School of Visual Arts
The Penn State School of Visual Arts (SoVA) is a place where creative and critical thinkers, makers, and educators shape awareness and change the way our world is seen, experienced, and understood.
You belong here
Our challenging undergraduate and graduate programs span Studio Art, Digital Arts and Design, and Art Education. We also offer online courses tailored to diverse learners.
SoVA’s internationally recognized, award-winning faculty are dedicated to learning, research, and educational imagination. Visual thinkers, creators, shapers, and educators – you belong here.
Contact
School of Visual Arts
210 Patterson Building
University Park, PA 16802
814-865-0444
814-865-1158 (fax)
sova@psu.edu
Vagner Mendonça-Whitehead
Director of School of Visual Arts
Michelle McMullen
Administrative Support Manager, SoVA
Connect
Alumni Spotlight
alumni spotlight
Alix Gaytan
“My time at SoVA taught me to go beyond my limits and demonstrated how proud I should be of being an artist”
Alix Gaytan’s current work explores the abject and its relation to irrational human behavior using painting, printmaking, and drawing techniques. She will be one of the exhibiting artists for the upcoming 39th Bradley International Print and Drawing Exhibition hosted by Bradley University. Currently, she is an assistant professor of instruction for the art foundations and painting department at the University of Texas at El Paso. She has exhibited nationally in Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Illinois.
Faculty Spotlight
See all our Faculty
faculty spotlight
Brian Alfred
Brian Alfred received a B.F.A. from Penn State in 1997, studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine, and received an M.F.A. from Yale University in 1999. He has had numerous solo exhibitions in locations ranging from New York City to Tokyo to London, as well as group exhibitions nationally and internationally. He is the host of the podcast “Sound and Vision,” featuring conversations with contemporary artists, which recently celebrated its 200th episode. His work is in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Denver Art Museum, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others.
