About Us
At Cornell, the study of art is an education in creating artistic objects, spaces, and experiences that reflect intellectual judgment, philosophical understanding, historical knowledge, and ethical principles that engage and influence the often bewildering complexity of contemporary life within and beyond the academy. Students develop the skills specific to the practice of art in addition to and within the understanding that there are more general skills necessary to a critical apprehension of the collective condition. This distinction is made in order to clarify that the department does not view art itself merely as a profession, but as a way of understanding and communicating meaning through materials, situations, language, and images.
