CVAD Galleries

The College of Visual Arts and Design and its three Art Galleries value partnerships that enhance research, education, and engagement for everyone involved. From our long-time partnership with the Nasher Sculpture Center to present the Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Lecture Series in Contemporary Sculpture and Criticism, to exhibitions developed in collaboration with CVAD faculty, together we strive to offer meaningful programs that contribute to the cultural life of our region.

Permanent Collection

The permanent collection, housed at the College of Visual Arts and Design, consists of modern and contemporary art in various media with a focus on works on paper in serial and artist books. The permanent collection includes works by American, European and Latin American artists acquired as gifts and donations by generous donors, both private and institutional.

Nasher Lecture Series

The Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Lecture Series in Contemporary Sculpture and Criticism are endowed at UNT to honor the Nashers, by their daughter Nancy Nasher, son-in-law David Haemisegger, and grandchildren. The annual Series honors the legacy of the late Patsy and Raymond Nasher by bringing to Dallas some of today’s most influential artists, sculptors, and critics. Inaugurated with a lecture by Mr. Raymond D. Nasher in 1998, the nearly 20-year-old series presents outstanding artists, sculptors, and critics to CVAD students as well as to a broader public audience. Past participants include Do Ho Suh, Sarah Sze, Ann Hamilton, Kiki Smith, Nick Cave, Teresita Fernandez, Brad Cloepfil, David Bates, Joel Shapiro, Richard Deacon, Dr. Steven Nash, Michael Kimmelman, Magdelena Abakonowicz, Peter Walker, and Matthew Collings.

UNT Artist in Residence

Through our partnership with the UNT Institute for the Advancement of the Arts, the CVAD Art Galleries engage with faculty, students, and staff throughout UNT and with community members throughout the region in inclusive and collaborative programs. In 2011-2012, our consortium hosted Chicago artist Nick Cave, in partnership with art, dance and music students, and in 2013-2014, we hosted Kiki Smith, in partnership with the Print Research Institute of North Texas. Launched in October 2009, the UNT Institute for the Advancement of the Arts aims to showcase, support and advance excellence in the visual, performing and creative literary arts at UNT.

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Faculty Collaborations

Dafatir: Contemporary Iraqi Book Art
Dafatir (an Arabic word that translates as “notebooks”) was organized by Dr. Nada Shabout, a native of Iraq and Assistant Professor of Art History at UNT, who is recognized as a leading world authority on contemporary Iraqi art. All works were drawn from the collection of artist Dia al-Azzawi, London, who has had the greatest impact on the development of book art in modern Iraq. The exhibition catalog includes essays by Iraqi art scholars Dr. Shabout; Venetia Porter, Curator for the Islamic Collections in the Department of Asia at the British Museum; Hashim Al-Tawil, Professor and Chair of Art History, Henry Ford Community College, Dearborn, Michigan; Sinan Antoon, Assistant Professor of Arabic Culture and Literature at the Gallatin School of New York University; Hana’ Malallah, lecturer at the Baghdad Institute of Fine Arts.

Material Evolution: Ugandan Bark Cloth
Material Evolution was a three-phase interdisciplinary project, spanning from 2008-2011. The project was organized by Lesli Robertson, CVAD Senior Lecturer in Fibers, involving community events, collaborative research, and an exhibition. The project focused on Robertson's artistic and academic research since 2005, during which she studied the cloth created from the bark of the mutuba tree by the Buganda people of Uganda, Africa. This project was supported in part by Lesli Robertson's faculty fellowship from the UNT Institute for the Advancement of the Arts.

Collections, Cultures & Collaborations
Established in 2007 by Dr. Jennifer Way, UNT Professor of Art History, the Collections Series engages with students enrolled in CVAD's undergraduate- and graduate-level art history methods course. Students study artworks first-hand from private, public, or corporate collections and develop teaching tools and scholarly methods of examining the works throughout the semester. Excerpts from student research are shared in extended exhibition label texts and lectures in the UNT Art Gallery or off-site presentations where a collection is located. 

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Education
The Department of Art Education and Art History at the College of Visual Arts and Design offers Graduate Academic Certificates in Art Museum Education and Arts Leadership. Certification in art museum education is designed to provide professional training for those who desire careers in areas of art museum education and expertise in the use of art museums as education resources for school educators. The involvement of students with the University of North Texas Art Gallery enhances the certification experience through opportunities for gallery talks, internships, and employment opportunities.

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Publications

The UNT Art Gallery documents its curatorial projects in various ways, including originally published catalogs and catalogs produced by partner organizations.