About

"We are all one — and if we don't know it, we will learn it the hard way." — Bayard Rustin

Dear School of Art Community,

Lately, I've been thinking about fragments, how my work assembles memory, history, and possibility into something that wasn't there before, and how the best student critiques happen when our mixed observations collide, and suddenly, we see the complexity of the work before us. This moment asks us to take risks and expand on what we know as we embrace the work ahead.

Bayard Rustin understood that our interconnectedness isn't always obvious. Interconnectedness is often revealed through challenge, through the necessity of working together when things fall apart. In times when institutions are strained and communities feel fragmented, artists and designers understand how to find connections through our conversations and the ways we learn from each other’s ideas, processes, and experiences.

At the School of Art, we practice a particular kind of creative exploration, one rooted in experiential processes, guided by technique, personal inquiry, and critical reflection. In our teaching studios, the most potent work emerges when our curiosities, questions, and commitments converge—when what we care about meets what challenges us. Our ideas and experiences overlap, collide, and recombine. Collaboration is not an afterthought in the School of Art; it is the cornerstone of our learning environment. We learn that collaboration isn't just beneficial, it’s essential. Our individual practices gain meaning when they connect to something larger than ourselves.

Our school is home to three distinct pathways: Studio Art, Graphic Design, and Art Education. You'll find space for focused exploration and interdisciplinary risk-taking within these programs. Our minors in Animation, Arts and Social Change, Design Thinking, Digital Media and Web Design, Dynamic Publishing, Graphic Design, Illustration, Photography, Photojournalism, and Studio Art reflect our commitment to preparing you for creative work that can adapt to and help shape an ever-unfolding world.

We’re excited to bring back the SOA Art Advisory Council, established in 2012 to strengthen connections between students, alums, and the vibrant Northern Virginia arts community. The Council collaborates closely with the Director and faculty, supports mentorship programs, organizes art events, and develops philanthropic opportunities that foster the growth and development of artists and creative professionals during their tenure at the institution.

We are also proud to launch our new Visiting Scholars, Educators, Artists, and Designers Program, under the theme "Transformative Practice: Art as Catalyst for Change," for the upcoming academic year. Like the way fragments in our own work can come together to form something new, each Visiting Scholar brings a distinct perspective that connects to larger conversations about transformation. We’ll welcome Dr. Ashley Minner Jones, a community-based visual artist, curator, and folklorist, and member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, whose approach blends discipline, care, and relationship in art and social engagement; Dr. Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller, a pioneering designer and scholar to share her how her research has reshaped the conversation about Black representation in design; and Dr. Jorge Lucero, an artist and educator known for reimagining “school as material” in creative practice. Together, they’ll invite us to think about how art can transform institutions, build community, reimagine education, and confront history with honesty and justice—reminding us that these conversations, like art itself, gain strength when our ideas, experiences, and commitments intersect. We’ll keep you posted as additional artists and designers join us through this program.

Our distinguished professors are impacting the world as artists and educators. Here are some, not all, noteworthy faculty updates:

Christopher Kardambikis presented at the 9th Annual International Symposium on Higher Education in a Global World at the Athens Institute, Athens, Greece, with Dr. Patricia Kardambikis (Robert Morris University).

Peter Petrine's artwork is included in IMPRINT 2.0—Tephra ICA (formerly GRACE). The exhibition revisits the 2005 inaugural IMPRINT: The Artists from a New Town.

Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz contributed essays to three anthologies: Nuyorican and Diasporican Visual Art: A Critical Anthology (2025), A Handbook of Latinx Art (2025), and Porque Estamos Aquí: Puerto Rican Feminisms In and Against Empire (2024).

Luis Vasquez La Roche is included in Before the Americas, a group exhibition at the Gillespie Gallery, Mason Exhibitions, Fairfax Campus, August 25 – November 15, 2025

John Von Bergen is participating in Wind Finder, a group exhibition at Galerie Hartwich in Rügen, Germany, from June 27 to September 27, 2025.

I believe our studios and classrooms can be spaces where we practice the kind of creative problem-solving the world needs—places where we learn to see differently, experiment and innovate, collaborate and offer support in moments of uncertainty. These are places where artists can be both witnesses to what is and builders of what might be.

Your creative practice matters because it teaches you to persist when the work gets difficult, to solve problems using your mind, hands, and heart, and to stay present and focused as you develop your vision and voice. These are not abstract skills.  They are precisely what this moment demands.

Thank you for choosing the School of Art. Your presence here matters to us! Your questions, experiments, and willingness to try and fail and then try again help make this the kind of place where thoughtful and thought-provoking work can happen. I invite you to join us for lectures, exhibitions, and community gatherings this semester.

Stop by the Art Office anytime. I want to hear what you're working on.

With care and creative solidarity,

Zoë Charlton

Director, School of Art