Signature Programs

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poster show in gallery

The Department of Art & Art History hosts & facilitates several reoccurring, high-profile events that support the department's mission & provide students opportunities for service-learning & the professional exhibition of the artwork. For current information on events, please see our events page.

Art History Symposium

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gallery space

The annual Art History Symposium provides students the opportunity & experience of presenting their original art history research to an audience. The Art History faculty acts as jurors to choose the best presentation & the winner of the symposium goes on to represent the department & CSU at the Front Range Art History Symposium. Occurs first half of the spring semester.

ArtFest

Teacher demonstrates photography technique.
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ArtFest is a celebration of Art and Art History’s community through creativity, collaboration, and experimentation. It is an opportunity to meet our teachers, department staff members, and other students in the department. Explore across all of the concentrations and learn more about how to engage with the CSU campus. Classes are suspended that day to allow everyone to participate, have fun, and get to know one another.

Graduate Open Studio Tours

Andrea Bagdon's Painting studio with pink and yellow images on white cinder block walls.

The Graduate Open Studio Tours is a celebration of Colorado State University’s Art and Art History graduate students and is open to the public. Artists share their studio practice and talk about key components of their work and artmaking process. The events will showcase a variety of mediums ranging from painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, metalsmithing, and fibers.

MFA Thesis Exhibition

panorama of art and gallery space

The annual Master of Fine Arts Exhibition marks the culmination of a three-year degree program in the visual arts that fosters individual research & creative studio practice. Students in the program focus on a particular area of study & complete a mature body of work in their chosen field, which is situated within the discourse of contemporary art practice. The exhibition hangs at the end of the spring semester at the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art.