Student Experience
The Art & Design Department at Murray State connects you to the broader world. Our department provides a rich environment making Murray State a stepping stone to your future.
Student Organizations & Clubs
Art and Design has a number of student organizations and clubs in which you can participate. These create a strong community. Student Organizations are important for everything from professional development to combatting homesickness. Some organizations even raise money to support student travel.
OMAS is Murray State Art Department's club for the artistically inclined. This organization welcomes all students to participate in events that include making artworks, art sales, social events, and exhibitions. OMAS’s main event is the Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition in the Clara M. Eagle Gallery featuring over 100 student made works. See what they're doing on Instagram.
The MSU NAEA Student Chapter is open to all students interested in art education. The group brings together students who care about teaching, creativity, and community, giving members a place to connect with future art educators, share ideas, volunteer, attend events, and learn more about the field. Members are also involved in the Kentucky Art Education Association and National Art Education Association and often travel to these art education conferences. See what they're doing on Instagram and Facebook.
The student organization for Ceramics, the MSU Clay Club, is another opportunity for community in the studio. The Clay Club participates in events to support the local community, such as Empty Bowls, and fundraises to support student travel and visiting artists. Recent visiting artists have included Chris Staley, Malcolm Mobutu Smith, and Sunkoo Yuh. See what they're doing on Instagram.
The Design Club is affiliated with the Nashville chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts and is open to anyone interested in graphic design. The organization is a vehicle for you to create design work for on-campus events, organizations, and client work. The organization’s fundraising is used to pay for student travel to conferences and/or to bring visiting designers to campus. See what they're doing on Instagram.
The Print Club regularly takes trips to local conferences and brings in visiting printmakers. The Print Club is funded by two large events: the Monster Mash and the annual print sale where hundreds of student and visiting artist prints are up for grabs. Membership requires enrollment in a printmaking course. See what they're doing on Facebook and Instagram.
The Murray State Photo Club is where we learn different photographic skills and share our passion for the medium. The Photo club participates in a wide range of events, including Monster Mash and Taste of the Arts. You can see what they’re doing on Instagram.
Visiting Artists, Scholars, and Professionals Programs
The Department of Art & Design brings in a wide range of artists, designers, scholars, and professionals to meet our students to help you understand your place in the world. These programs help you discover what art and design can do in your community, what career paths are possible after graduation, if you want to go on to do a graduate degree, and so much more.
Visiting Artists and Designers
Many of our visiting artists and designers are also exhibiting in our University Galleries, so you are able to see their work in person and learn from them. At other times, the Department partners with student organizations or other campus departments to bring in visitors. Some recent visiting artists include: C. Rose Smith (photographer and curator), Shand Stamper (art educator and metals artist), Tripp Gibson (distinguished alumni and Major League Umpire), Fred DiGiavanni (photographer), D. Dominick Lombardi (painter), Caroline Burton (artist), and Carrie Stover (arts administrator and curator).
Patricia L. Summerville Endowment
The Patricia L. Summerville fund supports a number of programs in the MSU Art & Design Department: Summerville Excellence in Art awards (funding printmaking and art education scholarships), Summerville Visiting Printmaker, and Summerville Professionals Panel. The fund was established by the late Pat Summerville who was a 1972 alumna. After her time at Murray, she worked in hospital administration before passing the bar exam and practicing law. The Patricia L. Summerville Endowment honors her spirit and assists art students at Murray State in obtaining an education to prepare them for careers.
Summerville Visiting Printmaker
The MSU Printmaking program has a rich visiting artist program. Since 2000, visiting artist workshops have been organized bringing nationally known printmakers to Murray State University’s campus to publish a limited edition of their work. The printmaking students assist with the printing and learn the particular techniques that each visiting artist has perfected. This program provides an experiential learning activity that adds to your education and resumes. In addition, we invite area high school students to participate in the workshops, and sometimes we take the visiting artist to the high schools to talk about their work. In 2017, friend of the arts Patricia Summerville endowed the visiting artist program to guarantee its continued success for generations of student printmakers to come. Recent Summerville Visiting Printmakers include: Kacey Slone, Stephanie Alaniz, Jessica Robles, Myles Calvert, Susanna Crum and Rodolfo Salgado, and Jessie Barnes and Melody Vaughn.
Summerville Professionals Panel
The Summerville Professionals Panel developed out of two types of visiting artist panels that the Art & Design Department held in the past: visiting graduate students panel and the visiting alumni panel. Patricia Summerville endowed the panel to ensure we can continue to bring arts professionals to campus to talk with our undergraduates about their time post-graduation and how their careers developed. We bring together alumni from various career stages to give students a wide view of possible career paths. Recent panels have included: Savannah Vincent (Co-owner of Broadway Custom Framing, Paducah, KY), Abby Murdock (Art Director at St8ment Brand Agency, Nashville, TN), Jessica Wolf (business owner of Acorn Paper, Cincinnati, OH), Jenny Bolhofner (Small business owner, Olive this Felt, Milford, Ohio), Michelle Haar (Art Director & Designer at the New Honor Society in St. Louis), David Honaker (Tattoo artist in Louisville, KY), and Jerry Philips (Artist & Curator, Nashville, TN).
Education Travel
We also take students on trips outside of Murray to experience where your degree could take you. From Nashville to Ireland, you are able to explore your world and bring home these experiences to Kentucky.
Students are able to attend and present your work at various academic conferences. Most of these opportunities are supported financially (all or in part) by the Department, the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, The Office of Research and Creative Activity (ORCA), and/or student club fundraising. In recent years, we have had students present their research and/or studio practice at National Art Education Association (NAEA), SECAC, National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), and Southern Graphics Council International (SGCI).
Faculty across multiple disciplines organize visits to artists’ and designers' studios and design firms. This has included visits to artists’ studios in Chicago, IL, and annual trips to design firms in Nashville, TN (organized by our graphic design faculty). These opportunities allow you to learn directly from professionals in the field and may lead to internship opportunities.
The Department of Art & Design helps you see art work in regional museums. In particular, our museum studies program often takes students to Nashville, TN, to visit museums like the Frist Art Museum, the Parthenon Museum, and Belle Meade Plantation. We have also taken students to larger city museums in Chicago, IL; St. Louis, MO; and New York, NY. These trips are coordinated by the Department of Art & Design and/or the University Galleries.
Murray State has a strong education abroad program and Art & Design faculty often lead classes from photography to art history abroad. In addition to our MSU programs, our university also partners with a number of other regional education abroad programs to bring even more options to our students (for more information, check out the MSU Education Abroad website). Our students have studied everywhere from Italy to China. A recent program with Art & Design professors was in Prague, Czech Republic.