The making and meaning of images has always been fundamental to understanding our past, present, and future. With three distinct programs, the Department of Art and Art History prepares students to be informed creators, viewers, and interpreters of art.
Areas of Study
Three programs, one department
Although digital technologies have transformed and accelerated the creation and dissemination of images, art has been central to the human experience for millennia.

Art
Studio art courses offer an immersive environment for artistic creation. Direct experiences with technical processes and conceptual aspects essential to art-making offer students opportunities to visually realize ideas and refine critical capacities.

Art History
The program in Art History provides rigorous training in the history of painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, design, and visual culture.

Architectural Studies
The minor in architectural studies introduces students to the major works and problems of architectural history and to techniques of visual and spatial representation.
UPCOMING EVENT
Day With(out) Art 2023: Everyone I Know Is Sick
December 1, 2023 12:00-1:00pm
Trinity University’s Department of Art and Art History is proud to partner with Visual AIDS for Day With(out) Art 2023 by presenting Everyone I Know Is Sick, a program of five videos generating connections between HIV and other forms of illness and disability.
The program features newly commissioned work by Dorothy Cheung (Hong Kong), Hiura Fernandes & Lili Nascimento (Brazil), Beau Gomez (Canada/Philippines), Dolissa Medina & Ananias P. Soria (USA), and Kurt Weston (USA).
Inspired by a statement from Cyrée Jarelle Johnson in the book Black Futures, Everyone I Know Is Sick examines how our society excludes disabled and sick people by upholding a false dichotomy of health and sickness. Inviting us to understand disability as a common experience rather than an exception to the norm, the program highlights a range of experiences spanning HIV, COVID, mental health, and aging. The commissioned artists foreground the knowledge and expertise of disabled and sick people in a world still grappling with multiple ongoing pandemics.
The Department of Art and Art History’s Issues in Contemporary Art course is pleased to host this special screening in commemoration of World AIDS day.
Visual AIDS is a New York-based non-profit that utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over.
Screening Location:
Trinity University
One Trinity Place
San Antonio, TX 78212
Dicke Hall, Screening Room, 108

Hiura Fernandes and Lili Nascimento, Aquela criança com AID$ (That Child with AID$), 2023. Commissioned by Visual AIDS for Everyone I Know Is Sick