Chaired by Associate Professor Jimmy Mumford, the Department of Art and Design offers a BS degree in art education, a BA degree in art history, and BFA degrees in graphic design and studio art. More than 300 art majors and 1,000 non-majors enroll each semester in our classes taught by twenty permanent faculty members. Our Department is proud of its many opportunities for Art and Design students to use technology. With state-of-the-art computer labs and over ten master classrooms, every teaching area has technology at their fingertips.

After thirty-five years of operation in several "temporary" campus buildings, including an aging and dilapidated Art Barn, the State of Tennessee allocated $8,000,000 to convert the vacant, centrally located, Todd Library into a new art facility.

Todd Library, renamed as Todd Hall, became home to the Department of Art and Design, which occupies 53,000 of the former library's 78,000 square feet of usable space. The remainder of the building houses the Dean of Liberal Arts suite, The Albert Gore Research Center, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and their faculty offices.

The first floor of Todd Hall houses several Art faculty offices, sculpture, and ceramic studios, drawing, 3-D design rooms, and the woodshop. Comprising the second floor are painting studios, art education, art history, and 2-D design rooms, Todd Art Gallery; it's Auxillary student 210 and Glass galleries,  and numerous art faculty gallery and art administrative offices. Located on the third floor are graphic design, book arts, printmaking studios, faculty offices, four state-of-the-art computer labs, and drawing/illustration, and 2-D design rooms.

Our Mission Statement

The Department of Art and Design is committed to building an inclusive community that respects and values differing experiences and viewpoints. Our mission is to present relevant and constructive teaching and visual learning methodologies to a diverse student population with multifarious life experiences and professional requirements. To achieve this, we provide a structured and supportive creative environment in which students are encouraged to ask questions, explore traditional and emerging technologies, engage in critical thinking, and investigate creative solutions to complex problems. We serve as advocates for the visual arts by creating original art and scholarship, by participating in art exhibitions, and by offering public lectures and presentations for the University, local, and regional communities. Art and Design Majors will communicate effectively and engage in meaningful exchanges and partnerships with individuals and organizations from cross-cultural backgrounds. Our students acquire the aesthetic judgment, art historical knowledge, technical skills, vocabulary, practicum experiences, and the professional dispositions necessary to become art educators, art historians, graphic designers, studio artists, practitioners in art-related professions, informed patrons of the arts, or to pursue further university studies. Graduates of our programs will demonstrate cultural competency and an understanding and appreciation of diversity.  Through their studies of art and history, students will be made aware of and learn to appreciate the art and cultures of people both within and beyond the Western tradition.