Installation by Siri Stensberg in gallery.

Department of Art

The Study and Practice of Art

An essential aspect of the WSU experience, students are encouraged to apply multiple perspectives and embrace risk and uncertainty on the path to discovery. Classes, studio opportunities, and research projects will challenge you to think and communicate in innovative and interdisciplinary ways.

Faculty members in the Department of Art are internationally recognized contemporary artists and scholars that consistently bring their professional experience into the classroom. Extensive studio, workshop, and machine resources are complemented by a robust Visiting Artist and Scholar Program and collaborations with the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at WSU.

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The Roman Craftworkers of Late Antiquity: new book from Associate Professor Dr. Hallie Meredith

by Levi McGarry, College of Arts and Sciences

A new book by WSU associate professor Hallie Meredith explores the important but neglected work of fourth to sixth-century CE Roman craftworkers, shedding light on the lives of uncredited creative laborers in antiquity.

Meredith is an associate professor in the Department of Art and is also a glassblower herself. Her research uses fresh methodological approaches to architectural, artefactual and epigraphic evidence to reveal new insights into traditional craft processes and the craftworkers themselves.

“Craftworkers throughout history have nearly always worked anonymously, often as valuable assistants in the service of famed artisans, but typically without proper credit or recognition,” said Meredith. “However, an unsigned piece can nevertheless reveal a world.”

Her book, The Roman Craftworkers of Late Antiquity: A Social History of Glass Production and Related Industries is now available through Cambridge University Press. To learn more about Professor Meredith’s approach and perspective, read her work “Out of the Margins: Late Antique Craftworkers in the Making” on the Fifteen Eighty Four blog published by Cambridge University Press.

JJ Harty: Roomba Drawings

Gallery 2, Fine Arts Center August 24 – October 9

Artist talk to be held Thursday, September 3rd at 4:30 PM, with an opening reception to follow.

JJ Harty: Roomba Drawings 

Artist Statement:

We exist in a moment of over-stimulation and information saturation, a moment where a short descriptive paragraph can create a beautiful, sparkling image for us, but then be quickly forgotten and dissolved back into the ether of the internet. I feel a certain exhilaration at the potential of AI, but fear for what we can lose in the process. Is the work of AI original? It produces images by searching the internet and collecting bits of digital data gleaned from photos, videos and other digital information including the work of millions of artists. These bits of data are reassembled into images or video, which can be visually interesting, but also a bit disconcerting. This work is a playful way to make commentary on the serious questions about AI art. Using very simple pre-programmed vacuuming/mopping robots with some minimal modifications I wrangle the robots to produce something visually interesting. The catch is, just like AI, these robots cannot do it on their own. They need input and a lot of help from a person to make the art.  


Artist Bio

JJ Harty is an Artist located in Palouse, WA. He has lived and worked in the Inland and Pacific Northwest for most of his life. He graduated from the University of Idaho where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, and from Washington State University with a Master of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Sculpture. He currently works for the Department of Art at Washington State University as their Studio Engineering Technician for the sculpture studio labs including: the woodshop, metal shop, foundry, and digital fabrication lab. JJ is also a practicing artist whose work has been shown regionally and nationally, including The Chase Gallery in Spokane, WA, Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey, the Step Gallery at Grant Street Studios at Arizona State University, Studios Inc. in Kansas City and most recently at Bumbershoot Contemporary for Bumbershoot 2024 in Seattle, WA. 

Images of works on display at 'all that matters' exhibition.

All That Matters

Washington State University’s Department of Art presents All That Matters, a group exhibition opening August 18 in Gallery 2, featuring artists Chelsea Margaret Jacobs, David Janssen Jr, and Krista Brand, whose painting, fiber, and installation works transform collected and repurposed materials into reflections on personal history and cultural memory. Through their innovative approaches, the artists explore how everyday objects carry stories, examining the role of materiality in shaping meaning, expression, and possibility in contemporary art. Highlighting the nostalgia and resonance of familiar textures and items, the exhibition demonstrates how materials function as both evidence of origins and catalysts for new creative directions. A public panel discussion with the artists will be held on September 4 at 4:30 PM in the Fine Arts Center Auditorium, followed by an opening reception in Gallery 2, reinforcing the university’s commitment to diverse perspectives in the visual arts.

Work by Jiemei Lin.

New mural adjacent to MASC celebrates sisterhood of Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell

Painted by Art Department faculty Jiemei Lin

WSU Libraries

According to Lin, the Virginia and Vanessa mural celebrates the creative lives and lasting influence of two remarkable women in the history of art and literature.

Woolf’s writing has served as a manifesto and source of inspiration for generations of artists, writers, activists, and women around the world, Lin said. Bell, in her own right, told stories through her paintings, prints, and illustrations, and through her visual responses to Woolf’s words, she expanded and reimagined them.

“This mural is inspired by the Virginia Woolf library collection at the WSU Libraries, a space that holds not just books, but traces of the sisters’ labor, imagination, and deep connection,” she said. “It honors their collaboration, their individual practices, and the powerful relationship that went beyond sisterhood.” See more at the library or read the news release

Department of Art in the News