Dean's Office
Welcome to the College of Design, Art & Performance
We are proud of the work that our College has accomplished in our brief history. We maintain an outstanding faculty with deep connections to architecture, art, dance, music, theatre, and the contemporary visual arts through our Contemporary Art Museum and Graphicstudio. We strive to provide our students with a practice-based, student-centered, outcome driven academic environment in order to prepare them to successfully engage the world when they graduate.
We offer a wide array of classes ranging from arts electives available to the entire USF student population to highly specialized courses for majors in each of our disciplines, as well as a doctoral level program in music education. The College of Design, Art & Performance is also ambitious in its size and scope, with four separate schools, nearly a dozen different degree programs, two concert halls, three theatres, a professional museum, a student art gallery, a digital media lab, a new Music Building, and Graphicstudio—which is renowned throughout the nation and the world.
For our community, the College annually presents approximately 400 public performances, exhibitions, lectures, plays, shows, concerts, workshops and more – by our students and faculty as well as by nationally and internationally recognized artists, scholars, and performers.
I invite you to explore our website, visit our campus, attend an event, talk to our faculty and our current students, and to become an integral part of our College arts community.
Yours sincerely,
Chris Garvin, Dean
- College of Design, Art & Performance Strategic Plan
- College of Design, Art & Performance Organizational Leadership Structure and Reporting
- College of Design, Art & Performance Organizational Chart
Mission
The mission of the college is to conduct research/professional practice that transforms art, performance, and design at the highest level which, in turn, enhances our ability to offer a world-class education to our students.
The college facilitates and promotes an interdisciplinary ecosystem that nurtures, prepares, and educates students and faculty to become creative leaders dedicated to promoting a more just society.
We aspire to elevate the level of inquiry and discourse within and beyond the classroom while we innovate and create new approaches, crafts, methodologies, and skills that change creative practice and arts disciplines as our global context evolves.
Vision
The college strives to become nationally prominent for being a creative community vested in addressing the most pressing issues of our time while maintaining a firm grounding in equity, excellence, and diversity that will empower students and faculty to frame their own futures. The college will be an engine for socio-economic progress through professional practice, research, advocacy, and meaningful engagement.
Guiding Principles and Values
We believe the arts are a vital component in achieving a just society that fosters engaged citizens, prosperous communities, and fulfilled individuals.
The college values an inclusive and diverse educational environment where ethnic, racial, cultural, and gender differences, among others, are respected and supported. The College strives to establish policies and practices that will ensure equity in leadership and equal access to resources and opportunities for academic success and career advancement for faculty, staff, and students.
Students and faculty together will study and engage, through their practice, challenging social, political, cultural, and ecological issues facing the world today.
We recognize that individual and collective excellence entails a responsibility to ensure that every member of our community has support and the opportunity to succeed.