The Mission of the Visual and Public Art Department is to provide students with a life long set of skills that synthesize studio and community art approaches to artistic production, exhibition and education.

Both individual and collaborative art methodologies are used in the VPA concentrations, which include: Painting and Mural, Sculpture and Installation, Integrated Media with digital and analogue photography and Museum Studies and Art Education. 

Faculty include Professor Amalia Mesa-Bains, Professor Stephanie Johnson, Professor Johanna Poethig and Professor Lila Staples and faculty members Angelica Muro, Normi Burke and Gary Quinonez along with Technical Instructional Assistant Todd Kruper and Program Coordinator, Stacey Malone