"Focused on making, the Department of Visual Arts is one of the many specialized knowledge communities at the University of Chicago, one of the world’s great research institutions. We aim to stimulate and provoke both graduate and undergraduate students, encouraging the development of independent and challenging though as expressed and inscribed in the visual arts. We propose that art is inquiry. Our faculty, diverse in its pursuits, is critically engaged in dialogue nationally and internationally. Our students benefit from this dialogue, and are also encouraged to pursue areas of overlap with the many other disciplines represented at the university – history, art history, science, philosophy, aesthetics, theater, music, and creative writing to name a few."

-Jessica Stockholder, Raymond W. & Martha Hilpert Gruner Distinguished Service Professor, Visual Arts