2016–2021
Consistent with a key action item in The Bicentennial Strategic Plan for Indiana University approved in December 2014, the faculties of Fine Arts Studio (FINS) and Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design (AMID) jointly proposed the merger of their departments into the School of Art + Design (SoAD) within the College of Arts and Sciences. The School effectively represented the restructuring of the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts in the College, which at the time also included the Department of Art History, resulting in AMID merging with FINS. At the outset, the proposed school was named the School of Art + Design.
As the Strategic Plan outlined, and under the direction of former President Michael McRobbie and former Provost Lauren Robel, the founding of this new School, along with programmatic developments in engineering at about the same time, marked the advent of a new focus on the Bloomington campus in the creation of a “culture of building and making.”