Technology, the Arts, and Design

Fueling creativity, innovation, and ingenuity.

Harnessing diverse ways of thinking, exploring, and making.

Advancing knowledge and addressing complex problems.

The intersection of Technology, the Arts, and Design is what makes RIT exceptional.

The Fabric of RIT

Technology, the arts, and design is woven into nearly every aspect of RIT. It’s an intentional approach we infuse into our academic programs, research initiatives, experiential learning opportunities, interdisciplinary collaborations, and more.

Because today’s college graduates need more than skills in their field of study. They have to be flexible, nimble, collaborative, and adaptable.

Key Facts

Our integration of technology, the arts, and design expands how and where students learn and supports their creative passions to combine their interests to launch successful careers.

120K⁺

Square feet dedicated to makerspaces and performing arts studios and theaters in the SHED, our creative hub.

1,800⁺

Students across all majors who are involved in the Performing Arts Scholarship program

185⁺

Interdisciplinary minors and immersions that encourage students to expand their knowledge and explore their passions and interests

Key Initiatives

Exercise multiple talents.
Satisfy a thirst for learning and doing.
Experiment to identify interests and passions.

Artisan using a chisel to sculpt a hard rock

School of Performing Arts
RIT aims to offer the leading performing arts program in the nation for non-majors. All students, across all majors, are invited to experience the power of infusing technology and performance in creative and innovative ways.

Game Arts
Your game arts experience is an inspiring blend of technology, the arts, and design from experts across our nationally-ranked game design degree, and the colleges of Computing and Information Sciences and Liberal Arts.

Art Experience
RIT’s Art Experience (ArtEx) is an enrichment program designed to complement any major. Non-arts majors embark on a journey of creative expression to enhance your creativity and further your exploration of the arts across welding, glass-blowing, ceramics, and more.

Grand Challenges Scholars Program
The National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges Scholars Program empowers students and faculty across RIT to collaborate in identifying solutions to 14 complex societal issues.

Multidisciplinary Senior Design
A two-semester capstone project experience pairs engineering majors with students from a range of academic programs in the design of a solution to a problem presented by a corporate sponsor.

Imagine RIT
Every year RIT invites the community to experience how students combine technology, the arts, and design at Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival.

Places and Spaces

Creative shot of the SHED looking up from the ground level

Student Hall for Exploration and Development (SHED)

As the university’s creative hub, the SHED centralizes RIT’s makerspaces and performing arts under one roof. This dedicated space is for students to create, imagine, and build through inspired learning, making, testing, performing, and doing.

Vignelli Center for Design Studies

A hub of research, education, and creative inspiration that houses over 750,000 artifacts across all fields of design. Iconic works by Lella and Massimo Vignelli are featured at the heart of the Vignelli Center collection and their legacy forms the foundation of design excellence and innovation that the Vignelli Center celebrates today.

Global Cybersecurity Institute

The ESL Global Cybersecurity Institute is a state-of-the-art facility focused on cybersecurity education, training, and research. Taking a holistic approach to cybersecurity, the institute encourages collaboration between academic disciplines, industry, and government to expand cybersecurity knowledge and make it usable in the real world.

MAGIC Spell Studios

World-class facilities that bring together RIT’s academic strengths in game design and development, film and animation, and digital media, with a focus on commercialization that provides Hollywood-scale virtual production experiences for students and clients.

Research lab in the color science building

Research Facilities

Throughout the RIT campus, students can access high-tech classrooms, state-of-the-art labs, and renovated research spaces that foster collaborative exploration across science, engineering, art and design. With access to faculty working on research grants from NIH, NSF, and NASA, students get first-hand experience in the latest innovations.

Business Infused with Tech and Design Thinking

With a forward-thinking educational approach of integrating business with technology and design thinking, Saunders College of Business offers spaces that support collaboration, boost professional networking, encourage applied research, and foster business community engagement.

Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship enhances innovation and entrepreneurship activities at RIT, and helps to make students’ product and business ideas a reality. The center offers contests and competitions for startup capital; offers courses and programs in innovation, entrepreneurship, business creativity, and more; hosts a speaker series and an annual entrepreneurship conference; and provides business and innovation coaching to teams of students to guide them through the processes of customer discovery, design thinking, and business model development.