About Us

The UCLA Department of Art empowers students to reshape their worlds through critical inquiry and transformative creativity. Committed to equity and inclusion in the arts, the department attracts and embraces diverse, curious, and motivated students who are encouraged to engage society's challenges and envision change. The Department of Art is one of five academic departments and programs in the School of the Arts and Architecture.

Housed in the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Center on the UCLA campus and the newly renovated, award-winning Margo Leavin Graduate Art Studios in Culver City, the UCLA Department of Art offers an environment that fosters creativity, autonomy, and experimentation. Working with a faculty of internationally recognized artists and distinguished visiting lecturers, students are exposed to a broad range of approaches to making and interpreting art, as well as perspectives on the role of art and artists in society. The rigorous studio courses at the program’s core provide students with the tools, facilities, and curriculum to develop skills in the areas of ceramics, painting and drawing, photography, sculpture, and the wide range of innovative mediums and methods covered by interdisciplinary studio and new genres. Students are encouraged to work intensively within and across these areas of study to find their own voices and craft their own practices. Intensive making is augmented by courses in art history and critical theory, as well as liberal arts studies in other academic fields across the UCLA campus. Beyond the UCLA campus, supervised independent research and internships in the greater Los Angeles area provide opportunities for students to develop as artists in one of the world's leading art centers. As a result, the UCLA Department of Art is recognized as the top-ranked graduate studio art program nationally, with a distinguished list of graduates who have played leading roles in the development of the visual arts.