Art has been a vital part of UNT since it was first taught in 1894, just four years after the institution was founded. Dr. Cora Stafford, an imaginative leader who served on the faculty and as director for four decades before retiring in 1964, played a major role in guiding the art program to the reputation it maintains today. Determined to keep the program aligned with new ideas, she hired young innovators on the faculty. These included James Prestini and Gyorgy Kepes, two early proponents, in the United States, of the Bauhaus system which endeavored to relate a new design approach to the world of technology and craft. Also on the faculty were Carlos Merida, the internationally known Guatemalan painter and muralist, as well as Octavio Medellin, the celebrated Mexican sculptor and painter. Students included Ray Gough, who became a noted interior designer and UNT professor, and O'Neil Ford, who became one of Texas' most famous architects.
Masters degrees were initiated in the 1930s and the first MS degree in art was awarded in 1937 to Ms. Ann Bookman Williams, a long-time art teacher in the campus demonstration school. UNT's modern art program has been one of continual growth. After World War II, professional pograms in advertising art, fashion design and interior design supplemented traditional studio and art education programs. Following an extensive study of the arts in Texas by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in the 1960s, North Texas was designated as a major visual arts program in the State and was approved to offer the BFA, MFA, and Ph.D. degrees beginning in 1971. With the Southwest's demographic population shift in the late 1970's and early 1980's, enrollment increased dramatically. At the same time, the department's comprehensive art programs were being recognized for their quality.
By the mid 1980's, the art faculty began discussing the possibility of reclassification as a school to meet challenges of the future. With the assistance of people such as Dallas businessman Raymond Nasher and Kimbell Art Museum director Ted Pillsbury, that vision turned to reality in 1992 when the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board reclassified the Department of Art in the College of Arts & Sciences to the School of Visual Arts. The change was an acknowledgment of the quality and professional nature of art degrees at UNT.
Today SOVA is one of the nation's largest and most comprehensive visual arts programs with more than 2000 students enrolled,. Thirteen degree programs offer both undergraduate and graduate work that lead to the BA, BFA, M.A., MFA and Ph.D. degrees and a graduate certificate in art museum education. A nationally and internationally recognized faculty provide students with excellent role models upon which to pattern their careers. The School claims a number of internationally-known artists, designers, and scholars among its graduates.
The academic programs are supported by an active exhibition program, the North Texas Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts, the Print Research Institute of North Texas (P.R.I.N.T. Press), the Texas Fashion Collection, and an extensive visiting artist/scholar program.
UNT's proximity to the Dallas and Fort Worth art and design communities provides art students with valuable resources and expanded learning opportunities. In addition to seven major museums, there are numerous galleries and alternative exhibition venues, the World Trade Center and many advertising, fashion, and interior design businesses as well a wide variety of K-12 educational environments.