1984) *

Raymond Kaskey Raymond Kaskey (born 1943) is an American sculptor and architect who created ''Portlandia'', a copper statue in Portland, Oregon. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he studied architecture at Carnegie Mellon University and Yale University. A fellow ...

(BFA, 1967) * Deborah Kass (BFA, 1974) *

Joyce Kozloff Joyce Kozloff (born 1942) is an American artist whose politically engaged work has been based on cartography since the early 1990s. Kozloff was one of the original members of the Pattern and Decoration movement and was an early artist in the 1970 ...

(BFA, 1964) *

Philip Pearlstein Philip Martin Pearlstein (May 24, 1924 – December 17, 2022) was an American painter best known for Modernist Realist nudes. Cited by critics as the preeminent figure painter of the 1960s to 2000s, he led a revival in realist art. Biography ...

(BFA, 1949) * Eileen Maxson (MFA, 2008) * Ryan McGinness (BFA,1994) * Burton Morris (BFA, 1986) * Shana Moulton (MFA, 2004) *

(BFA, 1949) * Raymond Saunders (BFA 1960) *

Renee Stout Renee Stout (born 1958) is an American sculptor and contemporary artist known for assemblage (art), assemblage artworks dealing with her personal history and African-American heritage. Born in Kansas, raised in Pittsburgh, living in Washington, D ...

(BFA, 1980) *

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

(BFA, 1949)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carnegie Mellon School Of Art Schools and departments of Carnegie Mellon Art schools in Pennsylvania