Since the founding of the University of Illinois in 1867, the visual, performing,
and environmental design arts have been an integral part of this institution,
playing a distinct role in advancing its mission. Many of the College’s
departments started as programs in other colleges, but over the decades
the arts at Illinois have grown in size, stature, and notoriety into impressive
units that make up a vibrant College — a rich array of disciplines that
have come together to shape this campus’s dedication to the arts.
On October
3, 1921, a proposal was made by the University Senate to organize the Department
of Architecture, the Division of Landscape Architecture, the School of
Music and the Department of Art and Design into a College of Fine Arts.
A committee, made up of faculty members, was appointed in 1928 to make
recommendations, which were approved by the Senate on February 2, 1930.
On March 12, 1931, the Board of Trustees established the college for the "... cultivation of esthetic taste on the part of the student body at large ... and development of general artistic appreciation." The
first dean was appointed in 1932.
More broadly defined than most arts colleges,
we at Illinois are privileged in our diversity and focused on our excellence.
Today, the College includes the Schools of Architecture, Art and Design,
and Music; the Departments of Dance, Landscape Architecture, Theatre, and
Urban and Regional Planning; the East St. Louis Action Research Project;
the I space Gallery in Chicago; Japan House; the Krannert Art Museum; the
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts; and Sinfonia da Camera, the University’s
resident chamber orchestra. The College offers exhibitions, concerts, performances,
lectures, master classes, and conferences in all areas of the performing
and visual arts and for the designed and built environment.
No other college
of the arts in the country can boast having as many accredited programs
that are ranked as highly overall. According to U.S. News and World Report,
Art and Music continue to be ranked in the top ten (out of hundreds in
those disciplines), and Theatre and Architecture rank in the top twenty
(out of approximately 130 programs in each discipline). In the most widely
accepted rankings of schools of architecture, Architecture at Illinois
was ranked first in the Midwest, tenth nationally. According to Dance Teacher
Magazine (the only evaluative ranking tool in the discipline), the undergraduate
program in Dance ranks third and the Dance graduate program fifth (out
of approximately 100 programs). Landscape Architecture and Urban and Regional
Planning, disciplines for which there is no widely accepted national ranking,
compete with Harvard, Berkeley, and Michigan for faculty and students.
Our students participate in art in its many forms––they cut and weld large
pieces of metal, transforming them into graceful curves; manipulate the
smallest pixels on a computer screen to create new shapes, forms and colors;
bound across dance floors and theatre stages; and perform the most delicate
movements to make instruments sing beautifully. They use the latest tools,
technology and ideas to design and analyze buildings, landscapes, neighborhoods,
and cities. About 470 faculty and staff members serve 1,850 undergraduate
and 725 graduate students, and more than 800 courses are offered by the
College and attended by students from across campus.
The College’s history
of educating highly talented students and breaking new ground is indicative
of its stature in the constellation of fine arts programs in the country.
Our students and faculty welcome tasks that stretch conventional boundaries
and engage our collective imaginations. Their designs, performances, creations,
and programs elevate and sustain the study of the fine and applied arts
and demonstrate a recipe for continued excellence. They are consistently
working to attain the highest levels of achievement for their artistic
practices in an ever-changing world. Our Alumni are advocates of the arts
in communities throughout the world and most are proud practitioners of
the fine and applied arts they studied at the U of I.
