The American University Art Department provides students with the tools to ambitiously engage historical and contemporary criteria for making art. Come work with our professional, dedicated, and innovative faculty in a city where you will have access to internationally renowned museums and galleries. The Katzen Arts Center provides students with fully equipped, state of the art facilities where students can thrive in flexible graduate and undergraduate programs that offer sculpture, painting, video, digital photography, drawing, printmaking, expanded media and special topics courses.

MFA students exhibit their work annually in the American University Museum, travel with faculty to New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore and may choose to spend a summer in our MFA Berlin program. Our visiting artist series brings high profile artists from around the country to the Katzen Art Center and American University Museum for public lectures, exhibitions and graduate studio visits. 

For more information on our programs:

• BA Studio Art
• Studio Art Minor
• MFA Program 
• MFA Studio Berlin, an interdisciplinary, MFA-level summer program in Berlin

MFA & BA Alumni

• Alison Hall
• Jean Jinho Kim
• Justin Thompson
• Dan Perkins  
• Emily Francisco 
• Cara Ober
• Hedieh Ilchi   
• Kristen Schiele   
• Michael Dotson
• Ian Jehle   
• Calli Moore   
• Sarah Miller

Washington DC Museums & Galleries

Washington, DC offers an unsurpassed level of world class museums, most of which offer free admission and are within a 20 minute metrorail ride from our studio facilities. From the Phillips Collection (which was America's first museum of Modern Art and the place where American University's Art programs emerged more than a century ago) to the East and West buildings of National Gallery of Art; From the Hirshhorn and the National Museum of African Art to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, these amazing institutions act as a vital component of our students' experience in Washington, DC.  The American University Museum at the Katzen Center has become one of the leading museums of contemporary art in the region. Additionally there are many thriving spaces and fellowship opportunities for emerging artists.

National Gallery of Art

National Portrait Gallery

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

National Museum of the American Indian

National Museum of African Art

National Museum of African American History and Culture

The Freer and Sackler National Museums of Asian Art

National Museum of Women in the Arts

National Museum of the American Indian

The Phillips Collection

Textile Museum

Dumbarton Oaks

Archives of American Art

The Renwick Gallery

Art Museum of the Americas

Kreeger Museum

Glenstone Museum 

American University Museum

Washington Project for the Arts

Transformer

Halcyon

Hamiltonian

STABLE

Curator’s Office

Hemphill Gallery

‘sindikit

ConnorSmith Contemporary

The Lemon Collective

Guest Spot

Mono Practice

School 33

Arlington Art Center

and more!