Schools

The College of Art and Design is RIT’s creative hub, where art, design, and technology intersect. Made up of five schools, each is dedicated to the artistic, creative, and professional interests of our students. Explore your love of art, design, photography, and film, in a school that will help you exceed your career aspirations.

School for American Crafts

The School for American Crafts is dedicated to developing one-of-a-kind art using both traditional skills and modern technology. Students master their material of choice, whether its clay, wood, glass, or metals. They have access to world-class facilities including a glass hot shop; woodworking studio; flameworking and glass studios; and buffing, casting, and welding rooms. Under the tutelage of award-winning faculty and active artists, students immerse themselves in studio-intensive courses that inspire both process and conceptualization.

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School of Art

From an idea to a concept to the finished piece, the School of Art is made up of a tight-knit community of makers who ideate and create one-of-a-kind art. Whether it’s using 3D printers, charcoal and a sketch pad, or a pottery wheel, student-artists use cutting-edge technology and traditional methods to produce stunning work that culminates with a gallery exhibition in their senior year. The school is led by award-winning faculty members who exhibit in galleries and juried shows around the world. The breadth and depth of the facilities and studios are unmatched by our peers. Graduates have a solid foundation for a career as a professional artist — producing, marketing, and selling their work or other opportunities such as teaching, advertising/marketing, or arts administration.

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School of Design

The School of Design is ranked among the best, with Business Week naming it one of the top 10 design schools in the country. Effective design combined with creativity and professionalism are the school’s tenets. Using both technological and theoretical approaches to find solutions to design problems, students work with award-winning faculty who are creatives, critical thinkers, and innovative problem-solvers. Students have access to state-of-the art laboratories and computer facilities as well as the Cary Graphic Arts Collection and the entire archive of renowned designers Massimo and Lella Vignelli, housed in RIT’s Vignelli Center for Design Studies.

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School of Film and Animation

The School of Film and Animation is where the timeless art of filmmaking meets cutting-edge technology. It’s a creative community that allows students to explore their talents in the art of filmmaking or the science and technologies used in the motion picture industry. Students discover their unique potential, experiment with ideas, and express them to the world. Guided by award-winning faculty who exhibit their work around the world, students are prepared to pursue successful careers across a wide spectrum of industries upon graduation: motion picture, television, and non-broadcast. Alumni have gone on to hold research engineering roles at places like Sony and Dolby and have positions in filmmaking and animation at Walt Disney Animation Studios, Lucasfilm, and myriad other reputable companies.

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School of Photographic Arts and Sciences

The School of Photographic Arts and Sciences molds imaginative visual artists, practitioners, and technologists through its programs that explore the depth and scope of contemporary imaging practices today and into the future. A more than 93 percent job placement rate demonstrates the programs’ career-focused curriculums that prepare students for success in a variety of fields, including biomedical photography, photojournalism, advertising, media design, moving media, and much more. Here, photography is taken to ambitious levels to create an environment where innovation flourishes. Our prominence derives from professional courses of study as well as a one-of-a-kind educational community that consists of critically regarded faculty, state-of-the-art facilities, an unmatched repository of equipment, and co-operative education and internship opportunities.

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