We hear from students time and time again that they visited our school because of its reputation, but stayed because they immediately felt part of our community.
We are passionate artists, leaders, and innovators—but we are also humble, supportive, and open.
We help each other to refine our skills and to know when to break the rules. Give honest critiques and support every step of the process. And inspire work that is powerful and personal.
This is where you and your art thrive.
The environment is friendly, allowing me to feel open to express myself without judgment. We encourage each other to reach new goals and communicate our ideas in new and better ways.
Matt Whitley, M.F.A. Digital Art
Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design partners with the Merchandising and Interior Design areas each year for the Spring Fashion Show. Jewelry design students and fashion design students pair up to create jewelry pieces to correlate with a clothing line. The collaborations result in cohesive statements modeled at the annual fashion show, a highly anticipated and attended event.
In a partnership with the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, an interdisciplinary group of art students were tasked with designing site plans to revitalize the space in front of Owen Hall—the oldest building on campus. The student teams proposed a range of designs, from an open-air classroom to an augmented reality mobile app. The students’ work is now a permanent part of campus architecture, called the Owen Hall Plaza.
"The Owen Hall project introduced me to the professional opportunities that exist for artists and designers. Through constant collaboration with experienced designers, I learned about the wide variety of human artistic ability."
Fibers students and faculty partnered with Lotus Music Festival—an annual celebration of international music and cultures hosted in Bloomington—to create an installation piece for the event. The semester-long process in making the large-scale installation titled Caravan involved dyeing 75+ yards of fabric, with a portion of dyes coming from local resource Hilltop Garden and Nature Center at IU. The fabric chandelier hung over thousands of concertgoers in the main concert tent during the three-day festival.
Through the Rural Artist Residency Program, emerging artists studying at the Eskenazi School have engaged with rural communities in southwest central Indiana. In 2021 and 2022, a total of ten Eskenazi graduate students spent six weeks each summer in Huntingburg, Salem, and Paoli. While living and practicing their craft in these small towns, the students led community workshops, taught public school students, hosted open studio hours, and participated in local exhibitions. Immersing themselves in the culture and history of the place they’d landed, the students found ways to identify, coalesce, and celebrate each town’s artistic ecosystem. Follow these links to learn more about the 2021 and 2022 residencies.
Studio art students aren’t limited to local collaborations. With five overseas study programs, the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design offers students many opportunities to engage in research, creative activity, and conversations on a global scale.
Explore overseas summer programs