Visual and Performing Arts

Music, film, media, art, theatre—all of these creative forms serve to speak to our human experience, challenge our perceptions of the world and engage in the unique and diverse society all around us.

Discover your passion for the arts and develop the skills that foster creative expression.

Programs

The Visual and Performing Arts department consists of five programs with several degree pathways.

Find your areas of interest!

VPA Espresso Newsletter

View the latest news and happenings in the Visual and Performing Arts department.

Mission

Consistent with the mission statements of Clayton State University and its College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Visual and Performing Arts seeks to serve and represent the community through excelling in teaching, research, and creative endeavors. The department’s diverse programs are linked by their commitment to nurturing creativity and professional expertise. Working with a professionally active faculty, students learn, create, and develop skills in a supportive environment committed to embodying core values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and access. Graduates of our programs are equipped to excel in advanced studies or professional careers in the context of being citizens of a richly diverse and deeply interdependent world.

The Department of Visual and Performing Arts strives to be an artistic and cultural resource for the region by presenting concerts, lectures, theatrical performances, and community education. The faculty and staff are committed to the personal growth of their students by sharing their skills and knowledge in an atmosphere of respect and collaboration and by modeling a commitment to lifelong learning by continuing their own professional development as artists, scholars, and educators.

The Department of Visual and Performing Arts aims to serve as a campus, state, and national leader in diversity, equity, inclusion and access by embracing the backgrounds, experiences, and skills of its faculty, staff, and students and by promoting both the distinctive concerns of and the collaborative synergies between its multifarious disciplines. The department values and strives to promote varied cultural traditions and historical understandings. Within the parameters of accreditation guidelines, we commit to an ongoing examination of both the courses that make up our curricula and our repertoire and performance practices, in order to more deeply foster the core values of equity, diversity, inclusion, and access.

The Department of Visual and Performing Arts offers the Bachelor of Arts degree with majors in Communication and Media Studies; Film Production; Music; and Theatre. The Department offers Bachelor of Music degree with a major in Music Education. The Department offers minors in Art, Communication and Media Studies, Corporate Communication, Film, Music, and Theatre.

Visual and Performing Arts comprises the disciplines of Art, Communication and Media Studies, Dance, Film, Music, and Theatre. The department offers undergraduate degrees in Communication and Media Studies, Film Production, Music, Music Education, and Theatre, as well as minors in Art, Communication and Media Studies, Corporate Communication, Film, Music, and Theatre. Clayton State University is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Music.

This mission statement serves as a living document that is subject to change as our experience and context evolve.