Virginia Tech School of Visual Arts

09/24/2026

No one does it quite like AAD. 🎨✨

Can you guess this major in the School of Visual Arts? Here are your clues:
• Explore painting, drawing, sculpture, and photography through required introductory courses, then choose your specialization or work across multiple media, based on what ignites your creative passion.
• Join a small, tight-knit program within a major research university: an ideal environment for building collaborative relationships while accessing the cutting-edge technologies and resources that a large institution provides.
• Work like a professional artist in specialized makerspaces in the Creativity and Innovation District, including the wood shop, metal shop, painting and drawing studio, lighting room, and laser cutting facilities.

Think you have your guess ready?

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This is our studio art major!

Click here to learn more about the major: https://go.vt.edu/up7gA

09/23/2026

Way to go, Jason!

Creative technologies student, Jason Hodge, in the School of Visual Arts completed a summer internship as a unity 3D artist and VR Developer with Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford, Connecticut. He built real-time VR experiences in Unity, developed custom interaction tools and gameplay systems, and took environments from modeling and texturing through production—and he has been invited back next summer!

“What I’ll take away most isn’t the software. The biggest lessons came from working inside a real production pipeline with a multidisciplinary team, communicating across disciplines, iterating with feedback, and using real-time 3D to explain complex engineering."

He credits advanced creative technologies coursework—deep work in 3D modeling, texturing, and real-time rendering—for preparing him to apply these skills in a professional engineering environment.

09/22/2026

SOVA faculty in the news 📸

Associate Professor of Photography Michael Borowski recently spoke with Islands about what makes a strong travel photograph, from understanding light and exposure to making more intentional choices behind the camera.

Check out Michael’s advice and the full story.

Taking vacation photos is a fine art; but sometimes, it doesn't quite work out. Here are expert tips to enhance your skills for your next perfectly framed trip.

09/22/2026

Virginia Tech has been ranked as one of the top 20 public schools in the United States. 👏

➡️ bit.ly/4xCJb0M

09/22/2026

Get your Hokie socks today! Donations can be directed to the School of Visual Arts and your progam of choice.

Shout out to our graphic design students for designing these great socks for DesignUP!
Designer: Demetrya, Design Team: Asrith and Jake

09/02/2026

The Virginia Tech New Music + Technology Festival is a biannual, multi-day event celebrating experimentalism, new music, performance, multimedia, and interdisciplinary research at the forefront of innovation.

09/01/2026

Join us this Friday, September 4th at 10:30am at the Lyric Theater for a talk by award-winning photographer Gregory Halpern.

Halpern's distinctive style of documentary photography is rooted in both the real and the sublime. Subjects include the fading industry of Rust Belt towns, the sprawl and mythology of Los Angeles, and a total solar eclipse and the strange, shared awe it produces in a crowd of strangers.

A member of Magnum Photos, Halpern has published eight monographs and received a Guggenheim Fellowship; his photographs are held by the Museum of Modern Art, among other major collections. He teaches at the Rochester Institute of Technology. This lecture is generously supported by the School of Architecture and the School of Visual Arts.

08/14/2026

Can you guess this major in the School of Visual Arts?🤔

Here are your clues:
• Learn in small, seminar-style classes where faculty offer close mentorship and support your development as a researcher and thinker.
• Customize your academic path through a flexible curriculum that spans global art and architecture, and explore topics like museum studies, cultural preservation, and museum ethics.
• Dive into compelling upper-level courses with rotating topics such as controversial art, the archaeology of death, and art crime, which covers thefts, forgeries, looting, and the politics of protecting cultural heritage.
• Gain valuable experience through internships with museums, auction houses, nonprofit organizations, publishers, and other arts institutions.

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This is our art history major!

Click here to learn more about the major: https://go.vt.edu/up613

08/14/2026

07/22/2026

Can you guess the major? 💡

This major blends technical skill with creativity. Here are your clues:
• Students complete a required internship in their junior or senior year to gain industry experience, like a summer internship with Organic Climbing, creating 3D product blueprints and custom graphics.
• Students work with real clients during DesignUp, an annual, day-long design-a-thon, where they team up with professionals to create visuals and marketing materials for local nonprofits.
• Upper-level courses explore advanced design topics like human-centered design, motion graphics, publishing as creative practice, and web design.
• Students build a competitive portfolio throughout their time in the program and engage in career preparation experiences, including interview coaching and job application support.

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This is our graphic design major!

Click here to learn more about the major: https://go.vt.edu/up6uU