Welcome

The Portland State University Department of Art is dedicated to helping students understand and explore the ways that artists and their works function within a larger social context. With over 700 undergraduate majors, a vibrant and growing graduate program, a dedicated faculty of internationally recognized artists, designers and scholars and a dynamic visiting artist program, PSU’s Department of Art is a place where students from a variety of backgrounds interact, exchange ideas and cross conventional aesthetic boundaries.

Supported by an acclaimed urban university and part of the School of Fine and Performing Arts, the Department of Art is located close to the Portland Art Museum, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, the Northwest Film Center, and major downtown galleries and design firms. Whether in the studio, computer lab, lecture hall, or working in the community via internships, service projects, exhibitions and collaborations, our students have the opportunity to forge connections between traditions of visual art and their own developing expression.